Our favorite way to use wild hog meat is in this homemade Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage (you can use domestic pork). Wild hog breakfast sausage tastes like lean pig meat, which we flavor to make it juicy! It’s the perfect pork for making breakfast sausage! Use it in breakfast recipes, casseroles, sausage gravy, patties, and sausage links!
Wild Hog Breakfast Sausage
As a homestead family, we raise our beef and chickens and hunt venison when it’s in season. However, there is a massive population of wild hogs where we live, so we eat wild pig meat for pork.
We have many wild hogs roaming around our property! They are not native to the US and are very distractive for farmland and wild habitats, costing around 2.5 billion annually. So why buy pork if the better quality is available and you are helping the environment by harvesting it? Wild hog meat is safe when properly cooked and way better than pork from the store. It’s free from hormones or additives, and the hogs are free-range and eat what they need in a natural environment!
We process our own wild hog meat because my husband is skilled and knows the signs of any disease or parasites when in the meat, but if you are unsure, ask a hunter or someone experienced for advice.
Wild Boar Meat
One thing to remember about wild boars is that they are uncastrated male pigs, so they can give off a powerful odor in the meat and lard when fully grown. So, we mainly process young males or females for eating because, trust me, older boars smell! My mom compares old boar meat to the smell of urine—it’s really that strong!
Jimmy Dean’s Breakfast Sausage
The Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage is my favorite!
I love fresh pork sausage with ingredients I can use from my pantry!
So, when my husband processed lots of wild hog meat one time, I wanted to recreate my favorite breakfast sausage. I used a breakfast sausage recipe from a Mennonite cookbook as a guide and added more spices as I compared theirs by smell to mine.
After each addition of spices, I would fry a little in a skillet to see if the flavors match and try again.
I was pretty confident in my copycat attempt, but it didn’t work with Venison. So, I paused a blog post to wait until I was satisfied.
My husband recently processed two more wild pigs, so I was at it again. I followed my previous copycat recipe and started tweaking things.
The Jimmy Dean sausage had sweeter notes, so I started smelling some spices I thought would be it. Sure enough, ginger and white pepper were very close!
This breakfast sausage recipe is a must if you love the breakfast sausage seasoning in the Jimmy Dean brand ground pork!
How To Season Breakfast Sausage:
This is a mildly spicy breakfast sausage! Mix all of the ingredients into the ground meat using your hands.
- Spices- salt, black pepper, white pepper, ground ginger, cardamon, sage, ground mustard, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, chili pepper flakes, and coriander are all of the spices used for seasoning homemade breakfast sausage.
- Brown sugar- adds sweetness and delicious flavor!
- Water- tenderizes the ground meat and makes it easier to package.
- Additional Fat- by time we get to grinding wild hog there is lots of trimming and cutting to do. Since a bit of fat sits under the skin of wild hogs, my husband will trim off the fat and we’ll get that into the slow cooker to render while we finish trimming the meat. That way I’ll have some fresh lard in time for seasoning the ground meat. If you don’t have lard, use oil or palm fruit shortening to make the meat juicy.
Tip: use disposable kitchen gloves and a large mixing bowl to mix the breakfast sausage well.
How To Make Breakfast Sausage from Wild Hogs:
Breakfast sausage is basically well-seasoned ground meat. Its savory spices are the perfect combination for breakfast dishes and a good way to start a morning packed with protein! I use an electric meat grinder to grind up the meat and run the hog meat twice through the biggest ground hole attachment for very tender meat. Once you mix the ground meat with the spices, package the meat into 1-pound bags for easy use. We use a meat packaging bag sealer to seal the bags.
Do I Need To Add Fat To Wild Hog Sausage?
Wild hogs are leaner than domestic pigs. Since breakfast sausage has a good amount of fat content, I do add pork fat that I render from wild hogs. However, you could add lard, palm fruit shortening, or sunflower oil to the sausage mixture for juicier meat.
How To Cook Breakfast Sausage:
Ground breakfast sausage is best when cooked in a cast-iron skillet for sausage gravy, patties (with a little extra grease), or just scrambled. You can also add it to a breakfast casserole or form it into sausage links and bake them in the oven. We mainly brown it in a skillet and then use it for our favorite recipes! Freeze cooked and crumbled hog meat in freezer baggies for pizza toppings or quick casseroles.
Tips for Making Homemade Breakfast Sausage:
- Run the hog meat through the meat grinder twice. This makes a superfine pork mixture.
- Fry a small piece of the breakfast sausage to see if you need to adjust any seasonings.
- To form sausage patties, make them 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter. Cook them in oil for 3-4 minutes per side.
- If you are making breakfast sausage from scratch, trimming the meat can be a long job in itself. You can refrigerate the chunks of meat or the seasoned ground meat and package the next day. The seasoned breakfast sausage mixture can sit in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- You can encase the breakfast sausage into casings for sausage links.
- Use a large grinding plate on your meat grinder so the meat doesn’t get stuck; otherwise, chill your meat in the freezer for small grinder plates.
- Substitute brown sugar for maple syrup.
Recipes To Use Up Breakfast Sausage:
Here are delicious ways to use up ground breakfast sausage!
Wild Hog Breakfast Sausage Recipe
Equipment
- Extra Large Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 24 lbs Ground Hog (with some fat trimmings)
Seasonings:
- 1 cup salt
- 1/3 cup black pepper
- 1/4 cup ground sage
- 1/3 cup ground mustard
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
- 5 Tbsp coriander
- 5 cups water
- 1 3/4 cups oil*
- 3 Tbsp ground ginger
- 1/2 Tbsp cardamon
- 4 Tbsp white pepper
Instructions
Directions:
Run the fresh hog meat through a medium-sized grinder plate of your meat grinder. Repeat one more time for a finely ground meat mixture.- Add the seasonings, water, and oil, and mix everything well with your hands.
- Package the meat mixture into 1-pound meat bags and seal. Store in a deep freezer for up to 12 months.
To Cook:
- Preheat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add 2 Tbsp of oil and crumble the breakfast sausage. Cook over medium heat until no longer pink and nicely browned (about 10-15 minutes).
Notes
- Oil** can be substituted with lard or palm fruit shortening. I have used sunflower oil before but prefer lard rendered from the wild hog. This adds juicy flavor.
Nutrition per serving
