From Scratch: Breakfast Sausage Patties

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A Rozentāli Breakfast

Don't these look delicious? This is one of the breakfasts my husband makes for me on a regular basis! An omelet, two slices of English Muffin Bread and a homemade sausage patty! On Monday, I'll share the English Muffin Bread recipe.

Over the past 18 months, we've adjusted to being married and living on a very restricted income, thanks to being full-time students. Living frugally means (to us) that we re-examine the choices we were making thoughtlessly to determine if it really is the way we want to live, the way we want to spend our limited funds and the way we want to interact with the world. We're finding the way we want to live, rather than living the way we were accustomed to.

I don't talk very much about finance and frugality -- this is a food/recipe blog -- but many of the recipes I write about I discovered because I was looking for a tasty way to do something or incorporate a new ingredient I wanted to try. Many are here because I or my husband wanted the challenge.

I've been surprised at how much we can do ourselves and how much better it is than store-bought. The For Scratch series of posts that I periodically add to reflects those items that we've stopped buying and started making.

Today, I'm adding another one. This is one my husband makes and it is so good, I don't know why we didn't do it sooner. The impetus for it was reading the sausage section in Ruhlman's book, Ratio.

We originally tried this with a few very lean pieces of leftover pork roast. It worked out alright, the sausage tasted good... but, it was dry. It didn't fry up very well and needed a bit of oil in the pan. (Sausage shouldn't require oil to fry!)

So, we picked up a bone-in pork roast on sale with a fair amount of fat and tried again. Yes, Ruhlman is right. 20% fat is about right, it creates a yummy sausage with good texture, juicy flavor and just enough fat to fry itself up. I would caution you against skipping or reducing the minimum hour of marinating; it's absolutely essential (thanks Alton!) and produces the best flavor.

Breakfast Sausage Patties [printable recipe]

Makes about 24 - 30 patties

  • 3 pounds boneless pork roast, with about 15% - 20% fat, cut into 1" cubes
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil, sliced
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp rosemary
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp crushed red chile flakes
  • 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp hot paprika

Combine everything in a lidded bowl and chill for an hour at least. Grind in a meat grinder. Form ground sausage into small patties, about 50 g each (about 3 tbsp or 2 ounces) and freeze on lined sheets.

To cook: Heat a skillet (cast-iron is best) over moderate heat and fry, turning once, until golden brown and delicious.