Screw premade seasonings. The best tasting seasonings are from scratch. I follow recipes from either Charcuterie or Rytek Kutas' Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing.

If you're going to make your own cured meats or fresh sausage I highly suggest getting one or both of these books.

The breakfast sausage recipe from Kutas' book calls for straight pork, but I do 50% elk or venison and 50% pork. It's drier than commercial sausage but tastes great and everyone loves it.

10 lbs. meat
4 Tb. salt
1 Tb. ground white pepper
2 Tb. rubbed sage
1 Tsp. ginger (I used powdered)
1 Tb. nutmeg
1 Tb. thyme
1 Tb. ground hot red pepper (optional)
2 cups ice water.