Breakfast sausage is easy to make with ground pork, sage, and just the right seasonings. This delicious recipe can be used to make sausage gravy.
It’s easy to make your own Sage Breakfast Sausage, and it just tastes better knowing you added all the spices yourself without any nasty preservatives.
I had never made my own breakfast sausage until we got our own half pig direct from a ranch. If you are able to source your meat direct from a farm you know and trust, let me tell you – it is 1000 times better than any plastic wrapped meat you’ll find in the store.
I make this sage breakfast sausage recipe all the time. We’ll either eat it as a patty or I’ll use it in recipes like my sausage gravy over homemade biscuits or in my biscuits and gravy casserole.
Is breakfast sausage the same as Italian sausage?
The quick and easy answer is: NO
Keep in mind that breakfast sausages are to be eaten in the morning with your pancakes, eggs, and toast, and they are typically found in the form of both links and patties. You can find italian sausage in links, however, I doubt you will find italian sausage in patty form.
Also, the difference comes with the spices added to ground pork. As we already know how I season my Sage Breakfast Sausage, we can see that the ingredients are made to go well with maple syrup – especially if you are of the sort who will drizzle it across the entire plate.
On the other hand, Italian sausage is the pork sausage you add to pasta sauces and eat for dinner. They often use smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and Italian herbs like basil and oregano. None of which, in my opinion, are meant to be combined with syrup.
What spices are in breakfast sausage?
If you want to make yourself ill, take a look at the ingredients in a package of Jimmy Dean sausage. I just did a quick google search and this is what I found: INGREDIENTS: PORK, WATER, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: CORN SYRUP, SALT, SPICES, DEXTROSE, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE. Gross.
Where are the herbs? Where are the seasonings you can pronounce? What the heck does monosodium glutamate do and why would you eat it? Yuck.
My Sage Breakfast Sausage recipe contains the following:
1 tablespoon sage dried or minced fresh
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more if you like heat
1/4 teaspoon marjoram fresh if you have it
pinch of ground cloves
Making your own breakfast sausage is the best option here. Seriously, it takes like 5 minutes to measure out the ingredients and mix them together. It will not disappoint.
How to make Sage Breakfast Sausage:
In medium sized bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients. It’s easiest if you use your hands to mix.
Heat a skillet over medium low heat. Form sausage into patties and cook until brown, about 5 minutes per side.
I can tell you that this breakfast sausage tastes so much better than that pre-packaged business I mentioned above. Now go make it.
What to serve with homemade breakfast sausage:
- Tomato Arugula and Goat Cheese Frittata
- Gorgonzola Veggie Omelet
- Mushroom Spinach Quiche
- Damn Good Fruit Salad
- Baked Grapefruit
Sage Breakfast Sausage Recipe
RECIPE VIDEO
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 tablespoon sage dried or minced fresh
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more if you like heat
- 1/4 teaspoon marjoram fresh if you have it
- pinch of ground cloves
Instructions
- In medium sized bowl, thoroughly combine all ingredients. Its easiest if you use your hands to mix.
- Heat a skillet over medium low heat. Form sausage into patties and cook until brown, about 5 minutes per side.
Nutrition
This post was originally created in January 2015 and has been updated with more fun facts and tidbits for your reading pleasure.
Fantastic, Krissy! I love homemade sausages. Once a year, we make ton of homemade sausages (we are talking like 200lbs of meat!). I will try your recipe soon, sage sounds delicious!
Pork sausage comes from “sad cows”?
Thanks for catching that! I just re-read my post… wow, I was feeling quite opinionated that day, huh! I meant to say sad pigs so I’ll update that now. And yes, I imagine any pig that gets turned into sausage is quite sad. 🙂 – Krissy
Hello! Your recipe calls for Sage (obviously) and on the spice aisle at the local grocery store there are two options – ground and rubbed. Which one should i buy?
Either, but I used ground. -Krissy
Is it possible to use turkey instead? And would it be just plain ground turkey?
You can, but it will definitely cook up differently w/o the fat (I’m guessing that’s the point). You’d just need a fair amount of oil to avoid sticking.
Hello,
If you are using fresh sage, do we just chop it up into as small sizes as possible? Also, what do you mean by “dash cloves”.
Thank You
I changed it to “pinch of ground cloves” and yes – just mince the sage.
can I use oregano instead of marjoram?
