Sausage has always been a staple in my life! Did I just say that out loud?

Well I m not sure what that says about me other than that I love pork. As a kid, I took many trips with my family to the West Side Market, our local farmers market in Cleveland, where we explored the food stalls and always walked away with a variety of different sausages. Not just Italian, but also Polish and other Eastern European varieties. We grilled, sautéed, boiled and everything else you can do to a sausage and we enjoyed them all.

So why talk about that now? Well, from my perspective sausage is back and not just for breakfast. Oh, and by the way, not just made with pork, of course. Personally, I think it has a lot to do with price and availability. With the lesser cuts of meat from any animal and a little training, a flavorful outcome can be achieved.

As families look for dinner options, I propose the simplicity of sausage. Think about it. It takes an inexpensive cut of meat, usually fatty and flavorful – which makes it perfect for grinding – and actually tenderizes it and makes it adaptable to just about any popular cooking method.

Sausage technically starts out with the same basic ingredients as meatballs or meatloaf: a combination of ground meat, salt, herbs and spices. Technical note: don’t start with store-ground meat if possible, as it can become tough when you blend in your ingredients due to overworking.

Grinding is easy in a processor or, even better, one of those old-fashioned hand crank ones you find in yard sales these days (minus the rust). After grinding, sausage is generally stuffed into animal casings. Am I losing you? OK, skip the casings. Just grind the seasoned, cubed meat in a food processor or hand grinder and then form it into patties like hamburger.

Keeping it in this simple format makes a flavorful economic alternative for making sausage at home attainable by anyone without fancy equipment. You start with the less tender cuts of beef, pork, chicken, turkey and lamb, which provide a lot of flavor when these simple principles are applied.

Focus on fresh, dark meat because dark meat usually means more fat content, which translates to flavor. Choose spices and herbs that you like or add your favorite prepared spice mix, and use a light hand with flavorings and especially salt until you get it the way you like it. You can always add more, so start out subtle at first. After lightly seasoning the meat, remove a small handful or two and grind it, then cook it just to taste for seasonings. Add more if your sample needs it. Once you settle on the flavors, pick your final cooking method. I prefer a hot sauté or quick stove top grill to provide a high heat to take advantage of the fat content and give ample caramelized flavor.

Some of the best sausages in the market today are made to specifically reduce fat, and making them at home gives you an advantage if this is the goal. I have had to add fat when using chicken thighs or turkey meat for sausage, for example. I usually add EVOO to enrich it and thereby make it a better nutritional option, too. Another way to improve the nutrition as well as flavor is to add ingredients such as ground carrots, beets, apple and pear. My favorite flavor mate add-ins are: apple-walnut, pear-hazelnut, basil-pine nut with lots of garlic, cilantro-pumpkin seed and even some pumpkin squash, too!

Another sausage to consider making is a seafood sausage. Grind scallops, shrimp and salmon or halibut with egg white for texture, add cream or EVOO for fat. Season with fresh herbs such as tarragon, chive, thyme and/or basil, and then add a touch of ground, fresh celery and/or fennel and you have seafood sausage. Cook by dropping small balls of this mixture into a fish or vegetable broth, quick sauté them, or form into “link” sausage by wrapping a log of the seafood mixture in a little plastic wrapping and steaming it in a bamboo basket. When cooked and unwrapped, the sausage holds the shape. Just slice and serve! Change the seasonings to fresh ginger, sesame oil, cilantro, red bells, water chestnuts, light soy sauce or mirin and then wrap into freshly harvested seaweed and steam quickly for a new taste treat. If less adventurous, (I haven’t even tried this but sounds good to me), try wrapping the sausage with wilted Savoy cabbage leaf.

Before leaving the topic of sausage, let me plug our Brats and Beer class for dads this Father’s Day, June 19 at 11 a.m.. We did it last year too, and had good response. Of course there will be some of the homemade sausages I am drooling over as I write. Hope to see the dads again this year. It sort of gives guys permission to indulge without hearing any push back from our better halves regarding such a menu. Don’t get me wrong, wives are welcome to come too, but the menu is the menu!

 

Chicken sausage with dried spices

Ingredients

2 teaspoons dried thyme

3 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 teaspoons chili powder, ground

1 tablespoon cumin, ground

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 teaspoons sea salt (may need more)

1 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 teaspoons fresh ground coriander

1 ½ pounds dark meat chicken, duck or turkey, cubed to one inch

1 ½ tablespoons EVOO

Method

Blend spices. Place cubed meat in bowl; add spices and toss to coat completely. Grind after meat has rested under refrigeration for 30 minutes. If the meat and spices were combined well before grinding you shouldn’t have to mix after grinding. Do not over mix. Take out a pinch and cook (sauté or microwave) to test for seasoning (salt). If you like the sample, proceed to shaping and cooking. Shape into patties or balls or links. Heat medium sauté pan and brown sausage evenly, cooking to an internal temperature of 165ºF. Serve immediately.

Seafood sausage

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated (peeled, slightly frozen fresh ginger grates easier)

1 tablespoon dry sherry

1 teaspoon honey

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 large egg white

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined; 2-3 scallops; 2 ounces salmon belly or halibut

¼ cup fennel, small diced

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons cilantro leaves

Method

In a food processor blend the garlic, ginger, sherry, honey, cayenne, cornstarch, and soy sauce; add the egg white and seafood. Pulse the motor several times, until mixture is paste-like but not smooth. Do not rev the motor, which may overwork the proteins and make the mixture tough. Transfer to a chilled bowl. Stir in fennel, green onions and cilantro. Shape and cook as desired.

Lamb potato sausage

Ingredients

2 pounds lamb shoulder, trimmed of all fat

1 pound russets, peeled, cooked and diced

1/3 cup EVOO

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons EVOO

2 teaspoons ground coriander

¼ teaspoon ground caraway

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1-2 tablespoons sea salt

Dash ground black pepper

Method

Cut meat and potatoes into one-inch pieces so they fit through the grinder. Blend and season meat well before grinding. Grind a small amount of lamb through on a medium attachment; remove small amount and cook through to taste; if your sample needs more salt or seasonings, adjust to the main batch and test again and repeat this step until seasonings are balanced. Make ground meat/potato mixture into 2-ounce patties, gently forming them as you go. Although this makes a lot of finished product, it freezes well for later use. At service, cook on preheated grill until desired doneness; remove and serve.