Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage

In January 2012, the medical community released a study linking bacon and sausage to pancreatic cancer (in men, they didn’t see a correlation in women).  I understand correlation does not equal causation, but why take the chance.  Plus, making your own turkey sausage is a lot less expensive.  This sausage is freezer friendly just like regular sausage – just wrap up the uncooked sausage in plastic and then aluminum foil.  Thaw and cook like a normal freezer meal.  Store up to 1 month.  A comparison shows the nutrition is almost the same except for fat content.  The main thing is the ingredients in the prepackaged sausage.

Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage Links Nutrition for 2 links:

160 calories
13 grams fat
420 mg Sodium
11 g protein

Homemade Turkey Sausage Nutrition for 2 links:

110 calories
6 grams fat
370 mg Sodium
12 g protein

Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage Links
yield 16 links

1 Tb. canola oil
1 lb. ground turkey
2 tsp. fresh sage, minced or 1/2 tsp. dried sage
1 and 1/2 slices of whole wheat bread or white bread – tear off the crusts and tear into little pieces
1/4 cup buttermilk (substitute: 1 tsp. lemon juice and fill to 1/4 cup with milk)
1 T. maple syrup
1 garlic clove, mince
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. dry thyme
pinch cayenne
pinch ground nutmeg

1.  Place a 12″ nonstick skillet on the stove and pour 1 tsp. of the canola oil (just part of the 1 Tb.) into it.  Heat on medium for a couple minutes.  Place just 1/4 of the ground turkey in the skillet and cook and crumble until brown.  Add sage and cook 30 seconds.  Put all the sausage into a large bowl to use later.
2.  In a small bowl, squish the buttermilk and bread with a fork until it forms a paste.  Add this to the cooked turkey.  Add the rest of the ground turkey, maple syrup, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, cayenne, and nutmeg to the big bowl with the cooked turkey in it as well.  Mix thoroughly.
3.  Using wet hands, take about 1 Tb. of the meat mixture and form into a link.  I got 16 links.
4.  Wipe out the same 12″ skillet you used before with paper towels.  Heat 2 tsp. of oil in it on medium.  Cook links until brown – about 10 minutes.  Drain on paper towels.

Recipe from America’s Test Kitchen “”Healthy Family Cookbook”