(upbeat music) - Now, I'm paraphrasing here but there's an old saying that goes, anyone who loves the law or sausages should never
see either being made. And I would agree a little bit. I think that's only half true. You should definitely
know how sausage is made because you can control what goes into it. And who better to teach us
the fundamentals than Erin? - Yes Bridget, I'm gonna teach you how to make breakfast sausage patties. But more importantly, I'm gonna
teach you the fundamentals of making sausage. - Great. - And what the perfect formula is. And so then you can make any
type of sausage you want. Once you have that formula down. - It's the sausage house rules. - Yeah, absolutely. - We're making breakfast sausage patties. So let's start with our seasoning mix. One tablespoon of light brown sugar, two teaspoons of rubbed sage. - That is essential to breakfast. - Absolutely. A teaspoon of ground black pepper. - Okay. - And a quarter teaspoon of cayenne. - [Bridget] Ooh, a little spicy. - A little kick. So all you have to do is just
kind of mix this together. (spoon whirring) All right. And now onto the pork. We are using a two pound
piece of pork butt. Pork butt is very important because it has a perfect
ratio of meat and fat. And fat is very important in your sausage. - [Bridget] Okay. - So typical sausage
has about 20 to 30% fat. And pork butt typically has about 20% fat. - [Bridget] Oh, okay. - Which includes the fat
cap and also marbling. So when you choose your pork
butt, you wanna make sure that you choose one
that has a full fat cap and that also has really nice marbling. So I have one pound of pork butt for you and one pound of pork butt for me. In total, two pounds. We're gonna cut this into
three quarter inch pieces. And as we go, we're gonna trim out any connective tissue or
sinew that we come across. But don't trim out the fat,
'cause the fat's important. - You know who you're talking to. Am I ever gonna throw away the fat? - Absolutely not. I trust you. - [Bridget] Okay, this is gorgeous pork. I really did not need to
trim away much at all. - So this is our star ingredient but there's another ingredient
that is very important. It's critical, and that is salt. Typically, sausage has
between one point a half to 2% of the weight of the pork in salt. - Okay. - All right. And so we actually tried
using one point a half percent one and three quarter percent and 2% and we tasted them side by side and we really landed on going
with 1.5% as being the best. So in order to figure that
out, we need to weigh our pork. We're not gonna use ounces,
we're gonna use grams here. So here we have 962 grams. So I'm gonna take that and I'm gonna multiply
that by 0.015, 14.43. So we're gonna round to 14. I would say we need 14 grams of salt, because we're using the
weight and not the volume, we can use a table or kosher salt. And I have table salt here. So we want 14 grams of table salt. - We've got all of these formulas, all of the ratios on our website, so. - I'm just gonna add the salt to the pork. And I'm gonna take our breakfast
seasoning mix room earlier. (spoon whirring) And I'm just gonna toss it all. In order for the salt to be effective, we're just gonna cover this. Let it sit with a salt mixture on it for at least eight hours
and up to two days. All right, Bridget, our pork has been
refrigerated for eight hours. - [Bridget] Okay. - I'm gonna take our pork and transfer it to a rim baking sheet,
evenly space out the pieces you can see how it's already firmed up. That eight hours is very important. And you can tell that the salt has already
started working on this. The salt seasons of meat, it
wards off harmful microbes. It restructures the proteins, which is gonna allow it
to hold onto its juices when it's cooking. It's gonna dissolve the
myosin, which is the protein and pork that is gonna give it that glue that binds the sausage together
and gives it that nice snap. - Gotcha, it's the sticky stuff. - Yes, now when you grind
the meat, it creates friction and the heat is going to soften
our fat and also our meat. So we're gonna freeze the tray of meat for about 35 to 55 minutes
until it's very stiff on the outside and very
pliable on the inside. - All right. - And we're also gonna freeze
our grinding attachments. Bridget, our pork has been in
the freezer for 45 minutes. The edges are nice and firm,
but it's also very pliable. And we also froze our grinder
attachment for about an hour. Everything's cold, including our bowls that we're
gonna catch the ground pork. So I have a large bowl filled with ice and I have a medium bowl inserted in it. So as I grind it, it's gonna fall into this chilled bowl
and it's gonna stay cold. - Everything is cold. - Everything's cold. So we're gonna make a
coarse, ground sausage. So I'm using a that is
three sixteenths of an inch to a quarter of an inch. That's very important. All right, we're ready to grind. I'm gonna turn this to medium. (grinder whirring) And I'm gonna start feeding the pork in. If you don't have a meat grinder, you can use a food processor. So you just wanna go to our website for the instructions. - [Bridget] Great. - [Erin] Can you see the
distinct meat, the fat? - [Bridget] I sure can. - [Erin] So satisfying. - [Bridget] It really is. - It's a very simple steps
that really make a difference. This stuff looks great. There's really no grizzle in
this, Bridget and it's firm. I can feel it, and it's
just very, very cold. Well, the next step is, I'm
gonna need this bowl, Bridget. So can you dump the ice out and dry it for me please? - Okay. - All right, here you go. - [Bridget] Still really cold. - Which is good, right. - Following the theme, temperature. So the next step is I'm
gonna just transfer this to the larger bowl. So I'm gonna knead it for about one and a half to two minutes. - Okay. - And I really wanted
to encourage that myosin to kind of continue to break down. And you're gonna see that the size of the bowl is gonna be nice and tacky and you're gonna see
this kind of transform. And what that's gonna
