Why Jimmy Dean Sausage Isn't In Our Top 3 Picks

Jimmy Dean has been synonymous with breakfast foods since the country singer founded the company (and named it after himself) in 1969. It's known for ready-to-heat freezer breakfasts like egg and English muffin sandwiches, and for a robust selection of pre-cooked and raw sausage. While Jimmy Dean products often rank high in our taste tests they don't always make the top three — the company's bacon placed fourth in our ranking and its sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich came in fifth. And Jimmy Dean's regular sausage didn't make the top three in our ranking of sausage brands, either. It lost out to sausages from The Fresh Market, Conecuh, and Trader Joe's.

Jimmy Dean's regular pork sausage isn't the worst out there. The texture and flavor are exactly what our taste tester expected from a classic pork sausage. It'll probably remain a popular go-to for many recipes that call for ground sausage, but there are brands that make a better tasting product. In fact, our taste tester thought Jimmy Dean makes a better product — the Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage. Jimmy Dean's regular pork sausage isn't very flavorful. There aren't any notes of fennel or touches of sage to really bring the sausage to life. It's dull, a little on the fatty side, and underwhelming if you're cooking up a basic sausage patty.

Jimmy Dean's regular sausage isn't saturated with seasoning. It doesn't really have much of anything in it besides pork. Other ingredients include vinegar, corn syrup, salt, sugar, natural flavor, and monosodium glutamate (MSG). Without any herbs, maple syrup, or other popular extras you'll find in sausage, it is a bit boring. There's nothing in the sausage that'll catch your attention. It's just a basic bit of sausage unless you spice it up yourself — which you could do by adding some of your own fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme, and sage, some fresh-ground pepper and other seasonings.

Plain old unseasoned sausage is just the beginning of Jimmy Dean's offerings, though. The company has quite a few different kinds of sausage, from links and precooked patties to raw sausage rolls, some seasoned with peppers or a hot sausage variety. As our taste tester concluded, the company's Sage Sausage is much more fragrant, flavorful, and complex than the regular version. And while a roll of Jimmy Dean regular ground pork sausage will definitely work for whatever you are making, do yourself a favor and pick up the sage version for ground pork that tastes a little bit more like traditional sausage.