Homemade Breakfast Sausage

This simple homemade breakfast sausage is the perfect addition to your weekend breakfast spread. Full of spices, garlic, and sweet maple syrup.

The first time I had homemade breakfast patties (I’m talking 100% homemade) was when I went to Germany about 9 years ago.

I had planned the trip for a few months and decided that I wanted to spend some time in Heidelberg. {To this day Heidelberg is still one of my favorite places on earth} I stayed in the old section of town (near the bridge) in a hotel that included free breakfast. I went down to the restaurant the first morning and saw soft-boiled eggs, fresh sausage patties, crusty rolls, fresh cheese, and tons of fresh Italian meats.

I was slightly confused {cheese and meat display for breakfast?} but also really excited.

Prosciutto for breakfast? Ummm yes!

So I piled everything they had onto my plate, took a seat, and started to dig in.

I cut into a piece of their homemade sausage, took a bite and I’m fairly certain I might have groaned at the table. It was that good.

It was a lot different than the normal Jimmy Dean style of sausage I was used to. It was just as flavorful but had a less smokey taste and was packed with spices not normally found in store-bought sausage. I was sold.

While I will always be a fan of store-bought sausage I’m a complete sucker for throwing it together yourself every once in a while.

Plus you get to make it however you want.

Do you like things spicy? Add lots of crushed red pepper.

Do you like things super sweet? Throw in some maple syrup and dark brown sugar.

Having a love affair with fennel? Throw it on in!

You get it, homemade sausage means you get to be the boss.

Who doesn’t love being the boss?

There is one small thing you should know about making your own sausage.

You need to use fatty meat in order to keep the sausage moist.

At my local store, I’m able to talk to the butcher shop and ask them to grind me some extra fatty pork for sausage making.

However, if you do not have a super awesome butcher shop you can just grind your own! Yes, that does mean you need your own meat grinder(or meat grinder attachment for your KitchenAid mixer) but I’m going to just pretend this is something that almost everyone has in their house.

I adapted this recipe from Alton Brown who does explain the whole “grinding your own” process. You would follow the same directions except you would use my spice/flavor ingredients instead of his.

The blend of flavors I use in this sausage is a mixture of sweet and spicy.

Lots of maple syrup for added flavor and sweetness plus just a touch of heat from the crushed red pepper. If you like things spicier feel free to bump that 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon. That’s the way I do things!

I know this sounds completely ridiculous but just writing this little story makes me want to go back to Germany.

If anyone is looking for a blogger to come visit I’m fantastic at tweeting, eating delicious food, Instagramming, eating delicious food, and drinking delicious beer.

I could be a great asset to your business. Right?