What Is Breakfast Sausage?

Breakfast Sausage, or as it is sometimes called Pork Sausage, can be stuffed into casings to make link sausages, formed into patties to be added to breakfast sandwiches or you can use it as a ground product and add it to other dishes. Most Breakfast Sausage Seasonings will contain Sage as an ingredient if you do not like the taste of sage Locker PSS Special No Sage is one of the few Pork Sausage Seasonings that does not have any sage.

Meat Block

25 lb of Untrimmed Pork Butts (Fat % between 20-30%)
1 Bag of Holly regular Pork Sausage Seasoning

Equipment

Walton’s #12 Meat Grinder
Walton’s 11 lb Sausage Stuffer

Process

We need to break this down into pieces that our grinder can handle, we are using the Walton’s #12 grinder so we need to make the pieces small enough to fit down the throat, the larger grinder you have the larger pieces it can handle. For this grinder, our throat size is about 2.5 inches and while pieces that size could be stuffed down there for the ease of the grinder we will try to keep them in about 2-inch pieces. Grind all meat twice, first through a 3/8" plate and then through a 3/16th plate to get the desired consistency. If you want you can mix in your seasoning between grinding but we prefer to do it after.

Casings

Now, if we are using the 22-24mm sheep casings you will need to rinse and soak them before they are being used. To do this the easiest way is to turn on a faucet at a slow stream and hold the casing underneath it, let the water find the opening and it will fill it for you, much easier than trying to find and separate the opening with your fingers. Now once they have been rinse soak them for in warm water for 30-60 minutes prior to stuffing. Or you can just use collagen casings and all you have to do is take them out of the plastic package and load them on your stuffing tube.

If you are making a ground product use a meat bag and the 38mm stuffing tube that comes with the Walton’s Sausage Stuffer.

Meat Mixing

Because this is a fresh product, meaning we did not add any cure, we do not need to achieve noticeable levels of protein extraction, all we need to do is make sure our seasoning is fully mixed into the meat. You can do this with your hands or use a meat mixer if you prefer.

Sausage Stuffing

Since we are using smaller casings we will be using the 16mm stuffing tube so we will load our casings onto the tube and then pack the stuffer canister. Once your stuffer is loaded begin cranking it down using the top gear. Try to keep an even and steady pressure throughout. While one person cranks another person should be down at the tube end holding the casing with lightly enough that the casing flows off of the tube with the meat but with enough force that the casing is filled.

Note

A great, and inexpensive way, to seal your meat bags is with the Meat Bag Tape Machine.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

Simply cook at medium heat until the internal temperature is 160° in a pan or griddle.

Cooling

If you want to vacuum pack your bratwurst make sure you put it in the freezer for a while first. If you try to vacuum pack fresh sausage without it being frozen the pressure from the chamber will crush your sausage and it will lose the classic shape.

Wrap up

Making Breakfast Sausage is a very simple process, with just a Grinder and a Stuffer you can take a whole muscle cut, like a pork butt, and have high-quality breakfast sausage in under an hour.

Additional Tips

• Make sure your Grinder Plates & Knives are sharp, in good condition and lubricated with White Oil before you start your grinder.
• You can make Breakfast Sausage with just a Grinder by using the stuffing attachment on your grinder or just a stuffer by buying ground pork from the grocery store.

Other Notes

If you like making breakfast patties you can stuff them into Ground Pork Bags and then cut them into patties as thick as you want. The form won’t be perfectly round but it is a very easy way to form a patty.

Watch WaltonsTV: Basic Breakfast Processing

Shop waltonsinc.com for Breakfast Sausage Seasoing

Shop waltonsinc.com for Meat Grinders

Shop waltonsinc.com for High-Temp Cheese

Shop waltonsinc.com for Boning Knives

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