Hot Italian Sausage: Crazy Good Recipe

[bbqgeekess]

I have a crazy good Hot Italian Sausage sausage recipe I adapted and perfected after a few times:

A variation of: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hot-Italian-Sausage/
(From an old retired man that used to run a very much liked Italian restaurant.)

1 pound pork butt, coarsely ground & chilled
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 ¼ teaspoons paprika
1 ½ teaspoons fennel seed
¾ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 small star anise (or substitute in anise seed)

[One way my recipe differs is I add more fennel seed--the original recipe did not have enough. And the one guy that commented and corrected this fennel seed issue, his didn't have enough salt and paprika in it.]

Roughly grind up star anise first alone in a spice grinder. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients, then grind shortly and coarsely.

Add the ground up mixture & olive oil to coarsely ground pork butt then mix/knead well.

I like to make little marble sized meatballs and fry them up in olive oil. Cook them through. Slice in half after cooked if you like for a most delicious pizza topping. Or add to spaghetti!

They are so heavenly, give it try!

I make up a quart size jar of the dry ground ingredients, enough for 30 pounds of Hot Italian Sausage. I then just go by weight. I measure in grams the weight of the ground pork, then multiply that by 3.75% (it turns out to be) to get the weight of the pre-made seasoning to add. I multiply the weight of the ground pork by 2.4% to get the number of grams of olive oil to add. Makes it super quick and simple to make sausage.. I do this kinda thing for chorizo and breakfast sausages as well (i.e. by weight , and pre-made seasonings in large mason jars).

By the way, fennel seed can be purchased cheaply at your local Asian market. Same with star anise (or anise seed). Should be affordable at Whole Foods Market as well (the bins where you take and weigh what you need).

[Budman1]

Thanks for the recipe!

[bbqgeekess]

If anyone is interested, after trying out this recipe, I can post the measurements of the ingredients to fill up 1 quart mason jar for 30 pounds of sausage.

[cowgirl]

Sounds tasty!

[jsperk]

That's the one I use. I will try with your changes.

[TropicDad]

That looks great, I will give it a try, thanks.

[Bludawg]

That looks lie a winner. I don't put paprika in mine but I do add a splash of what ever Red I have open to it and I add a touch more garlic.

[bbqgeekess]

Originally Posted by Bludawg

That looks lie a winner. I don't put paprika in mine but I do add a splash of what ever Red I have open to it and I add a touch more garlic.

I haven't tried upping the garlic yet. I just went by the original recipe in that regard. Tastes really good as is.. but I suppose I could try increasing the garlic -- say quadruple it -- and do a taste comparison.

[Bludawg]

1/2 tsp per lb

[creekwalker]

subscribing

[bbqgeekess]

I like buying pork butts for $1.45/lb (fresh ones that aren't injected with solution) at Sam's, grinding them and making sausage out of it. Having these mason spice jars premade and just going by weight really makes it easy on meat processing day. (Meat processing day includes making fresh sausage, cured sausage, buckboard bacon, pastrami, and any dry curing, ground beef, ground pork, etc..)

[TropicDad]

I picked up a pound of ground pork and mixed up a batch. We fried up a couple patties and me and the Mrs thought it was delicious, I am letting it rest overnight to let the flavors blend. Thanks for sharing.

[The Smoking Pig]

My wife wants to make breakfast sausage can you share your recipe for that as well

[bbqgeekess]

Originally Posted by The Smoking Pig

My wife wants to make breakfast sausage can you share your recipe for that as well

Yes.

It's a variation of Alton Brown's and some others I got off the web:

Breakfast Sausage
Adjusted Alton Brown's Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...ipe/index.html

1 pound of coarsely ground pork butt, very cold.
1 ¾ teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sage powder
¼ teaspoon dry thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon dry crushed rosemary leaves
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Notes for making bulk jar of seasoning: dry ingredients above for 1 pound of pork weighs 24 grams. (5.3% of the weight of the pork in seasoning.)

Grind together all the dry ingredients. Mix dry ingredients with cold coarsely ground pork butt. Wrap and refrigerate or freeze. Better to let flavors meld overnight or 24 hours before eating.

[bbqgeekess]

Originally Posted by TropicDad

I picked up a pound of ground pork and mixed up a batch. We fried up a couple patties and me and the Mrs thought it was delicious, I am letting it rest overnight to let the flavors blend. Thanks for sharing.

Glad you are having success with it :) Let me know if you think the salt level is right.

Btw, how much did you pay for the pound of ground pork? I grind mine at home for only $1.39/lb from VERY fresh non-enhanced IBP pork butt (from Sam's by the case). Makes for very affordable fresh sausage--hot italian, breakfast, chorizo, etc..--, cured & smoked sausage, bacon :) I have an LEM #5 meat grinder I got from Academy Sports last month for $129.

A lot of the ground pork sold at stores is watered down I notice. This hot italian sausage recipe is definitely tailored for non enhanced ground pork butt.