Homemade Sausage Patties

I recently spent a month with the grandson that has all the severe food allergies (See In Search of Real Food). He absolutely loves sausage but he hasn't been able to have any due to all the nitrates and other preservatives that is so prevalent in commercial sausage. So I perused the internet and came up with a basic recipe which after much tweaking ended up with this one. Keep in mind that sausage varies wildly with the individual's preference so you may prefer yours more spicy or less. Experiment with these. They are great formed into patties and frozen with waxed paper in between them so you can pull just one or two out to cook. Keep the heat lower if cooking frozen ones and cook longer.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of pastured pork, ground
2 teaspoons of ground sage, slightly more if you use leaves rather than powder
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp 5-pepper blend
2 Tbl organic maple syrup or honey


Mix the meat with the spices and syrup. If your  meat is very lean, you may want to add a couple tablespoons of water to the mix. Form into patties keeping in mind that they will shrink about 30%.

Brown quickly on the first side and turn. Reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook until the juices run clear when pierced with a fork.



These are incredibly easy and taste so much better than commerical sausage that I doubt I'll every buy it again. Enjoy!