Homemade potato sausage is one of the tastiest comfort foods in my book. Potato sausage is a European/Eastern European thing. My grandmother used to make a divine potato sausage; I could never have enough of it. This wasn't a regular thing, she'd only make it a couple of times a year which made the sausage that much more special. Unfortunately, I don't have my grandma's recipe but this one is very close and can easily have dozens of variations.
What is potato sausage made of?
Traditionally this sausage is made with potatoes, pork cracklings (shkvarki) or fried bacon bits, plenty of herbs, and seasonings. That's all there is to it. There many ways to make this sausage, some grind potatoes, some shred them. My variation is much simpler - I used diced potatoes. It works great and makes it a lot easier to make potato sausage.
Now, you can make this potato sausage even more interesting by adding chopped or ground meat. Beef (chuck), skinless chicken thighs, pork butt - all work great. I like adding fattier cuts as they add juiciness and flavor. But hey, if you want a healthier, leaner sausage, lean meat will work just fine.
Stuffing potato sausage
This is an old-school sausage, you can't stuff it using your modern sausage stuffer. If you do, and I've tried, the stuffing will release a ton of liquid under pressure. Not good! So you are better off stuffing it manually. Manual stuffing may seem like a daunting task but with a few basic tools, it's not that bad. I use the largest stuffing tube I have, a stainless steel funnel, and a LEM stuffing tube cleaning brush to push the stuffing through. This is a two-person job but it works well.
If you don't have those tools - no problem, use a spoon. Add a spoonful of the stuffing into the sausage casing and push in with your finger. That's how my grandma used to make it. It will take a bit longer, but it will still do the job.
How to cook potato sausage?
Cooking this potato sausage is a two-step process. This is great for several reasons.
One is that you don't need to worry when the sausage is cooked through. It doesn't matter what potatoes you use, how big the dices are, they all will cook through perfectly well. Adding raw meat to this sausage is also not a problem, it will cook through perfectly well. Finally, you can pre-cook this sausage, refrigerate and finish the second step of cooking whenever you are ready to serve, and it only takes minutes.
So, how do we do that? Simple. We first steam the sausage for an hour to perfectly cook all the way through. Then, we pan-sear it for a few minutes on each side to give it a beautiful color and extra flavor.
The second step is technically not required, you can just steam your potato sausage and eat it. This may be very beneficial to those who are looking for a healthier version of this potato sausage. But if you don't mind it, that second step will elevate the sausage to the next level. I highly recommend it.
This sausage is awesome cold too. After cooking, cool the sausage to room temperature, place it in a clean container and refrigerate. Over the next few days, just slice and eat cold. Or reheat, it's totally up to you.
Potato Sausage
Ingredients
- 2 lbs potatoes peeled and diced about 3/8"
- 1/2 lb bacon cooked and chopped or diced
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt or to taste
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 2 medium onions peeled and diced about 1/4"
- 3 cloves garlic peeled and pressed
- 1 cup chopped fresh herbs any one or a combination of parsley, dill, green onion or chives, basil, and cilantro.
- 1 lb ground or diced meat optional; add 1 tsp of kosher salt if adding the meat; you may use chuck, chicken thighs, pork butt, etc.
For stuffing
- 5-6 feet hog casings
Instructions
- Soak and rinse the hog casings.
- Place the diced potatoes and the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
- Stuff the potato mix into the hog casings, not too tightly, and tie them into two links of equal size. Prickle the top with a needle. Stuffing loosely and prickling will help prevent splitting during cooking.
- Shape each link into a spiral.
- Preheat the steamer. Steam both sausages if the size of the steamer allows, or one by one, for 60 minutes.
- Remove the cooked sausages from the steamer and set them aside.
- Preheat a skillet with a mix of 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp cooking oil. Sear the sausages over medium to medium-high heat until well-browned on each side, about a few minutes per side.
- Enjoy hot from the pan, with your favorite side dish or a salad.
