Blueberry Cheddar Breakfast Sausage #brunchweek

Use fresh blueberries and cheddar craft your own custom breakfast sausage. Homemade sausage isn’t hard and tastes amazing.

This post is sponsored in conjunction with #BrunchWeek. I received product samples from sponsor companies to aid in the creation of the #Brunchweek recipes. All opinions are mine alone.

If you haven’t made your own breakfast sausage yet, you’re in the right place. I have some great tips for starting out. Bonus, these are perfect with maple pancakes or with these cornbread waffles. Read it over and then scroll down leaving a comment telling me what you need to know about making your own breakfast sausage at home.

How to Make Breakfast Sausage

Making breakfast sausage is easy! You need pork, and pork fat (like bacon or pork belly), salt, seasoning and a meat grinder. The fat is what gives the sausage that rich flavor and helps keep it moist. This isn’t the time to go for lean cuts. Fat = flavor!
Make sure to trim anything that isn’t hard fat, like silverskin or bone while trimming out your pork. I buy whatever is on sale, usually a shoulder, and then combine that with an equal portion of pork belly for an amazing combination.

Salt is also a huge factor in sausage for texture and flavor. I like to keep it to just under a tablespoon of salt per pound and then I mix in my seasonings

From there, you need a meat grinder and a little imagination. If you just want to play with flavor combinations, quarter the recipe and make sausage patties.

If it’s your first time using casings, I prefer natural casings. One, it’s a use for another part of the animal, and two I think they have the best snap. However, it can be a little odd when you first get the package.

Casings often come cured in a lot of salt. It’s vital to read the instructions included on the packaging and follow them. Normally that involves soaking and rinsing the casings ahead of time. I have found string across a window to be an easy way to dry the casing until ready to use.

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What can you put in breakfast sausage

Breakfast sausage is one of the easiest to experiment with – because there aren’t any hard rules to go by. You can’t make Italian sausage without fennels seeds, chorizo must have spice, but breakfast sausage? Well, as long as it’s a little sweet – it doesn’t matter.

Research will show a combination of mild spices, like sage, thyme, rosemary and a hint of nutmeg in a lot of breakfast sausage recipes. Even brown sugar at times.
You can even add a pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes. There’s really no wrong way to make breakfast sausage.

I like to work in batches, seasoning, grinding and always cooking a testing a bite before stuffing the sausages just to make sure everything is balanced.

For this recipe, I was really leaning in on some New England classics, one Cabot cheddar cheese, local Coombs family farm maple syrup, and Maine blueberries. I love the combination of sweet and savory that cheddar allows for when paired with something like syrup. And I knew this needed Maine blueberries because they are famous for being smaller – and better – than the rest. Large blueberries would pop while grinding or when being sliced, and no one really wants violet colored sausage.

The combination of Cabot Cheddar, the real maple syrup and blueberries was exactly what I was going for!

Tips for making your own Breakfast Sausage

• Make sure to read the instructions for your casings ahead of time to have them ready to go.
• Keeping the meat and meat grinder cold prevents the fat from warming up and becoming too soft while the meat is being ground.
• Have a sanitized needle for relieving air pockets ready and on hand.
• Invest in an all metal grinder or grinding attachment. It will hold up better and keep cooler when you are putting meat through it.

Want more breakfast inspiration? Try some of my favorite recipes

• Spicy Chipotle Breakfast Hash
• Perfectly Fluffy Scrambled Eggs
• Easy Breakfast Enchiladas
• Sweet Maple Pulled Pork French Toast

If you’ve tried my Homemade Blueberry Cheddar Sausage Recipe or any other recipe on GirlCarnivore.com please don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know where you found it in the comments below. I get inspired by your feedback and comments! You can also FOLLOW ME on Instagram @girlcarnivore as well as on  Twitter and Facebook.

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