The Ultimate Ranking Of Popular Breakfast Sausage Brands

Breakfast sausage makes the perfect accompaniment to any brunch you're whipping up. The only trouble is that there are so many breakfast sausages, it's hard to know which will impress your guests and which brand might leave you with a whole pile of cold, untouched sausage. I set out to find you the answer and take one decision off your planning plate while pulling your favorite brunch recipes.

I sampled as many breakfast sausage brands as I could get my hands on, ranking them according to flavor, texture, and ingredients. When possible, I opted for already cooked sausages, but there were a few brands with no such option. In those cases, I purchased what was available to me, cooking them according to the package instructions.

While many of the sausages I found were pork based, others had some turkey, chicken, or even veggie substitutes. No matter the make up, I aimed to find sausages with an enjoyable texture and flavor with ingredients that weren't overly weighed down by additives.

When I looked at the ingredients for meaty sausage brands (as opposed to some of the vegan ones), I didn't anticipate seeing soy protein, but on the Banquet Brown 'N Serve sausage box, it was listed right alongside pork and mechanically separated turkey. The ingredients also listed BHA and BHT.

Beyond food additives though, the biggest problem with Banquet's breakfast sausage was its color. There's no need to adjust your brightness settings: That gray-brown was actually the color of these sausages, making them feel like nothing that belongs on a table, let alone on a breakfast plate. Banquet might not be winning any beauty contests, but it was also losing major points for texture with a surprisingly squishy feel. With the presence of soy protein, it felt oddly like a meat alternative. In terms of taste, if the color was gray, the flavor was too; it offered little more than a small attempt at a savory taste. In every measure I considered, Banquet missed the mark.

Normally, I turn to Butterball, home to the turkey expert hotline, when I'm looking for my Thanksgiving turkey, but it didn't dawn on me that the brand would also serve sausage links, so I was interested to try these. I wondered if a turkey sausage would hold its own against a pork one. The sausages were made of predictable ingredients like turkey, but also less obvious inclusions like citric acid and vinegar.

Like Banquet, which also had turkey among its ingredients, when cooked, the Butterball sausages were a little gray, and while I was hopeful that these might offer something a little bit tastier, the absence of pork leads to a wholly unappetizing texture, something similar to a mixture of a soy based meat alternative and bread. The links may have been turkey, and I like turkey, but I couldn't even finish the bite I tried. For flavoring, I got a whole lot of pepper that attempted to cover up the lack of flavor from the turkey and the offensive texture. For offenses in texture, Butterball is better left to your Thanksgiving turkey.

In this tasting, when possible, I opted for sausages that just needed to be warmed and were otherwise already cooked through, but Smithfield didn't have such an option. Since they'd be freshly cooked, I figured that would translate to a better flavor, and they even looked appetizing before that first bite. Even as a fresh sausage, Smithfield leaves a lot to be desired.

Instead, Smithfield had a very odd flavor that reminded me of something of a turned red wine, closer to vinegar. When I dug into the ingredients, I did, indeed, find vinegar, the likely culprit. In addition to the strange flavor, there was an odd dryness I did not anticipate from such a freshly cooked sausage. As a result of this flavor and texture, I placed Smithfield very low on the list.

It's not uncommon for some frozen meals to recommend something other than cooking in the microwave, but it's very uncommon to not include instructions for it at all, but Beyond does just that. I found this baffling, until I opened the package to discover that the patties become very soft very fast if left out on the counter for even a few minutes. It's basically the texture of raw meat, so these should definitely go right from the freezer to your stovetop. Seriously, leave them in the freezer while your pan preheats; that's how fast they get soft.

No microwave instructions in sight, I took to my stove to follow the instructions. I'll freely admit that I needed to attempt to cook these twice. The first time, I didn't use any oil, simply following the directions on the package, and it smoked up so badly, the fire alarm in my house almost went off. The second time went much smoother, and I think the olive oil played a major role. In any case, it turned out no matter how I cooked it, this wasn't going to be an enjoyable sausage patty. The texture was quite springy and rubbery, and it felt a little bit like play meat like the kind my son uses in his play kitchen. Flavor wise, it tasted like meat that was trying to be meat, while not actually being meat. Which was exactly what it was. For flavor, texture, and preparation, this one earns a very low spot in my overall preferences, and my least favorite meat alternative.

