Lamb & Beef Apple Sage Breakfast Sausage

My head never stops thinking about food combinations. The odder the combinations the better, and I love the combinations I come up with. Since my Ray Peat inspired diet has me eating my proteins during the day for energy, and my carbs and any starches at night for sleep, it is hard for me to go straight into savory proteins sometimes first thing in the morning. I don’t feel like cooking something elaborate either first thing in the morning either, so anything I can prep the day before is best for me. These new sausages I created is a real nice start to a day! They are light from the apple, the meat is sweeter from the lamb and I love sage, and am happy to find good places for it. I have grown it on patio in a milk crate for at least fifteen years, the same plant!

To make these sausages put in a bowl, a half pound of each ground beef and lamb. Sprinkle across the meat a half teaspoon of baking soda and mix it lightly through the meat with a wire potato masher or your fingers. Adding the baking soda tenderizes the meat and keeps it from bunching up and getting rubbery and tough. While the baking soda sits for ten to fifteen minutes, mince the fresh sage finely, a tablespoon of it, and toss it into the bowl of meat, along with 1 teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of onion powder and mix together.

Next peel and core one apple, a sweeter type apple like a Gala, Fuji or my Envy apple. Grate the apple coarsely on a box cheese grater, and add it to the meat mixture, mixing it in. In a small bowl beat one egg and add it in as well.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and form the meat into 8 patties. Put the patties on the lined baking sheet and bake on the middle rack in the oven for ten minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and turn the patties over and bake 7 minutes more. Take the patties out of the oven and let them cool. At this point I froze seven of my patties, and finished cooking the eighth one for my meal.

To finish these patties, heat refined coconut oil in a pan and fry the patties on medium high heat if they are already defrosted, or medium heat if they are frozen. The goal here is to let the apple in the sausages caramelize in the pan to a golden brown. These are so very different than anything the store sells. These are like Christmas breakfast sausages! You could play with this recipe and add in some Ceylon cinnamon or Chinese 5-spice or maple sugar. I loved having my sausage with a smear of full-fat Greek yogurt topped with my homemade marmalade and some chopped salted macadamias. Having each bite with all 4 of these ingredients together was fantastic, just the thrill I was looking for!

“People under stress, or who have a thyroid deficiency, or who don’t eat enough protein, typically have elevated estrogen levels. The accumulation of the “essential fatty acids,” the polyunsaturated oils, in the tissues promotes the action of estrogen in a variety of ways, and this effect of diet tends to be cumulative, and to be self-accelerating.” -Ray Peat