As diners become more aware of the importance of choosing lean proteins, turkey's place on the table has become more prominent. You can eat Butterball's range of turkey-based sausages for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Different sausage flavors incorporate different seasoning blends, but throughout the brand, the same main ingredients give turkey sausages their characteristic lower-calorie, high-protein profile.
Turkey
As you might expect, the main ingredient in most flavors of Butterball turkey sausages is turkey. The low calories and fat content of turkey make each serving of turkey sausage lower in calories than a similar beef- or pork-based sausage. Only two flavors -- the Smoked Turkey Dinner Sausage and the Polska Kielbasa Turkey Dinner Sausage -- list "poultry ingredients" and not turkey as their first ingredient. The term "poultry ingredients" includes turkey as its primary ingredient.
Mechanically Separated Poultry
Second on the list of ingredients and part of the poultry ingredients that make up Butterball's dinner sausages, "mechanically separated poultry" includes all the meat that remains on the poultry carcass after removing the larger cuts. The term "poultry" may include chicken as well as turkey as it does in the two flavors of dinner sausages. Manufacturers frequently use mechanically separated meat or poultry in dishes that require a softer-textured meat, such as hot dogs and some sausages.
Water
Meat naturally contains water. Water also remains in the meat after mechanical separation. Butterball and other manufacturers may add more water to turkey sausage during processing to keep the meat moist when you cook it. Water also serves as a vehicle for spices and flavorings that give each type of sausage its distinctive flavor.
Corn Syrup
You'll find a small amount of corn syrup in all of Butterball's turkey sausages except for their Fresh Sausage line. Corn syrup acts as a preservative and a flavoring agent, imparting the mild sweetness that you might associate with pork sausages. The textures of certain sausages may also benefit from corn syrup and corn syrup solids.
Modified Food Starch
This ingredient turns up in many packaged foods including most of Butterball's turkey sausages. This food conditioner comes from grains and contributes to the texture of the finished product. Modified food starch helps the sausage remain juicy and tender when it's cooked. You'll find it in Butterball's dinner sausages and fully cooked breakfast sausages. It's also an ingredient in Turkey Smoked Cheddar Sausages.
Spices
The spices in sausage give it its unique flavor profile. Spices differentiate Butterball's Hot Italian Turkey Sausage from its Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage. While every company keeps its proprietary spice mixtures a secret, Butterball does note that the Hot Italian Turkey Sausage contains paprika and the Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage contains garlic powder. The company's Turkey Hot Smoked Sausage gets at least some of its heat from the jalapenos listed on the label.
Preservatives and Conditioners
Citric and ascorbic acid are natural preservatives that Butterball includes in its sausages. In addition, the Fully Cooked Breakfast Sausages and Fresh Sausages contain BHA and BHT as preservatives. Butterball, like other meat producers, uses sodium nitrite and sodium erythorbate to preserve meats. These ingredients extend the product's shelf life and ensure that the flavors remain intact. Xanthan gum and gum arabic, texturizing agents that also help lean meats stay moist, are in most of Butterball's sausage range.
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