Italian Sausage Ingredients: Less is More

[Dumoine]

I made 5 small batches of Italian sausage, each batch was a different recipe. I kept the salt constant in all 5 recipes (1%). I then grilled them and did a taste test. I found that I liked the one with the shortest ingredient list the best. So now when I make Italian sausage, I will keep it simple and leave out the coriander, sugar, caraway, oregano, parsley, garlic and paprika.

The winning recipe:

2268 grams pork butt (5lbs)
22.7 grams salt
7.5 grams black pepper, coarsely ground
6.5 grams fennel seed
3 grams anise seed
13 grams red pepper flakes

[LOUSANTELLO]

Hello Dumoine. As far as I'm concerned, you are on the right track. My father was born in Calabria Italy. My mother, although born in Chicago, her parents were from Palermo Italy. All of the sausages and cured meats they made when I was younger was very simple ingredients. I came from a small town north of Chicago called Highwood Illinois. Highwood had a population of 3500 and most of them were from Italy. Even though all were Italian, there was always funny looks and attitudes on whether you were from the south or northern region of Italy. The little town consisted of many Italian restaurants. My parent's attitude was always " why would you go to their restaurant if you can have better food at home". Even today, 40 years later, there's a small butcher in town that is known for the sausage. His is primarlly a black pepper sausage instead of red. This was also a big no no in our family. "It's not Italian sausage if you use black pepper". I kept peace with the family, but I did acquire a taste to the black once in a while. My parents were all about "fennel". I wasn't too keen on the fennel seeds although the flavor didn't bother me, I hated the seeds. Enough babbling. I started making my own 3-4 months ago. I now have a group of 4 other people that enjoys making it and we dialed in each of their recipes slightly different. We all use a consistent 1.5% salt. One person uses chopped garlic and another uses a garlic water which I can explain if interested. I don't use garlic at all. To get away from the people who hate fennel, I take the seeds and run it through a food processor and create a fennel powder. The hint of flavor is there, yet you don't bite into a seed. We use a combination of coaresly ground black along with red flake for heat. Other than that, there is nothing else other than using a coarse grind. We also prick the casings and store them in the refrigerator for at least 36 hours before vacuum packing. This dries out the casing slightly and gives more of a bite. I really think is also allows the seasonings to penetrate the meat. I have an excel spreadsheet with all 5 recipes. The ingredient percentages are locked on the spreadsheet. There is only one box on the spreadsheet that you can input, that being the meat weight in grams. Just input your meat weight and all 5 recipes will automatically calculate the weights of each ingredient. If you would like this spreadsheet, drop me your email.

[redzed]

Dumoine, I am in full agreement, less is better. And that is the point Stan Marianski stresses in his books. Absolutely no need to dump every spice on the rack into your sausage! A little while ago I made the Italian sausage from the Ruhlman/Polcyn book and was reminded of that very thing. The recipe is made up of several ingredients including fresh herbs. The combination did not work as you did not know exactly what you were tasting. I will be making some Italian soon, and will stick to the basics, almost like your recipe but with a bit of garlic. It's always good to have some Italian in the freezer. I eat it for breakfast with a couple of eggs, throw it on the grill and eat it on bun, and its great in a pasta sauce.

Lou why not post your recipes here, I'm sure there are many of us sausage heads that would be interested.

[LOUSANTELLO]

I Have about 6 different recipes on a spreadsheet including pizzaiola sausage that we made last night which includes 3 colors of bell peppers, vadalia onions and provolone diced. You can input the meat weight in grams and the spreadsheet will automatically calculate across the board to any of the recipes. I have one recipe in there that is chopped garlic. It's real heavy on the garlic and it wasn't for me. I had a friend who worked at a butcher during High school. Their garlic sausage was " garlic water" He came to the house last week and I told him he was in charge of the garlic because I have no clue. He cubed the garlic and placed it in a tupperware bowl. He added about 2-3 cups of warm water and used my meat tenderizer as a press. I couldn't believe how much garlic flavor ended up in the water. During the mix for fresh sausage, he added maybe a cup of water for 15 pounds through a strainer. Most, if not all of the recipes I have is a consistent 1.5% salt, coarse black ground pepper, red pepper flake and fennel seeds run through a food processor. The recipes are just different amounts based on what people want to take home after we fry some up.