647’s Breakfast Burger

Ingredients:

647’s Breakfast Sausage

4 slices American cheese

8 slices bacon, cooked to crispy

4 English muffins, toasted

4 eggs, cold from the fridge

Ketchup

Before you start, have the cheese and hot cooked bacon ready and close at hand. While the sausage is cooking, put the English muffins in to toast. While the sausage is resting, in a second skillet, cook the eggs to your liking; try to keep them as compact as possible. (Using fresh, cold eggs, straight from the fridge, will help to keep them from spreading out.) If you scramble the eggs, try not to break them up. Instead, fold them, omelet-style, into a square or triangle about the same circumference as your English muffins.

To serve: Place the sausage patties on the muffin bottoms, top with the cheese, bacon, eggs, and ketchup. Top with other halves of muffins. Serve immediately.

YIELD: 4 burgers

647’S BREAKFAST SAUSAGE:

There’s no way around it. You have to use a grinder for this recipe because it is the best way to get all the flavors to emulsify. The fatback is important as well to keep the sausage juicy.

Ingredients:

8 ounces (225 g) pork butt, trimmed and cut into strips

6 ounces (170 g) fatback, rind removed, cut into strips

2 teaspoons (10 g) kosher salt

2 teaspoons (4 g) black pepper, coarsely ground

2 fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped

1/4 teaspoon (0.4 g) dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon (0.5 g) ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon (0.6 g) ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon (0.3 g) red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon (20 g) maple syrup

3 tablespoons (45 ml) cold water

Vegetable oil, for cooking

Method:

Freeze the pork and fatback until stiff but not frozen, about 45 minutes. In a large bowl, toss the meat and spices together. Using the fine grinder disk, grind according to the technique in chapter 1 (see page 15). Mix in the maple syrup and cold water.

Divide the sausage mixture into 4 even portions and shape into patties about 3 1/2 inches (8.5 cm) across.

Heat a skillet over high heat until medium hot. If you have an infrared thermometer, the skillet should register at least 400°F (200°C). Or test by brushing on a bit of oil. When the skillet just barely begins to smoke, it is ready.

Brush oil onto the skillet and cook the patties for 2 minutes on each side. Remove from the skillet and let patties rest for 5 minutes. YIELD: 4 patties

647’s Breakfast Burger