Country Style Sausage with Fried Apples

Recipe Author: Conne Ward Cameron

Yes, you can make sausage. Yes.

This recipe is adapted from “American Cooking: Southern Style” by Eugene Walter. A nice recipe if you don’t have a meat grinder. You can hand chop the pork or use a food processor to finely chop the pork. Just be sure not to process it too much. You want to use a fatty cut like pork shoulder (not pork loin) so you get the ratio of fat to lean needed for sausage. Go to Riverview’s booth at your favorite farmers market and buy some pork shoulder. Come home and make sausage.

Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, finely chopped 2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves, chopped 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 2 pinches ground cayenne 3 tart apples 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preparation:

Put pork, sage, salt, nutmeg, pepper, and cayenne into a large bowl; gently mix together with your hands. Form mixture into 16 patties.

Fry patties in batches in a large skillet over medium heat until well browned, 3–4 minutes per side; transfer to a plate as done. Meanwhile, peel and core apples, then cut into 6 wedges each.

Cook apples in same skillet, turning as they brown, until just soft, 8–12 minutes. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over apples and cook, shaking skillet, until apples are glazed, about 5 minutes. Return sausage to skillet to warm through. Garnish with fresh sage.

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