What Sets Breakfast Sausage Apart From Other Sausages?

Although you can enjoy any kind of sausage at breakfast — Italian, andouille, chorizo, or even bologna elevated the Southern way — only one variety carries its eponymous moniker. Breakfast sausage, familiar in the link form rolling around complimentary hotel breakfast steam trays everywhere, or as the patty in your morning SEC, just tastes more like, well, breakfast. And, unlike those other kinds, breakfast sausage would come as a bit of a surprise on a dinner plate, considering how synonymous with hangovers, mornings-after, and rush hours it is.

Breakfast sausage is typically made from pork, and it is usually raw, or "fresh," meaning that, unlike many cured or encased meats, it must be cooked. "What sets breakfast sausage apart, in particular the thin circle-shaped sausage, is its cooking efficiency," Tamer Kassis, owner of the well-loved Bonafide Delicatessen and Cafe in Brooklyn, New York, told Chowhound. According to Kassis, this type of sausage only needs a few minutes of searing on each side. "It also works better in sandwiches because of its shape, texture, and taste."

Mass-produced, artisanal, and family breakfast sausage recipes in particular will vary. Some homemade breakfast sausages take on a more unique flavor thanks to sweet seasonings, for example. But most preparations will share primary elements when coloring inside the lines. Those breakfast sausage shapes are pretty standard across categories, for one. Just as you can identify a hot dog from a mile away, so too did the aforementioned breakfast sausage descriptions likely bring specific images to mind. Saltiness is also a given. And a touch of sage is often the common denominator that pushes a sausage onto the a.m. menu.

Although it is typically obscured on ingredient labels as something like "flavorings," sage is very commonly included in breakfast sausages, and it is likely the standout ingredient that gives each bite its sense of place and time. Our everything guide to cooking with sage notes the aromatic herb's presence in this case, spanning cuisine categories. That precise versatility is also one of the qualities that makes breakfast sausage so customizable, whether you're having it flat on a sandwich with American cheese, or served in cylinders with scrambled eggs and a cloak of sriracha.