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Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage
Recently at the
restaurant I had to make turkey sausage meat to put into a breakfast casserole
for a catering order. It turned out to be a more chaotic process than expected,
but that story is below.
The sausage itself worked
out well. I based it on the pork sausage meat I make for the traditional
sausage dressing we prepare every Thanksgiving for customers and family. The main
difference with the turkey sausage is that since ground turkey has much less fat
than ground pork, I add some olive oil to add that rich juiciness.
I made my first
casserole, a breakfast strata with added sausage meat, on an already busy day
several days before the early-morning catering. It got over-baked. I was out of
the kitchen when the timer went off and no one else mentioned the timer and I
was distracted. The flavor of the casserole was fine, but the top and bottom
crusts were too crisply baked to send out to a customer. (One of our staff and
his family enjoyed it for dinner that evening.) The next day I made another
batch of sausage meat and another casserole, and it was looking good. But then
the customer cancelled their catered breakfast for the next day since their
visitors from the corporate office in Michigan were grounded from flying due to
corona virus travel restrictions.
Ah well. I at least had
the chance to refine my recipe, and subsequently also made sausage patties from
the recipe at home and had them with dinner.
Here’s. It can be made as
fried crumbled sausage meat for adding to a casserole or turkey dressing or
sprinkled on mashed potatoes or maybe a homemade pizza. Or fry it up as small
patties for breakfast sausage.
1-1/8 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dry marjoram
1/2 teaspoon ground
coriander
1/2 teaspoon crushed dry
red pepper
1/8 teaspoon grated
nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground
celery seed (not celery salt)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground turkey
(85% lean)
In a large bowl, mix all
seasonings plus olive oil. Add ground turkey and mix well with a fork so the
meat is evenly seasoned but not compacted. The mixture can be refrigerated for
up to a day at this point, or cooked now.
For crumbled sausage
meat, fry in a frying pan, stirring and breaking the meat up into small lumps
as it fries. For sausage patties, form into six large or up to 12 smaller
patties, and fry over medium heat on both sides, turning several times during
frying.