Yep! Its all to taste.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) makes foot taste “meatier”. It adds what the Japanese call umami and it is completely safe. It has received a bad reputation because of a general lack of understanding and a myth that widely circulated. Some people swear it gives them headaches but every time it is tested in studies where the participants don’t know they are eating it… no symptoms and yet when people eat food without while being told it contains MSG many complain of headaches and other symptoms. In short it is the placebo effect. Your body produces glutamate anyway.
Perhaps, but when given the choice to eat food vs something that was created in the lab, isn’t it better to choose the food?
It’s 100% natural. It’s salt and glutamate. Your body produces glutamate naturally, and of course you have no problem with salt, right? Like Jeff said, MSG has a bad rap because of bad publicity in the 50s and because it “sounds scary” just like dihydrogen monoxide, sometimes referred to as H2O, or water.
MSG is great! I bought a bag of it at the Asian food market!
MSG is used to excite ur brain. It tells u it taste better then it does. That’s why the lack of herbs in Jimmy Dean sausage. It is being added to the list of allergens. Some restaurants list foods w/ MSG. The food industry works over time finding new words to use MSG it is usually hidden in words like natural flavoring. U can bet it’s at least 40% MSG. yes it’s natural but so is arsenic. I suggest anyone interested in MSG to do ur own research and then decide if u want to use it.
I would do a bit more research before telling people that there is absolutely nothing dangerous about MSGs… the only reason it doesn’t cause brain damage and/or convulsions when we eat it is because our blood-brain barrier blocks most of it… most of it. Assuming the individual has a mature and properly functioning blood-brain barrier which is not always the case. Plus glutamate is a completely different molecule than mono-sodium glutamate. Plenty of chemicals with the word “sodium” mixed in there can kill you. MSGs are maybe fine in small amounts for some people and not for others. But I personally avoid it all together.
And some of us have wound up in the ER unable to breathe because of it. And don’t ask me about the headaches… Our bodies may produce glutamate naturally but no where near these quantities.
Krissy love the sausage!
Sorry but I get migraine headaches every time I accidentally ingest it. MSG is often hidden as “Natural Ingredients”. I am not sure to what studies you are referring, but there are hundreds of legitimate studies publushed in professional peer reviewed journals that purport the ills of MSG!
People stop arguing about MSG
I am so excited! I love sausage gravy, but breakfast sausage isn’t a thing where I live (outside the US) so it never tastes right! I can’t wait to try this!
I have a question about the pork. Cant but a pig but i have tried grinding pork myself w my kitchen aid grinder. Do you grind your own? Do you recommend pork loin or pork butt/shoulder? Tried pirk loin eas kinda dry, pork shoulder clogged up grinder due to fatty stuff? Looking forward to trying your recipe, havent been able to find one i like
Hi Donna, I don’t grind my own meat so I won’t be much help. As far as cuts go, I do believe that people will often combine various cuts using tender chunks, tough chunks, and some fat to come up with ground pork. Hopefully some day I’ll start doing that, but for now I just go to the freezer and grab a pack.
If the pork butts gums up your mixer, try putting it in the freezer for 1/2 hour to 1 hour to firm it up. Should go right thru the grinder without a problem. I make sausage with my venison and mix pork butts with it. That method works well. I like the sound of the breakfast sage mix, I will have to try it.
how many patties, so i now exact calories
Hi Nancy, Recipe card says 8 patties.
Is the nutrition information per serving or for the 1 lb of pork? Just curious. I am making it right now. I had about 13 oz of country ribs in the freezer. That’s pork butt or shoulder. I chopped it with a knife and used my mini Cuisenart food processor that came with my stick blender. Chopped the pork just right. Only minutes of work. Can’t wait to taste it.
Just tasted a little fried up sample. Awesome! Fabulous flavor, right heat level, herbal and delicious. Followed the recipe to the “T”. I would never change a thing. And I know it will get better overnight in the fridge. Winner, Winner, Sausage Dinner!
Hi Edward, The nutrition information is based on a single sausage patty (if you make 8 patties total from the pound of pork). I bet yours turned out fantastic!
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
Hi Careen, I would mix all the ingredients together and then freeze. Thaw and then cook. Not sure it would taste as good to freeze cooked sausage, but I’m sure it would work.
Thanks, that was what I was thinking although I might just mix the spice ingredients to keep on hand, then make it when desired with fresh pork. Your gravy is my go to gravy for biscuits and gravy! Can’t wait to try homemade sausage.
