13) Sugar-Free Sausage? An Illusive Dream
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Hey folks, back again, this time because i thought we needed to explain ourselves! Yes, there IS sugar in most of our sausages and I must tell you our story.
The folks who process our meat and mix our sausage make it with packaged seasoning mixes. None of us imagined anyone would choose to add sugar to sausage. Once we realized it's in there, we asked about a sugar-free option, only to learn there is none!!! The only possibility is to choose a "custom blend" claiming an exorbitant cost. Next, we began searching for other companies' mixes, and >guess what< everyone adds sugar. Very frustrating!
But offering healthy food is part of our Lick Skillet mission, and we were determined to "get the sugar out." Enter Chef Alex!!
So, we were about to send off animals the following day, and we don't do that very often, and it would be a few months before we'd get sausage again. I got a rushed text around 8 AM: "Get me out five pounds of ground pork to thaw!"
He was trying to get finished with meetings at UT, and rushed home to spend a few hours working on his sugar-free sausage recipe. And before you know it, clouds of onion, sage, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper were flying around in the air, and meat was sizzling in multiple skillets. The farm kitchen smelled AMAZING! Every few minutes he'd bring a new sample over to us (one of my sons found his way over to help taste-test), and honestly, each one was a little tastier than the previous.
We struggled over how spicy to make it, since we could only manage a single sugar-free offering this time – wanting to see how it works, how it tastes, and if people buy it. So we finally settled on a medium-spice mix and made up enough of it for 100 pounds.
Folks, this was written in fall of 2019. We have been unable to keep this up and are still trying to find sugar-free options for you but it's quite problemmatic! Send your name to me (shannon@lickskillet.farm) and Ill be sure to email you when we get in something that's sugar-free again!!!