Morning Starts in the Skillet

Country sausage, also known as breakfast sausage, is a staple on the American breakfast table, especially here in the South. Farmers used sausage to utilize all parts of the pig, creating inexpensive, high protein meals for themselves. It can take various forms such as fresh patties, links, or loose sausage and can feature a variety of seasonings like salt, black pepper, and sage. Common additions include brown sugar, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, nutmeg, and paprika, plus optional heat from red pepper flakes or cayenne.

Breakfast sausage is one of the three main components of my favorite breakfast dish, Biscuits and Gravy. I cook off the fresh sausage patties in a cast iron skillet then use the fat and drippings from the sausage to make that Southern take on the béchamel mother sauce: sausage gravy.

Now, for my country sausage recipe you will probably need a scale with high precision. I’m talking about the type that the street pharmacist uses to weigh their products before bagging them up to fill “prescriptions.” You can click here for one. I developed this recipe for country sausage when I was the chef at a breakfast/lunch spot in Nashville (damn I miss that coffee). I used to make this sausage in 20 lb batches so you can scale this recipe up for however much you need. The recipe below is for a 1 lb batch.

Country Sausage

Ingredients:

• 454g Ground Pork
• 6g Kosher Salt
• 4g Dried Sage
• 1g Black Pepper
• .75g Red Chili Flake
• .5g Ground Juniper Berry

Method of Production:

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and mix on low until all spices are evenly distributed. Weigh the sausage on a digital scale, then use your hands to shape it into patties.