In my years as a vegan, I learned that there were some brands that I could pretty consistently rely on to offer a quality product. MorningStar was one of my go-tos, especially in the not-chicken nugget world. The only problem with MorningStar is that as soon as you look at all of the ingredients listed, it begins to get a little less appetizing, and admittedly, that was definitely the issue here. It's hard to come back from a list that includes soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, maltodextrin, and methylcellulose, amongst a lengthy paragraph of ingredients.

MorningStar's breakfast sausages were mostly soy protein and wheat gluten patties, and I was never a fan of this combination of replacement meat products, so I wasn't at all optimistic about how this would feel and taste. Now, as a non-vegan, it's hard for me to go back to some meat replacement products because they just taste so far off, and this was one of those instances.

The texture was rather crumbly and tried so hard to be something like an animal protein, but instead felt like a muffin or bread that has too much different texture in each bite. The flavors were very strange, with so many different aspects coming together to create a really ambiguous, not at all identifiable taste. The taste was trying so hard to persuade you that it's something like a pork that tasted like a confused meat-bread. Largely due to the texture and taste, MorningStar ranks very low in my overall rankings, even if I was able to finish the bite I tried.

I once loved an Impossible burger, even claiming that they were just as good as a regular beef burger, but in reality, vegans love Impossible burgers because they're the closest thing that feels like meat, while still being close enough for non-vegans. This close-but-not-close-enough was more off putting than I anticipated.

Heating up the patties, I was surprised by how much grease came off on the plate, even though the box did not recommend cooking them on a paper towel. If cooking these sausages, I would definitely advise paper towel use in the future. In terms of flavor, if you were to take the actual meat taste away from a breakfast sausage and leave just the sage and other common spices, you'd have something similar to what the Impossible breakfast sausage tastes like. After I gave it a few minutes, I also discovered a strange and artificial aftertaste. These are nothing like the quality of the Impossible burger I remember, and while the aftertaste might be able to be covered in a more complete breakfast, when I ate the sausage patty on its own, that lingering taste is hard to get anything from but the ick.

Bettergoods is a rather new brand to me, but the back of the label indicates that it was distributed by Walmart, so I imagined it to be a private label to the big box store. Bettergoods' sausages were labeled as chicken and maple breakfast sausage patties, so it wasn't surprising to see maple syrup as one of the ingredients alongside chicken meat.

When removing the sausages from the microwave, by far the most prominent smell was maple syrup. Have you ever walked into a McDonald's for breakfast, in that special time between McDonald's breakfast ends and lunch begins? The smell of McGriddles wafts through the air, and that's what was going on here, too. While not necessarily the primary flavor of many breakfast sausages, for these chicken and maple sausages, it certainly was. I assumed there was a way it would play below the sausage flavor, but since the sausage is mostly mild chicken, that maple syrup plays a much bigger role. Instead, these taste like an overly drenched pancake, dressed by a syrup loving toddler.

While some might find a place for these sausages on the breakfast table, the syrup flavor was just too strong for me. As a result, they fell in the middle of the pack. I can appreciate the creativity, but these were a bit much.

Johnsonville, like Smithfield, did not have a pre-cooked option available for me to purchase, so I went with the stove top required method here, as well. Unlike Smithfield, however, these sausages were much better.

I'll admit that because they were being cooked fresh, I expected that they would outperform most of my favorites, but even these couldn't surpass the top performers. For flavor, Johnsonville sausages reminded me of smaller versions of the typical Johnsonville sausage that you'll have on a brat bun. Different from a brat (and all breakfast sausages I tried) these had a whole lot of texture to them. The flavor wasn't anything unexpected, and they definitely tasted like some of the less processed sausages out there, but with the odd texture, they lost some serious footing in my overall ranking.

Don't stare too long at the ingredients list for Great Value sausages. Though the first ingredient is pork, there's also a vague flavoring listed alongside dextrose, citric acid, propyl gallate, and BHT. The variety I tried was pretty simple in instructions, and prominently advertised just how microwaveable it was on the front of the packaging.