Monosodium glutamate is MSG. It was used widely until it was claimed (without scientific support) to cause headaches. MSG is most commonly found in Asian based dishes as an additive but is naturally occurring in many foods. It is essentially a special type of salt which grants an umami flavor to the food on which it is used, enhancing the “meaty” flavor of the dish.
I bought the cheap meat grinder for my Kitchenaid mixer and get a Boston Butt pork roast to grind It has the right mixture of fat on it. I grind it once, add the spices and grind it again. Less working in with my hands. I’ve tried to wear the grinder out and just keeps on grinding.
I’ve never heard of the brown sugar in sausage, but I can’t wait to try it now. Jimmy Dean will be proud!
Thanks for sharing.
Hello,
Could you please provide the amount of ground pork that you need? The recipe lists all the other ingredients but not the pork amount.
Thank you
Hi Christine, The recipe says one pound. Are you not seeing that? Thanks! Krissy
Thank you, I didn’t see that measurement in you recipe either. On my way to the store now. My son Loves sausage gravy and biscuits..
I made this this morning and my father said it was as good as any store brand. Next time I might add a bit of water and let the sausage cure overnight. This is the best spice blend i have found so far for breakfast sausage.
Strongly suggest you add one step – fry up a bit and TASTE. Invariably one will want to adjust!!
I will never buy prepackaged sausage again. This is a delicious recipe
Yum – Can not wait to use your recipe,I can smell it cooking already… Thank you for the easy to understand recipstee…
Krissy, You nailed it.
Hey Krissy!
Traditionally my family used sage flavoured, regulat grind, pork sausage to stuff the kneck hole of our roast turkeys. It infused sage flavour to the breast, basted it, and was the treat that everybody competed for over and above the stuffing.
For the first time in decades, I now have a recipe that will do that job.
I have also tried, with partial succes, to make a sausage gravy by trial and mostly error.
Now I have the right recipe.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Well, then I’m so happy you found my blog! Thanks for sharing your comment too. Happy eating! Krissy
I live in Germany and have used another recipe for years. This one is by far the best recipe I have ever used. It is perfect just the way it is. When making it for pizza I add a Tablespoon of Cumin, 1 Tablespoon of red wine vinegar and 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper.
Krissy,
From you article I can tell you are well intentioned. A word of caution to not bash commercial brands for something that you may or may not understand. From your remarks I take it that you may not have thought through your comments about Jimmy Dean brand sausage.It happens to be the most consumed sausage in the US.
Regarding their ingredients you listed:
PORK – obviously and it’s a good thing that it is the first ingredient.
WATER – usually added to all pork sausages to keep it moist.
CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: This is by volume so when you compare 1 pound of meat to the amount of spice it will most certainly be less than 2% of the completed recipe. And, when it is less than 2% only certain ingredients need to be named individually.
CORN SYRUP – Sweetner
SALT – Salt
SPICES – maybe pepper, Sage, Marjoram, Thyme, Mace, Cayanne or any other spice that may be in the sausage but does not need to be individually named
DEXTROSE – Sweetner and Binder so that it holds together.
MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE – (Maybe considered Gross) but is used in commercial applications for several reasons but primarily it enhances flavor, even the flavor of those expensive spices that aren’t listed individually… so maybe they don’t use as much sage but it tastes like they used a lot… and MSG is almost an immeasurable fraction of the cost of spices.
So, I wish you the best and only comment to help educate those who may not know what the list of ingredients really means.
Here’s an example of breaking down the 2% stuff… 1 pound is equal to 453.6 grams, 1 ounce is equal to 28.35 grams
Your Recipe
My Sage Breakfast Sausage recipe contains the following:
1 pound ground pork – 453 grams (99.97%)
1 tablespoon sage dried or minced fresh – 2.04 grams (0.0045%)
1 teaspoon kosher salt – 6 grams (0.0132%)
1 teaspoon brown sugar – 4.17 grams (0.00092%)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1.165 grams (0.00257%)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more if you like heat .25 grams (2 grams per teaspoon) (0.00055%)
1/4 teaspoon marjoram fresh if you have it .14 grams (.57 grams per teaspoon) (0.000309%)
pinch of ground cloves
All spices together equal 0.03%of total by weight.
Are you an engineer? I only ask because I am and this totally looks like the kind of breakdown I would offer if I were giving someone feedback. I’m gonna stick with my story that my sausage is better than pre-packaged big name store bought… but you are totally right about quantities. 🙂