Sausage breakfast sandwiches are one of my favourite things. If you’re anything like me, and your obsession with them runs deep, then you might also feel like it’s time to start making them at home (from time to time anyway), to give your wallet a little break from the constant trips to (for me) Starbucks. I try to be mindful of the energy behind my writing, and effectively aim to avoid criticizing other recipes too much. But, in this case, I feel that it’s best to be direct. I tried many, many breakfast sausage patty recipes that I found online, and none of them were good. I was really surprised actually. The amount of many of the herbs and spices called for was crazy (think—1 tbsp of fennel seeds in 1 lb of pork mince). And, likewise, the salt and sugar quantities were off for me. As far as the choice of herbs and spices were concerned, I wasn’t impressed with the selections. Some would use fresh garlic, and/or fresh herbs, whilst claiming to emulate a particular fast-food patty. If the goal is to replicate the classic sausage breakfast sandwich, to mimic one’s fast-food favourites (minus the artificial additives), fresh herbs and garlic simply won’t achieve that flavour. So I decided to craft my own recipe! After many, many tests, here it is. The flavours in this sausage patty are perfectly balanced and rounded, meaning that there isn’t one that sharply stands out from the rest, and there is a specific quantity of each so as to hit the savoury, herby, salty, sweet, and spicy notes just right, in perfect harmony with one another. The intention is to emulate a fast-food sausage patty—but better. I modelled mine after Starbucks’ Sausage Breakfast Sandwich. If you taste it carefully, you will notice that the strongest flavour in it is powdered rosemary. So this is the herb that stands out the most in this recipe. But, like I said, it won’t jump out at you—all of the herbs and flavours are well-rounded and balanced. The garlic and onion powder are not individually perceivable flavours, but rather serve to lend an important savoury quality to the patties, and to help with the rounding out of the flavours that I described.
I have used what I believe to be are the same herbs and spices used in the Starbucks patty, however I have upped the quantities a little, to pack in a little extra punch of flavour. The only other difference is the texture. The Starbucks patties are a little more rubbery (I don’t mean that in a bad way, I quite like the texture actually!), whereas mine are a little more natural in mouthfeel. I spent a long time working out how to achieve the texture that I wanted—it was a lot less straightforward of a process than I would have thought! When I conducted the first recipe test for these breakfast sausage patties, the grocery store only had lean ground pork. This is therefore what I used. ...They were abysmal. The lean pork yielded dry patties, with an unpleasant coarse texture. The flavour was also unsatisfactory. I have not since had luck in finding a pork mince at a grocery store that has a high fat content, and so I simply ask for a fatty pork mince from my butcher. If they do not already have it, just ask! My butcher will always grind it on spot for me. He says that it’s roughly 60% fat. This is absolutely integral to the flavour and texture of these patties, therefore please make no substitutions. The fat content aside, there is a second vital aspect to the ground pork: ask your butcher to grind it twice. That is, for it to be passed through the meat grinder twice. It makes an incredible difference to the texture, and is the key to achieving the desired mouthfeel. I must say, near the end of my recipe-testing days, I was thrilled with the flavours, and with the discovery of the right ratio of fat to meat for the pork mince, but still didn’t quite feel that I had hacked the recipe. On the day that I did my final recipe test for these patties, I went to the butcher’s, and asked for the same thing that I always did. He asked me if I wanted it ground once or twice—I didn’t realize that twice-ground was an option! A lightbulb went off in my head—I had felt that the normal mince wasn’t quite as smooth as I wanted it, but on an occasion in which I tried pulsing the pork in the food processor, it was a total flop. Not good. I don’t believe that Starbucks uses any flours, emulsifiers, glues, etcetera, in their mixture, and so I was rather confused as to how they achieved such a smooth texture (without it being like a cooked mousse). Anyway! All of this to say, credit to my wonderful butcher for inadvertently solving my recipe conundrum for me! Get your pork mince twice-ground kids.
Recipe:
Makes 8 sausage patties, depending on size
Notes:
I specify the type of salt used, as different salts are more or less salty than others. If you don’t have the same kind of salt used, be mindful of this and adjust accordingly. Generally speaking, white sea salt is more salty than the pink Himalayan salt that I most often use (in my other recipes).
Ask for a fatty pork mince from my butcher. If they do not already have it, just ask! My butcher will grind it on spot for me. He says that it is roughly 60% fat. This is absolutely integral to the flavour and texture of these patties, therefore please make no substitutions. Secondly, ask for it to be twice-ground (passed through the meat grinder twice). The texture is so much smoother and more pleasant this way.
The paprika used is not smoked.
Feel free to double or triple the recipe, and freeze them for easy usage in busier mornings.
Ingredients
1 lb (454 g) fatty pork mince (about 60% fat), twice ground *see notes
1 1/4 tsp white sea salt
30 cracks black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp ground rosemary
1/4 + 1/8 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp maple syrup
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, using your hands.
Cover, and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. If you want to eat them immediately, you can cook them without refrigerating, and they will still be great. Refrigerating the mixture will make it firmer, and this will effectively make shaping the patties easier. But, more importantly, they will hold their shape better cooking. If you don’t care about these things, however, you don’t really need to bother. If you want to keep it in the fridge for longer, to make later, that’s fine too.
Remove from fridge. Take out a large pan, and heat over high heat until it’s piping hot. No need to add oil—the pork fat will immediately melt and play that role.
Wet your hands for maximum ease, to avoid the mixture sticking to your hands. Using an ice cream scooper as a measurement, take out a portion of the pork mixture. Form into a ball in your hands, then flatten into a thin disk shape, slightly wider than the circumference of your English muffin. The patty will shrink as it cooks (the circumference will diminish, but it will become taller), so make it a little wider than what you desire. The thinness of the patty is very important. Use the photos as reference.
Cook over high heat until browned on both sides. Given the thinness of the patties, the centre will be cooked insofar as both sides are browned. The cooking time will vary, as all pans and stovetops are different. But, as a reference for beginner cooks, mine took 2 minutes on the first side, and 1 minute on the second side. Do not overcook—remove immediately once browned. Pat the cooked patties down with paper towels as soon as they’re out of the pan, to soak up excess fat. Wipe the pan with a paper towel between batches.
Serve warm. To assemble a classic sausage breakfast sandwich, cut an English muffin, buttermilk biscuit, or artisanal bun in half. Lightly toast the bun in a hot pan, cut sides facing down. Remove from pan. Add thinly sliced cheddar cheese to the bottom half of the bun, and melt it in a toaster oven. In a small bowl, whisk an egg with a pinch of salt, and a splash of milk or cream. Reduce the bread pan to medium-low heat, and add butter. Place an egg ring mold in the pan, and add in your whisked egg. Cover, and cook until it’s almost done. You can add a splash of water to the pan (not in the mold), to create steam and help with the cooking process. Remove lid, carefully remove egg mold, and flip. [Otherwise, please feel free to make a simple sunny-side-up egg to avoid all of that fuss. Just be sure to salt it.] Place egg on the bottom half of the bun, which has the melted cheese. Top with the breakfast sausage patty. Enjoy!
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Looks delightful and sounds delicious ❣️
Luxurious and beautiful sauce❣️