I make my own pork sausage. However, I am not good at selecting the proper spices to mix with the ground meat. Can you identify what spices should be used with ground pork to make a good breakfast sausage?

Hi John, although I am no expert on the matter, I just spent this past summer making hundreds of pounds of sausage with a highly knowledgable gentleman and he used a few variations on breakfast sausage.

The simplest version consisted of Salt, Black Pepper and Sage.

Another with a little more complexity would be- freshly grated Ginger, finely chopped fresh Sage, minced Garlic and Black or White Pepper.

Hope this helps!

Hello John,
I look forward making sausages some day soon, so when I saw your question and William's response, it motivated me to search using "sausage spices" and found this site:
http://www.lets-make-sausage.com/sausage-spices.html

I'm sure there are others, but it seems like a good place to start.
Regards,
Jim

How much is used per pound?

Why no response

John the amount of spices you use will depend on how much flavor you want the spices to impart into the meat itself. I say find yourself a good recipe and start from there.

Note that Rouxbe does not currently have a lesson on sausage making (or a recipe as we are not technically a recipe site. We focus on the skills and techniques behind cooking). Forcement etc. is something that would be covered down the road. Cheers!

Sorry about the delay John- I've been pretty busy.

As for your question, I only mentioned the type of spices because that's what I thought the original question was about.

I would agree with Dawn. It's one of those things that are a personal preference and starting out with a standard recipe is a great way to begin your journey.

One of the methods we use in determining the flavor we are seeking is to mix and cook the meat in small sample batches before extruding it into the casing. That way, you don't have to keep re-making the sausage. So just keep tweaking the mixture until you like it and then extrude away.

To get you going I would highly recommend getting a few good books on the matter. I personally recommend 'Complete Sausage Book' by Bruce Aidell.

If you're planning on venturing into the world of charcuterie (dried sausage) I would definitely recommend seeking some kind of professional guidance as it deals with the use of nitrates (to prevent botulism) and can be a bit intimidating.

All the best!

Hi

If you are still arround...

Nodding at Dawns answer and unsure whether I should post a recipee here.

Mod: I won't be ofended if you delete this post.

I am a keen sausage maker.

I have noticed that many of the Sausage recipees from the US are very lightly spiced compared to Europe.

So bearing in mind i am from the U.K. this is the current state of play for my Breakfast Sausage. (This recipee is styled along Cumberland Sausage lines). Believe it or not this is quite delicately flavoured despite all of these spices.

1.0 Kg Lean belly pork or Lean Shoulder 750g and some fatty belly pork 250g
15g Sea Salt
10g black pepper
5g Black Mustard (Not yellow mustard)
3 Bay leaves
3 Cloves
1g Thyme (dried)
2g Nutmeg
2g Marjoram (dried)
2g Sage (dried)
1 Cup / 150ml Watter

For my American friends I would half the Black Pepper.

Tips
Do not overpack the skins this makes for an over-chewy sausage.
Put the sauages in a fridge overnight before cooking to allow the spices to marinade in.
Fry slowly in a pan. Give them 20+ minutes to cook the spices in properly.

I am completely new to sausage making, so was hoping to find instructions, but alas, there is none, yet.

In any case, if seen recipes calling from breadcrumbs, thoughts?

Also, when should one use a cure?

Hi
Maybe one of the professionals will comment, but as a home sausage maker here is my take.
Re Breadcrumbs: I dry the left overs of my wholemeal bread in the oven and crumb it for my sausages. Any bread will do though. In a tight corner I will use Jakobs Cream crackers which also work well. Meat pressed together and cooked will bind to itself and you get a dense sausage. The crumbs help to keep the cooked sausage texture softer and more open. Commercially there are chemical additives which do this... I am not going to go there.

Additionally I like to add a little water or wine to make the sausage more succulent.

I use fairly lean cuts... pork shoulder and 10% fatty pork belly.

I find 10% breadcrumbs or 100g/Kg meat and 250ml of fluid (Water/wine/stock) / kg meat works well.

If you use this combination to experiment and get your basic recipe how you like it you can then start adding herbs, spices, garlic and other ingredients to get tasty variations. One word of caution a very good butcher (who makes superb sausages) warned me not to use fresh herbs as they blacken the sausage... I have never tried fresh herbs for this reason... I just took his advice.

I hope this is helpful.