Homemade Sweet Italian Sausage (Mild or Hot) Recipe

Very easy to make and the spices are just right. I used all pork the first time and made pattys with a burger press (about 14 pattys). Hubby loves this recipe, but since he is a hunter, he is looking forward to a venison version, so stay tuned for the update. His gun is ready and waiting! Thanks Michellegambel, I love the spice combination you developed! :-)

This is awesome! I'll never buy premade Italian Sausage again. I left out the brown sugar - don't know if I missed it or not but I take out processed sugars of all my recipes. I did however, put raw honey in as a replacement (don't measure how much). I also added a bit of olive oil to it while mixing just to make it a little more moist. It worked!

( GREAT SAUSAGE )This sausage recipe is better tha any meat market in upstate NY. I started with a 7Lb. pork but and cut it into 2"x2" cubes with the fat , Put it into (2) 1 gal. zipper bags. The first bag I made mild . Bag #2 I added 2 Jalipenos diced up small. Put all your ingredients into each bag , zip and mix well to coat all sides of meat. Refrigerate , run through meat grinder with the fine grind blade and a casing attachment. Easy as that...

Absolutely fabulous. Best sweet italian sausage I've ever had! I made only one change and that was using just a pinch of salt, instead of a whole tablespoon. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. Next time I make this, I might try this with half ground turkey to see if I can't make it a little healthier. EXCELLENT!

This was a good base recipe. I used 4lbs of pork shoulder and then added 2 TBSP of toasted Fennel and a little more than 3 TBSP of brown sugar. I added a little more of each spice and a wise old Italian once told me to use 1 TBSP of salt per pound of pork. For 4 lbs I used 3 TBSP of kosher salt. This is the 2nd time I have made this and it was perfect. I also use 1TBSP of red wine vinegar per pound so I did use 4 TBSP for what I had. I also added fresh garlic, about 2 TBSP. The key to making sausage is keeping it cold. Cut shoulder into strips to feed into grinder. After you cut them stick them in a bowl and into the freezer for 30-45 minutes. Grind the sausage after that and once ground put back in a bowl for 30 minutes in the freezer without spices. Take out and flatten like a hamburger, cover the top with all of the spices and fold in. If you use the same bowl you used in the freezer the bowl will still be cold and you grind it again with the spices back into the bowl. Grinding again with the spices breaks it down a little more and blends the spices perfectly.

Perfect! After seeing this recipe I found some ground pork on sale at the store and so I had to try this recipe. It came out really well. Tasted just like Italian Sausage! I didn't have any ground fennel so I just used fennel seed. I think I used about a tablespoon but I didn't really measure that part. I used kosher salt, and 1 1/2 t of red pepper flakes. And I completely forgot the brown sugar, didn't seem to affect it at all. And to test it out I used the first pound in one of our family favorite recipe. Passed the test :) Thank you for this recipe.

Delizioso!! I love this recipe. I love it because I make it and there is no guessing what is in it or artificial ingredients. The flavor is authentic and can be tweeked to preference. I make 1/3 of the recipe and reduce everything by 1/3 with the exception of the fennel, brown sugar, oregano and thyme which I use the full amount. This really is a great recipe and I'm very happy to have it. For the best flavor let it ripen 24 hours before using.

I love making my own sausage because you're really in control of what goes into the food, and especially with sausage commercial products which are full of sodium and msg making pork, a relatively healthy meat into a heart attack waiting to happen. As for this recipe my husband is in love with it! I only had a pound of pork so I went ahead put all the spices called for in the recipe in a spice grinder to blend them evenly, makes about 7 tablespoons, put a third of that into the pound of pork, cooked it off and used in Lasagna Rollotini. Soooo good, even if I would let my husband go back to commercial sausage he wouldn't in a million years. Thanks so much for the recipe.

4 stars because too salty. I calculated to 8 servings as I only had 2 lbs of ground pork. I didn't have red wine vinegar so I used a white balsamic. Because that has a sweetness to it I didn't add the little bit of brn sugar. I scaled the crushed red pepper back a bit and used a full tsp of oregano and thyme. I mixed all this and then froze it to use for lasagna another time. Today, after I cooked it up and tasted it; I was bummed that it was so salty (and I like salty food). I'll make it again but add only 1/2 salt called for. Then this will be 5 stars I'm sure. I'm hoping all the other ingredients in my lasagna mellow it out ...guess I'll find out soon as I'm cooking it for dinner tonight. Update: I added sausage to 1/2 of my lasagna and did notice how salty that side tasted. But...the next day, after re-heating...it was fine (strange). Anyway, I'll still go w/half the salt next time. If it could use more after cooking, I can add it; sure can't take it out though.

This is a fabulous recipe; I substituted ground turkey for the pork, because I don't eat pork. Making my own turkey Italian sausage is so much cheaper than buying it from the market, and it also taste better. I like using it in my spaghetti sauce, my adult children just love it. I will be using it in sausage patties for Christmas morning breakfast. If you do not like the sugar in the sausage, just leave it out. I also sometimes use fresh garlic, basil and parsley. I use 4-5 garlic cloves, 2 tablespoon basil and 1/4 cup of parsley.

This one was awesome! The second time I made it I reduced the salt and the crushed red pepper to 2 tsp each, next time I will increase the amount of meat to 3 lbs for a little less intensity but it was very flavorful. For those new to sausage making, my tips would be: Cut your meat into strips, not cubes. That way it pulls itself through the grinder and very little pushing is required, Lay the strips out in a single (or close) layer on a sheet tray and sprinkle that with your spice mixture and vinegar - let the grinding process mix your sausage as much as possible. Chill meat thoroughly or partially freeze and never strain your grinder by pushing too hard. When mixing, toss it lightly until the color is consistent throughout (both spices and fats distributed). Makes a more tender sausage than heavy stirring or kneading. To get the last little bit of meat through the grinder, finish the grinding with a few slices of bread. It will clean out the remaining meat and won't hurt your finished sausage if any gets in. Have fun!

For a mild sweet italian sausage, the recipe was great. I only used two teaspoons of the red pepper flake. To make the mixing easier, I added 1/4 cup of ice water per pound of ground pork.

Great recipe. It's sad that Australia really doesn't have much for good Italian sausage, so I make this a few times a year. It goes well in my copycat recipe of Olive Garden zuppa toscana.

I love this recipe, this is my third year in a row making it. I am a duck hunter and I make about 20 pounds of Italian Sausage every season. I mix 50/50 duck and pork butt from Costco and follow this recipe to the letter using a recipe conversion calculator for the larger quantity. Use this sausage for everything from patties as shown, to ground for pasta sauce, to stuffed mushrooms, or meatballs.

tripled the recipe. used 1/3 pork

Bro, zero effort, max flavor.

Been looking for a turkey sausage faux Italian sausage and your recipe was fantastic. I tried the Oprah's chef recipe and it did not do it for me. I used Apple Cider vinegar, as I was out of red wine vinegar. I cut the red pepper in half, just our mild version and used caraway seeds instead of fennel. We plan on using for pizza. Thank you so much for posting.

I cut the salt back 30% and it is still very salty. I will try without any salt the next time.

How anyone could rate this Sausage recipe below 5 stars truly boggles my mind! The only changes I made were to decrease the crushed pepper to 1 tsp. and increase the brown sugar to 1 tsp. It is DELICIOUS... I'll never buy Johnsonville again!!!

Made it for lunch — zero leftovers.