Make Your Own Sausage (Recipe – Super Foods Carnival)

This week’s Carnival of Super Foods theme is “un-processed foods.”  That is, things you could buy at the store, but which, in this case, you’re going to make yourself, instead.  (Presumably, things that are healthier if you make them yourself because you can make them without MSG or hydrogenated oils or nitrates or with whole grains, for instance.)  I could post a lot of things.  I make most of my breads from scratch.  (Crackers are an exception.  I have yet to find a decent cracker recipe.  Not the snack variety, but the top-with-cheese-or-peanut-butter variety.  If you have one that doesn’t just taste like pie crust, please share!)  If you want those recipes, click here: breads.  In place of cream of chicken or mushroom soup, I usually use flavored white sauce.  And I make my own Ranch dressing mix, taco seasoning, etc.  (I think all of these are also available at my recipe blog.)  But I’m not sharing any of those here today.  Today, I’m sharing breakfast sausage.

By the way, if you’re using pork for the sausage, you may not need the oil. The oil is added to moisten the sausage, since the turkey doesn’t have much fat.

Turkey Breakfast Sausage

1 lb. ground turkey (raw)
pinch sugar  (I don’t have any issue with using sugar in small amounts as a seasoning.)
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tsp. rubbed sage
little bit of extra virgin olive oil to moisten

Mix well with your hands.  You can make this into patties or just brown it, crumbled, to use in eggs, etc.

I’m pretty sure you can make this with pork, but we don’t eat pork.  The seasonings are what give it the distinctive flavor.

And because of what this carnival is (and how hard a time I had finding this), I’m going to break one of my own rules and share a recipe I haven’t tried yet.  I have one for Italian sausage, but I keep forgetting to make it.  So, if you want to try it, understand that I can’t vouch for it!  But if you do try it, please come back and tell me what you thought, because I do expect to someday get around to making it.

Italian Sausage

1 lb. ground meat  (Original recipe says it can be used with beef, pork, veal, turkey, or chicken.  I’ll probably try beef or turkey.)
3 cloves garlic, minced (I might substitute garlic powder here, just because I’m not sure how well cooked the garlic will get once it’s in the sausage, and raw garlic has quite a bite.)
2 tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. hot pepper flakes (This kind of seems like a lot to me.  You might want to start with less and work up.)
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (opt.)

Mix well.  The original recipe calls for forming this into patties and grilling them.  (Really?  Do people really grill sausage patties?)  I will probably be browning it, crumbled, for use on pizza.

Related posts:

1. Super Food Recipe Roundup – Carnival of Super Foods
2. Salmon Patties – Carnival of Super Foods
3. Stocking the Freezer