do is give our sausage that's snap that we're looking for. - [Bridget] All right. - All right. And what I'm doing here is very similar to what you do when making bread where you knead the dough
to develop the gluten which is gonna give the texture
that you're looking for. And what we're doing
here is we're kneading the meat to bring out the myosin. - Right, so give us that
nice snappy texture. - [Erin] Yes, I am pretty
darn happy with this, Bridget. The myosin has been worked
out, and you can see it on the sides of the bowl. - Yes. - The meat itself is still
very, very, very chilled. And I think we're ready for the next step. As I weigh into portions,
I want you to to shape it into a two and a half inch
wide, half inch thick patty. This is gonna make
about 16 sausage patties between one and a half to two ounces each. Sausage number one. - All right. - [Erin] How cold is that? - [Bridget] It's pretty chill. - [Erin] Yeah. - [Bridget] How's that look? - That's beautiful, it's gorgeous. All right, Bridget. So we're just gonna finish forming these and then we're gonna get cooking. Okay, so Bridget, I have a
12 inch non-stick skillet heating up here over medium heat. I have two teaspoons of oil in there. - [Bridget] Okay. - It's hot, I can see
it starting to shimmer. So we're gonna cook half
of the patties at once. I like to start at the handle and then go into circular motion so that I can keep track
of which one I fired first. Don't look at me like that. - No, no, us being more like you would be a very good thing. - That's funny. So we're gonna cook these for about three to five minutes. I want it to be nice and brown - So it's gonna allow
some of that fat to render but it's not gonna get it too brown on the outside before the interior. - [Erin] Exactly, yep, all right. To prove my point, you can see that this is the first one I put in. You can see that that one's
further along than the others. - [Bridget] Exactly,
starting to change color around the edges. - Absolutely, yes. Okay, so now I'm just
gonna check the bottom and check that out. Nice and gorgeous golden brown. I'm just gonna note that
I have two spatulas here. The first one I picked up the raw sausage with, put them in there. This is for the cooked parts so I'm just getting under the
sausage and flipping it over. All right, you don't
want cross-contamination you always wanna cook safely. So we're gonna cook these for
another three to five minutes on the second side, so
it's nice and golden brown. And again, we're cooking this to an internal temperature of 145 to 150. - Okay. - All right. Okay, so I'm just gonna start
taking temperatures, again, starting with the one that
I put in the pan first and we have nailed it. 146 Bridget, if any of them are not done, then we'll just kind of like
pull them outta the pan last. - [Bridget] Okay. - All right, and you know what? They're all done. - Perfect. - So using my spatula. (food sizzling) All right. We're gonna cover these
with foil, keep them hot and we're gonna cook the second
batch, and then we can eat. - Are you ready to take your
cooking to the next level? - [Julia] Introducing the
Complete America's Test Kitchen TV show Cookbook featuring every recipe from every episode of
America's Test Kitchen. That's thousands of recipes. That texture's unbelievable, reviews, gadgets you didn't know
you needed, and tips. - Yes, there's some terrible choices but there are also some amazing choices. (people laughing) - We've spilled all of our secrets and included our insider
notes alongside each recipe. - [Julia] Plus, there's
a handy shopping guide, so you know exactly what to
grab when you're at the store. - And of course, it
makes an excellent gift. Get your copy today at
Americastestkitchen.com. - Bridget, it is time to eat. It's breakfast time, are you ready? - I'm so ready. The whole kitchen is filled
with the beautiful aroma. Of pork and spice. - [Erin] Oh, so would you like one? - [Bridget] I would like multiples of one. - [Erin] Multiples of one. - [Bridget] Yes. - [Erin] All right, Bridget. - [Bridget] Very tender, but it does have that
little bit of snap there. - And it has that glue, the myosin has is bound all the meat. (people groaning) It's like a burst of flavor and juices. - [Bridget] Oh, so juicy. I mean, look at how little
fat is on the plate. That's because it's still in here. All those meat juices. - They're perfectly seasoned. - Absolutely, not too salty at all. Beautifully balanced spices. Now is the breakfast sausage
the only kind that we have? - Now that you have the
formula, you can make any type of sausage that you
want, pork, lamb, beef. We have a couple more recipes and you can find those on our website. - Great, Erin, you proved precision is the path to perfect patties. - Ooh, I love that. (upbeat music) - Did you see how simple it was to make gorgeous
breakfast sausage patties? Well, you can make them at home too. And it starts with Erin's
sausage house rules. First, use the right
amount of salt to pork and weigh out both ingredients. Number two, keep everything
cold, par freeze the pork and freeze the attachments
for your grinder. And finally, knead that mixture to give the sausages a snappy texture. And a few minutes in the pan
is all that stands between you and Sausage Nirvana. So from America's Test Kitchen, the ultimate, the easy
breakfast sausage patties. And you can get this great
recipe and all the recipes from this season along
with product reviews and select episodes. That's all on our website, AmericasTestkitchen.com/tv. - We hope you enjoyed this video as much as we enjoyed making it. - Don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe to our channel. - And if you're ready to take your cooking to the next level, head over to Americastestkitchen.com and get a free all
access trial membership. - While you're there, you can sign up for our free email newsletters
and download our app. - [Erin] With unlimited
access to over 14,000 of our test kitchen recipes
and 8,000 product reviews, you'll have everything you
need to cook and learn. - So I ask, what are you waiting for? - Let's make something great together.
