Your basic breakfast sausage ingredients are (by weight) 8 parts salt to 2 parts black pepper to 1 part sage. I mix together 8 oz. salt, 2 oz. black pepper and 1 oz sage, then use the proportion of ½ oz. of mixed seasoning to 1 lb. of pork, so for 5 lbs. I'd use 2½ oz. of seasoning. The addition of small amts of ginger, nutmeg and thyme adds variation of flavor that would be enhancements; your choice on the heat of the red pepper (makes it a hot breakfast sausage vs. regular). I personally save the hot red pepper for hot Italian sausages; I'll make up a little to add to the sauce along with sweet Italian sausages. Same thing as some people like hot pepper sauce on their scrambled eggs, some people like ketchup, some people like 'em plain - it's all personal choice up to you.
Anyways, I digress, lol! The advantage of using weight measurement vs. volume measurement on all your seasonings is that you can proportion the seasoning amounts to vary by the weight of the meat used. That recipe is for 5lbs., it's half of the recipe for 10lbs. What if you had 38.69 lbs. of meat to use? Or 4.3lbs. or 8.1 lbs.? It'd be tricky to be able to figure out the amounts for each seasoning. If you have a scale to weigh out the amount of meat, then it's simple to weigh out the amount of seasonings (use the recipe for 10 lbs., weigh out what each volume amount would be, then weigh out the total mixed). Then, you can re-proportion the amount of seasoning used by the proportion of meat used. So, say by the above examples, you have 38.69 lbs. That is 3.869 x the amt (38.69 ÷ 10) for 10 lbs. - multiply each ing. weight by that factor and you'll have the correct proportion of each seasoning. Likewise 4.3 lbs. would be .43 times the weight of each ingredient, and 8.1 lbs. would be .81 times the weight, etc. An inexpensive digital postal scale works great for these measurements.
This is how you must figure correct seasoning proportions in the meat room, as you want to use every bit of meat garnered for sausage, and that can vary widely based on trim and rewrap, etc... just like you wouldn't throw away 2 handfuls of pork off a pork butt just to make your recipe come out to exactly 5 lbs. of meat so your ingredients come out right. You have to have a way to re-proportion your seasonings to fit exactly the the amount of meat you have or you'll have sausage that is always inconsistent - either too much or too little seasoning, and that's bad for business (just like it'd be bad with your family.. "It's to hot!" or "There's no flavor!").
As you get your recipes to exactly where you want them, then I'd recommend you follow the above so regardless of how much meat you use, the flavor is always the same.
Pops §§
