Freshly Ground Breakfast Sausage

Uncooked ground Breakfast sausage in a bowl.

5 from 1 vote

Making your own freshly ground breakfast sausage is easier than you think, with your stand mixer and a grinder attachment. Don't want to grind your own meat? No problem! Just mix the spice blend into ground pork from your Mega Market!

Prep Time30

Total Time30

Course: Breakfast, Brunch

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 71kcal

Author: Cynthia

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs pork shoulder or 1½ lbs ground pork
4 slices bacon uncooked, diced very fine
2 tablespoon fresh sage
2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
2 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon lightly crushed fennel seeds
1 teaspoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground sage
½ teaspoon chipotle powder
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

Instructions

Cut your pork shoulder into about ¼ inch cubes. Roughly chop the bacon. Place in a bowl in the refrigerator while you get all the herbs and seasonings together.
Gather and measure all of your herbs and spices. The fresh herbs get a rough chop, but don't go too crazy since this is all going into the meat grinder! (if using all dried herbs, use about ⅓ of the fresh amount.)
Add herbs and seasonings to the pork and bacon and mix well.
Lay the seasoned meat on a sheet tray in a single layer, and place in the freezer for at least one hour. Having the meat very, very cold will make it so much easier to grind. You want the meat to be frozen enough to be hard to the touch, but still able to be pierced with the tip of a knife.
Attach the meat grinder to your stand mixer (I prefer the medium grind plate for most sausage.) Place a bowl directly under the grinder face to catch your ground meat. Place a heap (exact measurement) of seasoned meat cubes on the tray of your meat grinder. Turn the stand mixer to #4. Drop cubes of meat into the grinder and, using the meat pusher stick (technical term) gently guide the meat through. Don't use it as a battering ram, just use it to gently guide the meat in.
If using ground pork, gently spread the ground pork and diced bacon in a thin layer on a sheet pan. Finely chop all the fresh herbs. Mix all chopped herbs and seasoning in a small bowl and spinkle evely over the surface of the meat. Using a gentle folding and mixing technique, fully distribute the bacon, herbs, and spices into the ground pork.
Now look at what you have created! Breakfast sausage! If you're not using the sausage right away (umm…why not?), wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and then place in a ziploc bag and refrigerate. It will keep for up to a week in the fridge, or you can freeze it for about 3 months.

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