Maple Apple Cranberry Breakfast Sausage

Recipes from the past:

• Salsa Verde Fresca
• Bacon and Beef Frittata
• Baked Patacones

When we place our order for a butchered hog, we typically have half of the ground pork left plain to give us some flexibility when cooking.  When I got ready to make breakfast this morning, I discovered we were out of breakfast sausage.  Luckily, we still have quite a bit of ground pork in the freezer, so I decided to try making my own recipe for breakfast sausage.  The results were so good, I may consider making my own from now on…

Gather Up:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 2 tbsp dried cranberries
• 1 small apple, peeled, cored and cut into eighths
• 1-1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 4~5 fresh basil leaves, minced
• 1 to 2 pieces whole dried mace
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp dried ground sage
• 1/2 tsp dried orange peel
• 1/2 tsp anise seed
• coconut oil as needed (about 1 tsp)

Place the garlic, cranberries, apple, and mace in a small food processor and process until they form a coarse paste.  You can process it less if you like a more rustic texture – I was looking to incorporate the mixture into the meat as much as possible though.

Heat a saute pan with a little coconut oil over medium heat, then toss in the apple mixture and heat for about 3 minutes.  While this is heating, mix the maple syrup, basil, and remaining spices into the pork.

Finally, add the apple mixture to the pork and mix it all together well.  From here, you can store it refrigerated for up to a couple of days or use it immediately in any way you would use breakfast sausage.  This morning, I made 3″ patties and simply pan-fried them for about 5 minutes per side over medium heat.