# Bulk sausage from the grocery store has no flavor



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

[rant] Has anybody else noticed that store-bought bulk sausage (not link sausage) tastes like cardboard nowadays?

I remember the olden days when you could get a sausage patty that had major flavor.

Sausage in a biscuit was great. Sausage with eggs or pancakes was wonderful.

About the only options were with or without sage and hot pepper.

I have tried all types and brands of bulk sausage from the grocery store and they all lack any discernible flavor.

Maybe now bulk sausage is made out of soybean meal or it's "all lean" or something. I suppose it's healthier now, but only if you actually eat it.

Or maybe it's a scheme to get folks to stop eating sausage.

And, no, I don't make deer or wild hog sausage. [/rant]


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Look for a local Czech or German butcher or meat market. 

Grocery stores aren’t going to help you.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Back when we used to eat sausage, we thought the Jimmy Dean "Hot" variety of whole pork sausage was the bomb!


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## Oregon1986 (Apr 25, 2017)

That' because it's not real meat,just fillers! shhhhh!


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

My wife says that I have just lost my taste buds. 

She thinks that my eating hot pepper (habanero, ghost, and Carolina Reaper) on most everything has destroyed my taste buds. (I doubt that, but men do have fewer taste buds than women.)

If I have lost any taste buds, I figure old age contributed to it.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Cabin Fever said:


> Back when we used to eat sausage, we thought the Jimmy Dean "Hot" variety of whole pork sausage was the bomb!


Thats the only kind 'll eat - Kroger brand is the same thing in a different wrapper.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Try Neese's 
https://neesesausage.com/

"Every family has a few select recipes that span generations. Certain foods hold a special place at the dinner table and complete each family milestone and special occasion.
Neese’s Country Sausage has been sharing our food traditions with families just like yours for more than 100 years.

Our “special recipe” was created by J.T. Neese in the early 1900’s. He developed just the right proportions of ham and other pork cuts, and added just the right seasonings of salt, pepper, and sage (plus, a few “secret ingredients” that only Neese family members know about.)

We’re proud of the fact that we’ve been a part of your family for nearly 100 years. We’ve been there for holiday dinners, the big game, and breakfast on the first day of school.

Our products are local and familiar, raised on local North Carolina farms. They’re always fresh, never frozen. And our family never adds chemicals or preservatives."


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Neese's sounds great. Wish it was sold where I live. They have an 80 oz (5 lb) minimum for internet orders.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

Our local grocery makes their own sausage in the store. We like it. Plenty of flavor and "zing". It's my fave for making sausage gravy to smother my biscuits in the morning.


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Yvonne's hubby said:


> Our local grocery makes their own sausage in the store. We like it. Plenty of flavor and "zing". It's my fave for making sausage gravy to smother my biscuits in the morning.


I will check on my local grocery stores. I don't know if they do that or not.

Thanks (and thanks everybody) for the feedback.

I love this forum!


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

I was born and raised about 20 miles from where Neese's is made so I've eaten it for most of my life. It's recipe has never changed as far as I know.

There's always the option of making your own.
It's just ground meat and seasonings.

We eat a lot of deer sausage with some pork fat added to the mix.
https://search.aol.com/aol/search?q=sausage seasonings for homemade sausage&s_it=loki-tb-sb


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## CKelly78z (Jul 16, 2017)

We wait until the farm market gets local butchered whole hog sausage....Yum !


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## D-BOONE (Feb 9, 2016)

This is the one I found that taste closest to home made love it with a stack of pancakes smothered in maple syrup.


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## weaselfire (Feb 7, 2018)

If you don't like the sausage you're buying, buy something different.

Jeff


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## shawnlee (Apr 13, 2010)

Just make your own,...its simple easy and cheap and can be made just how you like it.


Minced garbage in store sausage is one step above dog food.


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## weaselfire (Feb 7, 2018)

shawnlee said:


> Minced garbage in store sausage is one step above dog food.


Two steps. Cat food is in between.

It also depends on the stores. Some butchers make sausage to order as well.

Jeff


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

I raise my own hogs, slaughter my hogs. Make my sausage. It Is Real! LOL


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

weaselfire said:


> If you don't like the sausage you're buying, buy something different.
> 
> Jeff


Wow! What wisdom! That never occurred to me. 

If you have nothing worthwhile to contribute to threads that you are reading, read something different.


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

My wife found out the best way to dispose of acorns was to feed bucket fulls to the pigs. Then later just let them sweep the ground.
That there is some good tasting pork.


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## weaselfire (Feb 7, 2018)

NRA_guy said:


> Wow! What wisdom! That never occurred to me.
> 
> If you have nothing worthwhile to contribute to threads that you are reading, read something different.


You said you tried all types of bulk sausage from your grocery store. I'm supposed to assume you tried made to order sausage? Sausage from other stores? Or meats other than sausage?

If you don't want answers, don't ask questions.


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## TriHonu (Jun 8, 2011)

shawnlee said:


> Just make your own,...its simple easy and cheap and can be made just how you like it.


+1

I don't eat a lot of sausage, so I had always bought it. I few years back I bought a copy of the book "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" at the thrift store. Just for fun, I picked up a pork butt and made a couple types of sausage. Simple to do...


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

Just add a bit of sage, garlic, red pepper flakes to the bulk sausage before you cook it. You can look on-line for a recipe for breakfast sausage to get the proportions to start with. Then adjust for taste.

I just cooked a corned beef and cabbage dinner for St Paddy's. Much to my surprise, the corned beef was tasteless. Not even too salty. Not enough salt and no spices at all.

I can cure a great corned beef, if I want to take the time to do it, but the pickling spice ends up being quite pricey. I think that is the problem with store bought foods that once tasted good: the spices and herbs keep going up in cost, so the commercial manufacturers just replace the spices with salt. No more of the flavor you grew up with.


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## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Thanks, oregon woodsmoke. I have tried spicing up my sausage, and it definitely tastes better.

I think food factories cater to the average eater, and they figure that us weird folks who like spicy food can always add spices. But if they spice it up, buyers cannot take spices out. Folks who find it too spicy will just not buy it.

The exception seems to be garlic flavoring. I like a little garlic OK, but everything I buy is LOADED garlic powder nowadays. It has gotten really annoying to me.


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