The Ultimate Breakfast Sausage Taste Test

Along with bacon, breakfast sausage is an indispensable part of any hearty breakfast.
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Along with bacon, breakfast sausage is an indispensable part of any hearty breakfast. Traditionally made from pork, breakfast sausage links can be found everywhere from a traditional English breakfast to chafing dishes at hotel buffets. We shopped around and found 11 varieties of breakfast sausage at local supermarkets , and put them all -- pork, chicken, turkey, and vegetarian alike -- to the test.

Breakfast sausages are unlike all other sausages, largely thanks to the spice mix. The spices are usually heavier on the sage and black pepper than other sausages, and the flavors work incredibly well with everything else that usually finds its way onto a heaping breakfast plate, like eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, and maple syrup. One of the great things about breakfast is that it's comforting, delicious, and a combination of delicious flavors, and breakfastsausage really is an integral part of it.

5) Applegate Naturals Chicken and Sage
Click Here to see The Complete Results from The Ultimate Breakfast Sausage Taste TestThis natural offering could have used a pinch more salt, but had a nice, peppery flavor, a hint of spiciness, and a subtle sweetness. The lumpy appearance and texture was a bit unappealing to some, however.Serving Size: 3 linksCalories: 100Fat: 7 gramsSodium: 350 milligramsCholesterol: 45 milligramsPrice: $6.99/7 ounces Photo Credit: Jane Bruce
4) Jones Hearty Pork Sausage Links
These fine-ground, giant all-natural sausages were quite greasy, but for those who are OK with that were was a lot to like here. The salt and seasoning wasn’t overpowering (but there were definitely hints of sage), and the pork flavor really came through. "Tastes like the inside of a Chinese wonton, in a good way," one said, while another felt that "all you can taste are salt and fat."Serving Size: 1 linkCalories: 210Fat: 19 gramsSodium: 320 milligramsCholesterol: 35 milligramsPrice: $4.99/12 ounces Photo Credit: Jane Bruce
3) Parks Brown 'n Serve
Click Here to see The Complete Results from The Ultimate Breakfast Sausage Taste TestWe didn’t have extremely high hopes for these, especially after seeing their weird beige color out of the box, but they ended up doing quite well. "This is what I look for in a breakfast sausage," one taster said, and most others agreed. While some complained that these were a bit too oily, others enjoyed the good balance of spices and sage, and one noted that it "reminds me of Christmas and fireplaces." These were also the least expensive of the bunch.Serving Size: 2 linksCalories: 150Fat: 13 gramsSodium: 330 milligramsCholesterol: 40 milligramsPrice: $1.99/6 ounces Photo Credit: Jane Bruce
2) Banquet Brown 'n Serve
Many complimented the well-balanced seasoning and soft, juicy texture of these pork links. "These taste indulgent, not just like fat," one taster noted. That softness bordered on squishiness for some tasters, but with an even spice mix and satisfying overall experience, most tasters couldn’t find much to complain about.Serving Size: 3 linksCalories: 180Fat: 16 gramsSodium: 410 milligramsCholesterol: 30 milligramsPrice: $2.49/6.4 ounces Photo Credit: Jane Bruce
1) Jimmy Dean Original
Click Here to see The Complete Results from The Ultimate Breakfast Sausage Taste TestThe classic pork offering from the master of breakfast sausage was a near-universal favorite. Our panel found the texture to be soft, plump, and juicy, and the flavor meaty, not overly salty, and with just the right amount of sage, spices, and pepper. "I could eat this every morning and be very happy," said one taster. We’d advise against it, though: this offering might have tasted the best, but it also had the most fat and cholesterol of anything we tried.Serving Size: 3 linksCalories: 260Fat: 24 gramsSodium: 510 milligramsCholesterol: 50 milligramsPrice: $5.99/9.6 ounces Photo Credit: Jane Bruce

In order to prepare these sausages, we pan-fried them all according to the directions on the box, in order to keep the playing field even. Some required a little bit of oil, some a layer of water, and others just a bare nonstick pan. But at the end of the cooking process, we were confident that all of these sausages had been prepared as flawlessly as they could have been. Then we brought in the tasters.

Our panel was told to the judge the sausages on the following criteria: smell, taste , texture, grease factor, balance of salt to fat to sage to other spices to pepper, and overall enjoyment factor. In all, we sampled 11 brands: five pork, two chicken, two turkey, one mixture of pork and turkey, and one vegetarian. While they all tasted different, they all hit that "breakfast sausage" spot, and some were much better than others.

-Dan Myers, The Daily Meal

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