“Laws are like sausage. It’s best not to see them being made,” the Prussian/German statesman Otto von Bismarck is quoted as saying. But if you are a person of a certain age, you may indeed remember your parents or grandparents making sausage. There was the meat grinder, clamped to the kitchen table (or, later, as an attachment to the spiffy Sunbeam Mixmaster), and there was Grandma, hard at work grinding up the little bits and pieces of meat and fat and adding her secret blend of spices. Sausage-making seems like a throwback, like dipping candles or darning socks — certainly not something we would do today.

Think again. While making actual sausage links is admittedly a production — requiring the finding, purchasing, soaking, cleaning and stuffing of casings — making sausage patties is no harder than making a burger. They can be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen, and served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. A new book, “Brunch” by Georgeanne Brennan (Fireside Books, 2008), offers up a tasty homemade chicken-sausage patty made with grated apples and bacon. The well-known “Meat Meister” Bruce Aidells, founder of a sausage company, gives a half dozen simple, savory sausage recipes in his “Complete Book of Pork” (HarperCollins, 2004).

You can buy ground pork or chicken at the supermarket, but the sausage will have better taste and texture if you grind your own meat and fat, and mix them together. If you have a meat grinder, or a grinder attachment on your food processor, by all means use it. Otherwise, a regular food processor works fine. Two tips: Freezing the meat and fat for 10 minutes to 1 hour will make it easier to grind; mix the meat, fat and seasonings well with clean hands, but make sure that you do not overmix to the point where the fat begins to melt.

Once you’ve whipped up a few sausage patties, you may want to take up candle-dipping and sock-darning. Don’t get carried away and start visiting your state legislature, however. Bismarck may have been wrong about homemade sausage, but when it comes to lawmaking, his words still ring true.

CHICKEN APPLE SAUSAGES

1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/4 pound sliced bacon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 Granny Smith apples

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 teaspoons white or black peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Place the chicken and bacon in the freezer for 1 hour. Freeze the bowl and blade of the food processor as well.

Working in batches, put the chicken in the food processor and pulse until coarsely ground to about the size of peas. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the bacon to the processor and pulse until coarsely ground as well. Add the bacon and the butter — cut into small bits — into the bowl with the chicken and mix with clean hands, kneading and squeezing until well blended. Peel, core and grate the apples and squeeze out any excess moisture, then add them to the bowl with the meat. Mix well with your hands.

In a clean spice mill or coffee grinder, combine the coriander seeds, fennel and peppercorns and grind to medium-fine. Add the spices to the chicken mixture along with the salt, nutmeg and cayenne, and mix with clean hands until well blended. Shape a little bit of this mixture into a small patty and cook until golden, then taste. Adjust the seasonings in the sausage mixture as needed. Shape the mixture into 12 to 14 patties, each about 3 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Place on a platter and cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate up to 1 day, or wrap individually and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before cooking.

When ready to cook, line a platter with paper towels. Set aside.

In a large skillet set over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Working in batches if necessary to avoid crowding, add the patties and cook until golden brown on the bottom, 3 to 4 minutes. Using a metal spatula, turn the patties over and cook on the other side, 3 to 4 minutes more. Transfer to the prepared platter to drain briefly. Serve right away.

Yield: 12 to 14 patties, 6 to 8 servings

Recipe adapted slightly from “Brunch: Recipes for Cozy Weekend Mornings” by Georgeanne Brennan (Fireside Books, 2008)

BROWN SUGAR AND SAGE BREAKFAST PATTIES

1 pound Boston butt, cut into 1-inch cubes (see Cook’s note)

1/2 pound pork fatback, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (see Cook’s note)

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 to 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar, real maple sugar or Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup

1 teaspoon dried sage

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 cup cold water

1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)

Cook’s note: Boston butt is a shoulder cut; the way it was cut originated in Boston, and the word “butt” refers to the barrel that, during Colonial times, pork was stored and shipped in. It is also sold as pork butt and Boston shoulder roast. Don’t confuse it with picnic ham, or shoulder picnic, which is a smoked shoulder cut.

Fatback (also sold as back fat) is often confused with salt pork, but unlike salt pork (which comes from the pig’s belly), fatback (from the back) is not salted or otherwise cured. It is the fat that is rendered (slowly cooked) to make lard. There is no good substitute for fatback. It is sold in some supermarkets and ethnic markets, and it can be mail-ordered. Check www.nimanranch.com; (866) 808-0340. It freezes beautifully, so no worries if you buy more than you need.

Freeze the Boston butt and the fatback for at least 10 minutes. Freeze the bowl of the food processor and the blade for the same amount of time.

Place half the Boston butt and half the fatback in the food processor, and process with short pulses until the mixture is roughly chopped, with pieces about the size of peas. Scrape the chopped mixture into a large bowl and repeat with the remaining pork fat.

Add all of the remaining ingredients to the pork mixture. Using clean hands, mix the sausage, kneading and squeezing until well blended. Make a small patty, and cook it in small skillet until lightly browned. Taste and adjust the salt, pepper, sugar and hot sauce (if using) as needed. Mix again. Shape the sausage into 12 to 16 equal patties, each about 1/2 inch thick. At this point, you can cover the sausage in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 or 3 days, or wrap each patty individually and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before cooking.

When ready to cook, line a platter with paper towels. Set aside.

Heat a large, heavy frying pan over medium-high heat and add the patties, without overcrowding. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes until nicely browned. Flip and cook for 5 minutes more. When done, the centers of the patties should be gray. Transfer to the prepared platter to drain. Cook the remaining patties and serve at once.

Yield: 12 to 16 patties, or 6 to 8 servings

Recipe from “The Complete Book of Pork” by Bruce Aidells with Lisa Weiss (HarperCollins, 2004).

 

Marialisa Calta is the author of “Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family” (Perigee, 2005). For more information, go to www.marialisacalta.com.