Notes
Nutrition
Pam says
Hi,
This sounds amazing! I was thinking of trying it with ground rabbit (making it truly European), would you suggest and differences in seasonings? Also, I have an aversion to nutmeg is there anything you would suggest as a replacement?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Oh yeah, that sounds really delicious. My grandparents used to raise rabbits back in the day and I ate quite a bit of rabbit meat when I was a kid. Though, I've never tried rabbit meat in a potato sausage, but sounds pretty interesting. You can use any seasonings that you like personally. Rosemary, sage, and garlic work well with rabbit meat. I think all good quality meat needs is salt and pepper, and a little bit of seasoning that you like. You can't go wrong with that. Same with potatoes. Salt, pepper, then add some bacon bits and add some bacon fat to the cooking oil, whatever oil you prefer, it's going to give you a ton of flavor. You can combine any of those when cooking rabbit and potatoes. I love experiment. Good luck!
Dustin Sullivan says
Can I freeze these without cooking and can I smoke them without steaming?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Raw potatoes don't freeze well on account of having a high water content, so it's best to cook first before freezing. As far as smoking, I haven't tried with this sausage but it should work at higher temps, like 350F or above as potatoes take forever to cook through at low temps.
Randy says
Looks delicious. Can I use corned beef as the meat so it’s like a corned beef hash sausage? If so would I make changes to the other ingredients?
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
I would say, yes, you can. I assume it's cured and seasoned but not cooked. You'd have to reduce the amount of salt and maybe reduced some of the seasonings in this recipe but that will depend on the seasonings used to make corned beef. It's hard to say without knowing the specifics and tastes differ. I'd say experiment and make adjustments to your taste. That's what I do.
David Kaulback says
Hi Victor, I made your sausage like I mentioned I would , It was a lot easier than I thought it would be to stuff them in the casing. I made one long coil and the next casing I did in links just to try . I had a problem with the first coil in the steamer as it split, but the links did not, one started to. Loved the flavor I will give this another go. I said I was also going to smoke them in Hickory but I will do that next time when it is a full batch.
Any thoughts why it might have split, i am thinking maybe to big for the steamer as it almost completely covered the bottom . Too much pressure on the casing as it split all along the inside of the coil. Did not split until about 35 minutes in. Not sure how to post a picture here , will keep looking
Thanks
David from Nova Scotia
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Hi David,
thanks for the feedback. I will email you so you can send me the pics to attach to your comment.
As far as splitting goes, I've only experienced that when frying them, and that's OK, but not when steaming. My grandma used to prickle her potato sausages all over with a needle to help with splitting. I don't as I want the juices to stay in. I guess if you prickle just on top that should keep all the juices in.
Oh, don't stuff them too tightly, that will cause them to split too.
David Kaulback says
Thanks again for the help. Yes i will post how it turned out and pictures
David from Nova Scotia
David Kaulback says
Hi Victor
I just received your latest news letter . It has Potato Sausage recipe on it This looks fantastic, but my question is after I steam it for an hour, and than let it cool. do you think i can put this in the smoker ( Masterbuilt propane/charcoal )to add some misquite smoke ( or Hickery ) to them.
What do you think and / or have you done this
David from Nova Scotia
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Hi David, I haven't done this but I like your idea. Yes, you can absolutely do it. You can also brown on a skillet on both sides and then smoke. There are many great options here. Next time I make mine I will smoke it.
David Kaulback says
Hi Victor, thanks for the quick reply. One more question not that it will last that long by the sounds of it. But how long of a fridge life do you think this would have . Making this Friday with some sour cream and onion rolls. Just finished with a batch of Back Bacon ( you guys call it Canadian Bacon) . And the end cut offs are going in the sausage mix with some ground Italian sausage for some fat content .
Thanks again
David from Nova Scotia
Victor @ Taste of Artisan says
Hi David, I'd say you have 2-3 days without noticing much if any taste change and up to 5 days. I can eat it cold up to 3 days in the fridge and I reheat after that (days 4-5).
Oh man, that sausage will be the bomb. I'd love to see some pics.