Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Home-Made Sausage Patties

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I've always wanted to make my own English muffins and pork sausages, mainly because they aren't easy to find here. While we can get frozen pork sausages (at prices 10 times the ordinary wiener sausages), I've never seen English muffins anywhere except for McDonald's. McD's Sausage McMuffin is the only item I like on their menu (yes, my family prefers Burger King burgers) and I do occasionally make my way there for one (ok, two) of these 'thigh-breakers'. McD's sausage patties in Malaysia are made of chicken but they taste like pork. Btw, did you know that an uproar by bloggers in Singapore against McD's replacement of the soft toy pig with a cupid toy for their current Chinese New Year offer of Chinese zodiac animals led to an apology last week by the burger chain and reinstatement of the pig toy? I wish everybody would just lighten up.

I don't have a meat grinder and sausage casings are only available in bulk from KL. I've been experimenting with making English muffins the whole week but both recipes that I tried failed and right now my poolish for the 3rd recipe is growing. I think this might be it. In the meantime, my ground pork can't wait, so I went ahead and made sausage patties, which turned out very well.

When it comes to sausages, chicken or beef or lamb just don't taste as good as pork. Pork fat is the perfect fat for sausages, being more neutral in flavor than chicken, lamb or beef fat. If you need to go kosher, then use chicken or beef or lamb. The sausages taste better if there's more fat but for health reasons, I use about 70% lean meat to 30% fat, which give good sausage patties but probably not sausages. Sausages will need more fat to make them moist and less coarse. The texture of the meat is up to you. For patties, I used a coarser-ground pork than I would if I made sausages. Since I don't have a meat grinder (a food processer would grind the meat too finely into a paste), I leave it to the butcher to grind the meat for me. Next time I would tell him to grind the meat finer because there were ungrounded chunks in the mince. I found the recipe for breakfast sausages here. Wey said the sausages were nearly as good as McD's, 'nearly' thrown in because he thinks my patties should have a little more salt. I am giving you the recipe based on my own try out which was about half the recipe in the link. Now if only I can make good English muffins I wouldn't need to get up early and get into town for McD's breakfasts before 11 a.m.

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Breakfast Sausage Patties (makes 15 patties)
1.5 kg ground pork
3/4 T salt
3/4 T sage
3/4 t thyme
1/4 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t white pepper
1/8 t cayenne pepper (omit if you don't like hot)
1/4 cup water

1. Mix everything together until very well blended. Test by frying a small thin patty and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

2. Divide the mixture into 15 balls, each about a fistful. Roll and pat each into a patty about 1 to 1.5 cm thick and place on a piece of greaseproof paper. Chill in the fridge to set.

3. Grease a skillet or pan and fry the patties for about 5 minutes each side, pressing the patties when you first place them in the pan to prevent the patties from growing thicker as they cook. If you press the patties after they are half-cooked, their juices will run out and the result will be dry patties. It's a good idea to make the patties thinner if you don't want to bother pressing them when you cook. Serve hot.

15 comments:

Zurin said...

Hey youve been busy and prolific!!LOL...after the slowdown and long rest youre at it again it seems! Yay.

Anonymous said...

if i was around i'd gladly polish that pork off.. :)

ssblurqueen said...

You are full of pleasant surprises. I can never wake up in time to make these for breakfast.

FHinHK said...

Hi Terri - I came upon your blog by chance when I was looking for a recipe for 'wat dan hor fun' back in October and I've been a huge fan ever since - I always look forward to your updates! Come to HK and you'll have access to Sausage McMuffins all day long - McDonalds serves them around the clock!

Anonymous said...

That looks like a MacDonald meal.

Anonymous said...

your blog is amazing, what more a sabahan
I've been trying to cook healthier versions of a lot of dishes to accomodate my needs (high protein, low carb) and its not easy especially when its soo hard to get some ingredients in sabah
haven't read through the whole blog
but hope to see some really good recipes in the future

TeaLady said...

LOve making english muffins. I hope this third batch works out for you. It not, let me know. I have a really good recipe.

Sausage looks perfect.

Jeri said...

My friend's dad does pork sausages & bacon but I'm not too sure if they sell it uncooked ?

He's at Stone Bridge Galley in Asia City

http://stonebridgegalley.com/

terri@adailyobsession said...

zurin: tt's bc i suddenly realize my older two kids are leaving home soon n i havn't cooked all the food i wanted for them!

anon: hmm..they were yumm

ssblurqueen: (that's some profile name) . me too, i can never wake up to do breakfast but this year i'm waking up to drive my wey to school n that makes me get up

fhinhk: hi, welcome. you're a little late but i'm sure you can catch up. it tt true, there's sausage mcmuffins all day in hk? see, hk is the best food city!

anon: but not the muffins :(

jeri: hey, thnks for the link. i didn;t know about this place. i;ll check it out!

FHinHK said...

I've looked through most of your recipes and posts already!! :p I just wish we had spaces like that in HK for gardens. It's great how you are able to grow practically anything in your garden in KK.
Sounds like you know a lot of ppl in HK but if you ever do come by again I'd love to recommend you other places to try.
Sausage McMuffins are the only item I get at McDonalds. And yes, they sell them all day (but not hashbrowns).

Unknown said...

And I was just thinking of homemade burgers for my kidz to bring to school for snacks. This sure comes in handy..... Thanks for the recipe !!

terri@adailyobsession said...

FH: i'll love to discover new places. i'm very likely going to hk again this year; i need new shoes.

shuk yee: u r welcome, hope it turned out good enough for ur family:))

Anonymous said...

No nutmeg - taste will have a great difference or not?

Nutmeg - Powder form? Available in supermkts?

terri@adailyobsession said...

anon: yes available in supremarkets. you can leave it out i suppose n increase the other spices n herbs. will it make a diff? will taking away black pepper make a diff? i think the answeer is all the seasoning adds together to give more depth and flavor but it won't kill the patties if one or two spices is not there, you know what i mean?

Adriel, Billy & Cynthia said...

hello!

So glad i found your recipe! Can i just check if the seasonings' are in teaspoon or tablespoon? thanks!

Love,
Cynthia

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