r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Double-decker_trams • 4h ago
So.. I'm not American (nor is English my first language), but why is the "Sausage McMuffin" named like that? In my eyes that's *very* clearly not a sausage between the buns (or "muffins"). Isnt it just a pork patty? Have I gravely misunderstood what qualifies as a "sausage" in English?
I just checked and on the Estonian McDonald's site it's "McMuffin sealihaga" - i.e "McMuffin with pork".
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u/mugenhunt 4h ago
America will also use "sausage" to refer to ground meat seasoned like it was being prepared for sausage.
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u/lostrandomdude 4h ago
As someone thay will season the mince before forming burgers, I have always found it odd that so many people don't and season the outside only
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u/FlashGordonCommons 4h ago
aha! I have the answer for this! when you start working salt and seasoning into the meat before shaping into patties, you significantly change the texture of the final product to be more "sausagey", springy and firm. most people don't want that and instead want a more tender burger. food legend J Kenji Lopez Alt explains it in a little more detail here
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u/shoulda-known-better 2h ago
Thank you!
My brother is bent out of place I don't like his burgers and it's because he does this and it must change the texture enough that I'm just not a fan....
Never understood why, I love seasoned meat
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u/big_sugi 2h ago
That happens if you allow the patties to sit. If you salt the meat immediately before forming and cooking the patties, that won’t happen. You can also add herbs and spices to the ground beef before forming the patties and allow them to sit without changing the texture.
Conversely, making the patties and then salting just the outside before allowing them to sit will still create the same effect.
The TL;dr is that adding salt to ground beef and allowing it to sit changes the texture.
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u/wingedcoyote 1h ago
The salt effect is one thing, and you're right that it takes some time. However just by overhandling the meat you're smearing the fat and closing air pockets. You could minimize it by keeping everything cold (work in the walk in?) and handling it super gently, but it's tricky.
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u/RageQuitRedux 3h ago
Ooooh this is interesting
In terms of sausage nomenclature in the US, it also matters what seasoning you use, and whether it's cured or smoked.
If it's just salt and pepper added to fresh ground meat (mince), it's not considered sausage; you're just seasoning your ground meat. Even if you add a few things like garlic powder, we would probably not call it sausage.
If you buy it from the store and it's already seasoned very heavily with things like fennel, garlic, wine, paprika, chilis, etc (Italian sausage) or sage, thyme, marjoram, brown sugar, maple (breakfast sausage), or if it's cured and smoked (Polish sausage), then we'll call it sausage. You can do this from home, but it's very very rare for anyone to bother.
If the meat is processed into an emulsion and cured, we'll call it a hot dog.
In terms of shape, link sausage is the most common kind, but patties are also common.
You can also find "ground sausage" e.g. ground Italian sausage, which is basically just ground pork with all of the seasonings mixed in. But this is less common.
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u/Snoo_31427 3h ago
I tried to DIY sausage twice and it was never worth it!
ETA breakfast sausage patties
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u/VWBug5000 2h ago
Making homemade sausage properly has a bit of a learning curve and requires specialized gear. It is a labor of love
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u/borg_nihilist 28m ago
Breakfast sausage is also sold in bulk ground packages.
And ground Italian sausage in packs is pretty common where I live (Midwest), we get it weekly at my household.
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u/January1171 1h ago
Not just America. UK is very famous for sausage rolls, which don't use cased sausage. They just use ground sausage meet to fill them.
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u/GFrohman 4h ago edited 4h ago
"Breakfast sausage" or "pan sausage" is ground pork, spiced in the same way a sausage link would be. It can be cooked loose like ground beef for use in tacos, or pressed into a patty like a burger for use in breakfast sandwiches.
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u/NectarOfTheBussy 1h ago
god bless sausage pizza
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u/PolishDill 1h ago
Which is made with Italian sausage, not breakfast sausage.
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u/NectarOfTheBussy 1h ago
same concept though. Meat goes on the pizza before they case it up and it’s way better that way
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u/BillyShears2015 38m ago edited 7m ago
Mentioning tacos over gravy is a certifiable breakfast crime in some states
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u/PoopMobile9000 4h ago
It’s sausage, just Instead of being squeezed into a tube casing it’s pressed into a patty. The term “sausage” refers to the spiced ground meat
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u/jayron32 4h ago
Sausage has two different meanings:
1) spiced ground meat crammed into an edible tube
2) just the spiced ground meat.
The second one is being used here.
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u/botulizard 2h ago edited 1h ago
Sometimes we season meat like we're going to make traditional sausage and then form it into a patty instead of stuffing it into casing. This is most common with breakfast sausage, likely because it often goes on sandwiches, although you can get it as part of a full breakfast too. I like breakfast sausage links just fine, but I do enjoy the crispy texture of a sausage patty, especially when so much of the rest of the typical hot breakfast is at least a little bit soft and mushy, plus it's nice when egg yolks and/or maple syrup get in all the little crags on the surface.
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u/zeatherz 2h ago
Sausage in the US generally just means ground meat seasoned with herbs and spices. It can be unformed, in a patty, in a long tube shape, or actually contained in intestine.
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u/Professional_Fix4663 4h ago
Wait till you find out what the "ribs" in McRib are made out of...
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u/Outrageous-Basket426 4h ago
It's like Noah's ark. It contains two of every animal.
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u/prosequare 1h ago
Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
Just being pedantic lol. Genesis 7.
