Homemade Breakfast Sausage Patties

It actually had never occurred to me before that one could make homemade sausage patties that would be more delicious and fresher than anything you can buy from the grocery store in a plastic sleeve.  And all commercially prepared breakfast sausage has sugar in it, so the patty will caramelize and brown when cooked, which is what consumers want to see.  If you're watching your sugar intake, or simply want to make a breakfast sausage with your own blend of seasonings, this is a remarkably easy recipe.  You can fool around with the proportions of the seasonings, or add some others to your liking.  I found a recipe on the Internet to get me started at cooks.com and then jimmied with it to my taste.  I was pleased with the outcome.

Ingredients
1 lb fresh ground pork
2 tbsp dried rubbed sage
1 tbsp ground fennel*
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/4 cup cold water

* I buy fennel seeds and then grind them in a spice grinder as needed.  I actually use a Mr. Coffee grinder that is solely dedicated to spice grinding.

The Recipe
Toss all seasonings in a large mixing bowl and add the cold water.  Use a whisk to blend it all into a smooth paste.

Add the ground pork and using your hands, mix all the the ingredients together until the seasonings are evenly distributed.  You'll be able to tell when this occurs because of the paprika.  It will give the pork a different, redder color when it has been thoroughly incorporated.  If you still see pinker meat in your mixture, not all the pork has merged with the seasonings.

Now, pat the pork mixture down into an even round patty in the bottom of your mixing bowl.  With a table knife, cut the mixture into even quarters.  Then, cut the quarters in half.  If done correctly, you will have divided the meat into 2 ounce portions.

With wet hands, pat each 2 ounce portion of the sausage into a patty and lay out on a cookie sheet or sheet pan lined with foil or parchment paper for easy clean-up.

Pre-heat an oven to 425 degrees and cook the patties for 25 minutes until browned.