Test date: July 2010
Tester: Michele
MICHELE'S OPINION: When I was shopping for this test, it amazed me that there were no other non-meat patty options besides Morningstar. I thought that Boca and other natural food brands carried them, but I guess not. And the prices for Morningstar Original Breakfast Patties vary widely among different grocery stores (from about $3.50 to $5.99 for 8oz).
Also, in full disclosure, Marc was going to do this taste test with me, but when he saw all of those meat patties sitting there that basically look like dog turds, he decided against it. I pressed on though and just didn't look at them too closely. Although none of them looked terribly appetizing, the Jimmy Dean and Morningstar products tasted really good. My advice is to STAY AWAY FROM THE BANQUET AND FRED MEYER PRODUCTS. They are disgusting and I wouldn't feed them to my dog (ok, my dog would probably love them, but you get the point). Read on for more details on price, nutrition, taste, and the taste test winner:
PRICE COMPARISON FOR 7-8OZ OF PATTIES (store first, then brand):
$4.99 QFC Morningstar Farms Maple Flavored Sausage Patties
$3.50-$5.99 Morningstar Farms Original Sausage Patties
$3.29 QFC Jones Golden Brown All Natural Fully Cooked Sausage
$2.90 Fred Meyer Jimmy Dean Fully Cooked Original Pork Sausage
$2.90 Fred Meyer Jimmy Dean Fully Cooked Turkey Sausage
$2.49 Albertsons Banquet Brown N' Serve Turkey Fully Cooked Sausage
$1.74 Fred Meyer Fully Cooked Sausage
$1.50 QFC Banquet Brown N' Serve Original Fully Cooked Sausage
1. Jimmy Dean Fully Cooked Original Pork Sausage Patties: These have a nice sausage taste and are very flavorful. Salty but not too bad.
2. Jimmy Dean Fully Cooked Turkey Sausage Patties: These taste very salty and have a light, easy-to-bite-into consistency. Definitely lighter tasting than the pork option.
3. Fred Meyer Fully Cooked Sausage Patties: These are spongy and disgusting. Nothing more to say really.
4. Banquet Brown N' Serve Original Fully Cooked Sausage Patties: These taste very fatty. Also very, very salty.
5. Banquet Brown N' Serve Turkey Fully Cooked Sausage Patties: These taste like what I imagine dog food to taste like. I'm just being honest!
6. Jones Golden Brown All Natural Fully Cooked Sausage: These are very meaty sausages, for lack of a better term. They taste like marinated beef, with almost an asian flavor to them, much more so than the other options. They have a great consistency to them too, a real natural sausage feel on the tongue.
7. Morningstar Farms Maple Flavored Sausage Patties: These are just a very sweet version of the Original Morningstar patties (see below). If you like it when your pancake syrup drips onto your sausages at the diner, then this product is definitely for you. They are quite tasty.
8. Morningstar Farms Original Sausage Patties: Compared to the real meat options, these have a softer, slightly mealy consistency on the inside but a crispy exterior. They also taste very, very salty. They have a bit of a sweeter flavor.
NUTRITIONAL NOTES: Of the pork products, the Fred Meyer brand has the lowest calorie count (150 for two patties), while the Jimmy Dean and Jones products have the highest at 240 calories for two patties. The same goes for fat content, with Jimmy Dean and Jones' products weighing in at 23g or 24g per two patties, while the Banquet and Fred Meyer pork products have 15g and 13g for two patties, respectively. Sodium-wise, the Jimmy Dean pork product packs in an AMAZING 610mg per two patties, or half of your recommended daily allowance. The other three options have between 350mg and 440mg per two patties.
As you would expect, the turkey options are much healthier than the pork products. These two options (Banquet and Jimmy Dean) have an average of 105 calories per two patties and 6-7g of fat. They carry about the same amount of sodium though, with 320mg for the Banquet brand and 490mg for Jimmy Dean. The interesting part about these two turkey products is the protein content. Banquet has 8g per two patties, similar to the high end of the pork products (which carried 5g to 9g per two patties), while Jimmy Dean has a whopping 13g of protein per two patties.
In terms of protein though, the Morningstar products are the big winners, with an amazing 20g per two patties. They also have relatively low calories (160) and fat (6g) per two patties. The sodium content of the Morningstar products are on the high end out of all of these options, with 500g and 520g per two patties.
TASTE WINNER: Jimmy Dean for the turkey and pork options, and if you're not a meat eater, than either of the Morningstar products are a great alternative (especially if you toast them after microwaving).
Date: May 2012