The flavoring of the sausage was pretty basic; it reminded me of the flavoring most sausages you get at a fast food restaurant for their sausage patty. It had a sort of rubbery feel to it, but I especially noticed how greasy it was. In pulling it out of the microwave, there was quite the amount of steam, and the plate was exceptionally hot, all feeling like it pointed back to a strong presence of grease. While the flavor wasn't so bad, the greasiness was what makes this one a little off putting. If not for the texture, grease, and ingredients, it would have ranked higher.

The ingredients in al fresco's country style breakfast sausage were very simple and included chicken, water, salt, sugar, spices, sage, and thyme. If you enjoy the seasonings of breakfast sausage but pork isn't your favorite, these will be a good alternative.

Just because they're chicken, however, doesn't mean these were lacking in flavor. Since the chicken was on the mild side, the thyme and sage came across very strongly, and accounted for most of the taste profile. Granted sage is one of the essential elements that makes breakfast and sinner sausage taste different. If you tend to prefer something that is closer to the traditional, heavy pork sausage, this one won't be the one for you because it was so light. That said, I could see al fresco's sausage being served at a posh, fresh, brunch alongside eggs Benedict on a dog-friendly bistro patio. I imagine it being right at home at a table with bottomless mimosas.

As a kid, Jimmy Dean sausages were the ones my family took on camping trips for breakfast and the ones we made during our slow Sunday starts. It was the one sausage that tasted most like breakfast sausages I've always known.

Having tried Jimmy Dean alongside other brands, I noticed that it had a substantially peppery flavor. The outside looked very peppered as well, so it was perhaps no surprise that it tasted almost too peppery. The texture is springy and good, but the pepper does most of the heavy lifting for the sausage. It's enjoyable, and one of the better ones I tried, but this overly peppered flavor is what keeps it from being one of the top contenders.

Though Jimmy Dean certainly nestled pepper in the spices listed, it was also among quite a few additives. There's not much on the packaging that inspired a simple ingredient list. Rather, the box explicitly stated that caramel color had been added, likely to avoid that gray coloring some of the other sausages suffered from.

The first time I tried chicken sausage was when I was investigating sausage brands you should always buy, and I was thrilled to discover just how tasty chicken sausage can be. My first thought, when pulling the Applegate sausage out of its box, was that it looked burned. The browning that the box advertised somehow looked closer to burned, or blackened like sausage that had set it one place for too long on the grill grates.

The ingredients, however, were much more pleasing. The list started with chicken, and even included dried apples, water, honey, salt, spices, and parsley. Nothing here was questionable or unnecessarily complicated. Although I've never actually seen the breakfast sausage get made, it was a little easier to predict with such recognizable inclusions.

My first bite wasn't quite what I expected, but it also wasn't disappointing. The first flavor was sweet, likely owing to the honey and apples. Though the texture was a little harder than I like, it was most notably better than the Butterball variety and ideal for a leaner sausage. I liked that it had a different flavor and brought something unique, but not odd. I wished they were a little less dark, nearly burnt bits, but certainly preferred this color to the gray color some sausages were saddled with. The appearance was the only aspect keeping this sausage brand from the top spot in my ranking.

I enjoy tracking where products are made, constantly turning over boxes and packaging to learn a piece of a product's origin story. I was surprised to learn that Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, not terribly far from the little town I grew up in, was home to Jones Dairy Farm's pork sausage. This pork sausage has a very limited number of ingredients, and included simply pork, water, salt, spices, and sugar. Ultimately, these simple pieces created a simply delicious sausage.

While some other links arrived out of the package quite gray, Jones Dairy Farm sausages were brown, with a texture quite a bit more pleasing than many of the others. The flavors were clean, and the links tasted fresh, even though they came from my freezer. Since they were from a dairy farm in a small town, they felt like they were, well, from a dairy farm in a small town. For ultra flavorful sausage gravy, look into Jones Dairy Farm.

For each brand, I prepared the sausages according to package instructions and then sampled them. I ranked the sausages based on their flavors, textures, and the ingredients.

For flavor, I wanted something that was enjoyable, though it didn't need to taste like a typical breakfast sausage to earn that designation. Sausages with a quality texture were soft without being squishy, spongy, or mushy. And for ingredients, I aimed to find those with easy to identify ingredients. Basically, I hoped to find sausages full of items I didn't need to Google.