April's Goal - Breakfast Sausage

This month I decided to make my own breakfast sausage for my goal. The Hardworking Husband was very excited about this.  I wouldn't mind learning to make links, but I don't have a thing to do that.  So for now it won't be links. I did some searching online and found a couple recipes that worked for me.

Let's start with the meat we need.  The first recipe I found explained that you need 3 pounds of pork shoulder, veal shoulder, or beef chuck. You can use a mixture of these meats but you need to have at least 1 pound of pork.  I used 1 pound of beef chuck.

2 pounds of pork

 I had to ask my grocery store butcher for help in finding what I needed.  (Stew meat is beef chuck.)

You will also need 1/2 pound of pork belly, jowl or fat.  I used pork belly.

 It looks a lot like bacon, but the fat part is much thicker.  The equipment you need is a meat grinder and a large bowl (I used the bowl to my kitchen aid).  You will need all of the meat and fat very cold.

Begin by grinding the beef,

then the pork shoulder,

and then finally the fat all into the large bowl.

Do not mix them.  Stick the bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

Remove bowl from freezer and add the following seasonings and water
4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sage
1 Tbsp thyme
1/4 heaping tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 heaping tsp white pepper
dash cayenne
1/3 cup cold water

 Mix all of these together in the large bowl.  I used the Kitchenaid paddle attachment to mix.  The meat was too cold on my hands.

Take a small amount of the sausage and cook it up.  You are doing this to make sure the flavor is right for you.  You can adjust as needed.  Refrigerate over night to allow the flavors to meld.

Want to check out my other goals for the year? You can find them all on this post.

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