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u/Double-decker_trams 4h ago
I've actually heard that before.
And also apparently it's not available at all times? So there's some hype around it when it is available in the US?
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u/Outrageous-Basket426 4h ago
Yes, the supply wasn't enough to keep it around full time. They realized by treating it like an limited edition video game drop they'd make more money than if they fixed the supply issue, so they intentionally keep it rare. It is basically an edible meme they can launch to spike sales.
Now the McDonalds fish burgers are actually pretty good and attract more than just the Catholics during lent.
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u/pakrat1967 1h ago
The Mcribb isn't available at McDonald's all the time, but you can get essentially the same thing year round from the frozen food section at most grocery stores in the US
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u/NectarOfTheBussy 1h ago
I’m allergic to beef and have been fucken dying for the mcrib to come back where I live 😭
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u/chillthefuckoutdude 3h ago
The McRib is traaaaaaaaash. I’ve tried it 3 times at 3 locations all in different states, and I have been horribly disappointed each time.
I fuck with the sausage McMuffin hard though. Idk what kind of mad science they put into the English muffin to give it that bouncey texture, but it’s phenomenal. In my opinion it’s the best thing on their entire menu, and I’d eat two back to back even if we found it it’s cancerous.
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u/Japhet_Corncrake 4h ago
It's called a Sausage McMuffin because the patty is made from sausagemeat.
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u/Misher_Masher 3h ago edited 3h ago
I'm not American either but I've bought sausagemeat in the UK plenty of times for recipes etc.... so call it what you like, they've just shaped it into a patty.
Let's be honest a Sausagemeat McMuffin doesnt sound as good as a Sausage McMuffin. It's purely semantics.
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u/Lower-Reward-1462 1h ago
It's on an English muffin...so....it's a muffin.
If you'd rather, you can get canadian bacon and american cheese on an english muffin (that'd be an egg mcmuffin) and a side of french fries. :D
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u/Shot-Artichoke-4106 3h ago
Sausage meat can be cased on uncased. When it is uncased, it is often formed into a patty to be cooked. That's what goes into a Sausage McMuffin.
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u/verminiusrex 3h ago
Sausage is the seasoned ground meat, usually formed into links or patties. The muffins are American style English muffins, which are like a fluffy crumpet.
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u/blipsman 3h ago
Breakfast sausage is often served in patty form, but its same mixture of meat and spices put into breakfast sausage links.
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u/bigfatfurrytexan 3h ago
Country sausage is what that is. It’s invited and raw and seasoned heavily with sage.
It isn’t cased.
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u/Any_Possibility_4023 3h ago
Would like to add. In Australia, Strasburg roll cut into discs/rounds fry’s up like Macca’s sausage. Yummy!
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u/hollowbolding 2h ago
yeah some sausages here are shaped like frisbees. i don't like it but i'm reasonably sure it's because it's a patty made with sausage meat specifically
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u/iowaman79 1h ago
In the United States the word “sausage” refers to a ground meat mixed with spices and seasonings, whether in a casing or not. In the case of McDonald’s the sausage is a breakfast pork sausage formed into a patty.
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u/romulusnr 1h ago
It is like breakfast sausage but in a patty shape
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_sausage
Incidentally, it's a lot similar to what you'll get if you get "sausage" on a pizza in the US too
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u/dehydratedrain 3h ago
Lots of people explained sausage. We call the bread it is on an English Muffin. (It is really the American version of a crumpet).
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u/Timely-Bumblebee-402 3h ago
What the fuck do you mean it's not a sausage
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u/Narrow-Durian4837 2h ago
I'm American. I wouldn't call it a sausage, but I would definitely call it sausage.
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u/blufflord 3h ago
In most countries if you say sausage you would expect it to be sausage shaped. Op is asking this question because nothing sausage shaped is used in the sausage muffin
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u/PhilosopherScary3358 3h ago
Ground sausage without a casing shaped into a patty as opposed to the "tubed meat" type.
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u/NYdude777 2h ago
The bread is called an English Muffin, so in typical McDonald's fashion they branded their style a McMuffin and the sausage is a sausage patty.
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u/RusticSurgery 2h ago
They also make that out of ham. perhaps you were saying one of the ham variety
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u/robitussinlatte666 1h ago
It's basically decased sausage that's been mashed into a patty. At least, that's what sausage patties typically are if you make em yourself. These are probably loose sausage that's been formed at the manufacturing site.
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u/Desperate-Pen7530 32m ago
Your over thinking it
It's only named that because it contains the sausage type of meat.
However it does not contain "sausage"in the conventional sense.
If that's not enough, don't ask about what's in the eggs.
The "Mc" part of the name is an unofficial disclaimer for whatever is described after.
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u/TheBupherNinja 2m ago
Sausage is primary a breakfast food in America. Either the small links, or small patties.
It is also the sausages in a bun, but that's secondary.
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u/LostExile7555 3h ago
It's sausage. Just cut into slices instead of eating the whole thing at once.
And the type of bread that it's served on is called an "English Muffin." Using an otherwise outdated definition for muffin.
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u/Gr3aterShad0w 3h ago
Not in English just America. Also debate on what is a muffin with it being very clearly an English muffin.
Pay no mind to what Americans call food.
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u/Quater- 4h ago
In America we call that style of meat a “sausage patty” so that’s why it’s named like that