Once you’ve made your own sausage a few times, I can almost guarantee you won’t go back to store bought links again. Making your own sausage lets you control the meat you use, the amount and type of fat, preservatives, as well as the endless variations of herbs, spices and additional flavorings. It’s even easy to customize a single batch by dividing the base ingredients and adding different flavors. For instance, in this recipe, you may want half of the batch mild and the other half spicy; simply add a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes and maybe a few tablespoons of minced jalapeños to half of the mixture and you have two versions of links. With the slight color difference, and the fact that these won’t have casings, you’ll be able to tell the difference just by looking at them.

Apple Smoked Breakfast Links

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

Cooking spray for grates

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined. Place mixture in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Scoop mixture into Smokehouse Jerky Gun tamping down mixture with a spatula to avoid air bubbles. Affix the pepperoni stick tip to the gun. Squeeze links directly on to lubricated Big Chief Smoker grates, cutting to desired lengths. Cover drip tray with foil. Preheat Big Chief Smoker for 15 minutes. Fill chip tray with Smokehouse Apple Wood Chips and place racks in smoker. Smoke 1 hour using 1-2 trays of wood chips. Finish links in a preheated 350º oven, cooking 12 minutes or fry in a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat 5-6 minutes.