I have been trying to make Jimmy Dean style breakfast sausage. However, I have not been able to get it quite right. Latest attempt. 1 Lb ground pork, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp blk pepper, 1 1/2 tsp ground sage, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp ground thyme, 1/8 tsp ground cayenne, 1/8 tsp oregano, 1 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp msg. mix well and marinate in frig for 18 hours. I was out of ground coriander so I left it out. As I said, these proportions are not quite right. Anyone who has a good recipe, I'd appreciate seeing it. Thank you.
I've done my share of reverse-engineered recipes. Back in the day you could get 99th generation mimeograph copies of knock-off KFC, Wendy's Chili, Oreo cookies, and a bunch of other stuff. The quality of the copies made them look "underground." I searched on "Jimmy Dean knock-off recipe" and "Jimmy Dean copycat recipe," and found a few. Make sure you read the reviews, because it looks like some of them are not very good. Here is one of them that folks liked: Knockoff - Jimmy Dean - Breakfast Sausage 16 ounces ground pork 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or 1/2 teaspoon, depending on how hot you want it) 1/4 is about Jimmy Dean Regular, 1/2 is about Jimmy Dean Hot 1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage 1/4 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1/4 teaspoon coriander 1/4 teaspoon msg 1/4 cup water As @Nancy Hart said, this has sugar in it. One of the recipes had 2TB brown sugar AND 1TB light corn syrup. If you wanted maple flavor, you added 3TB maple syrup. Yeh, it's basically pig candy, and was not reviewed very well. Just reading it makes my teeth hurt.
I tried the recipe above and I didn't care for it. I added 2 tsp of white sugar after the 1st test. That was not right either. Next time I'll use BROWN sugar. Another thing I didn't care for was that the ground pork was only 10 % fat. I think 20% would be better.
The Jimmy Dean regular sausage label says 2 oz (56 g) of sausage contains 19 g of fat. That's about 34% fat. More fat always tastes better.
Wow ! 34% ? That would make a huge difference in the taste. Unlikely I could buy ground pork with that much fat. I wonder what I could add to bring it up to 34% ?
You can buy packaged chunks of various fat in the meat cooler in the grocery stores here, or talk to the guys at the meat counter. I have a grinder attachment for my stand mixer and have made homemade burger from chuck roast. Burgers need to be 20% fat, so I bought some fat from the store to stretch it. I may have used lard and reserved bacon fat. Butter would work a pinch but you should simmer off the water (whey), since that's 20% of the butter.
Unless there's a specific ingredient in lard that gives you issues, you may wish to read this. Lard is your least-unhealthy option. It has zero trans fats and less saturated fat than butter and coconut oil. The vegetable shortening companies ran a smear campaign so as to boost their sales.
I tried you idea of adding lard to bring the fat content up to 20%. BIG improvement. It now tastes better AND lessens "chewiness". Thanks , John.