Italian Sausage mistake

[Fred Schroeder]

Last night I made a pizza with carmelized onion, garlic and Italian style (so I thought) Sausage. I have had good luck with with some Turkey Italian Sausages from major poultry companies which taste pretty good, especially when you need to keep the calories down. But I used Trader Joes Chicken Italian Sausage and it turned out to be real dud. I have had good luck with other chicken/turkey Italian sausages from Trader Joes, but this product does not work. Real Italian sausage with pork is of course the best.

[GianniFocaccia]

Thanks for the tip, Fred.

[texassourdough]

Here in Texas I have found some Italian sausages made at local butcher shops that are particularly wonderful, including chicken! I strongly prefer hot to mild.

[Dino_Pizza]

Fred, what a coincidence.
I had a pizza fest over MemDay and decided to bbq and serve that exact same Traders chx Italian sausage cut up with toothpicks as a pool-side pass around. Like you said, "a real dud". After 1 taste, no one had anymore. It was noticeably bla, lacked any flavor and a waste of 15 minutes bbq'ing and cutting.
Traders does change things up every few months, hopefully it'll get better.

[DaveDQ]

Originally Posted by texassourdough

Here in Texas I have found some Italian sausages made at local butcher shops that are particularly wonderful, including chicken! I strongly prefer hot to mild.

That's a nice thing to have locally. I grew up in an area that had local shops (RI) but now that I'm in NC I would have to travel to Whole Foods to get something similar.

I would agree with Trader Joe's sausage too. I made the pork Italian once and wasn't very impressed at all. One thing that I do is go with the sweet Italian instead of the mild or hot. to me that usually has more flavor.

[Fred Schroeder]

I have actually got some Trader Joe Sausages that were pretty good, especially if you are on a diet. Their Andouille Chicken was very good for Southern dishes, albeit, not nearly as good as the real thing and the Kielbasa was was very good also. If weight is not an issue, I always go for the real thing.
I have tried making Pizza dough with 1/3 whole grain flour and it just doesn't do the job. I like whole wheat bread, but my Pizza Dough has to be the real thing.

Fred

[texassourdough]

Hi Fred!

I have decided that, as a general policy, I would rather have less of the real thing and have more flavor than to have more of ....something mediocre.

I make whole wheat pizzas...except I call them pitas!

We are lucky in Texas to have a lot of Germanic/Czech/Polish heritage that established great sausage makers long ago. Great kielbasa, pretty good andouille (prefer Cajun), and amazingly good Italian! And...some of the Mexican meat markets make pretty good sausage too.

Wimpy sausage is "criminal"
Jay

[Fred Schroeder]

I prefer whole Wheat Pitas to the other kind. I don't prefer whole wheat pasta, but on most of my dishes, it works justs as well and I am not a texture guys like most of my friends who give me a bad time about whole wheat Pasta.

Fred

[100million]

What we use is Just ground pork sausage and we add Fennel and Maple Syrup,,,,, then we fry it about 3/4-7/8 in a pan then cool then top pies with hmmmmmmmm Good
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Fred Schroeder]

I have tried adding Fennel and it works good if the sausage is good. I never thought about using Maple Syrup.

Fred