Blueberry Sausage and Pancakes with Bacon Grease Grits

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Breakfast for Supper: Blueberry Sausage, Pancakes and Grits

September 25, 2026


Lil Butcher Shoppe Blueberry Smoked Sausage with pancake mix, quick grits and a tub of bacon grease

Pile up the pancakes, bacon, blueberry sausage, and grits and call breakfast exactly what it should’ve been all along: supper.

There is no rule that says pancakes stop being acceptable at 11 a.m. Some of the best suppers in the South are breakfast plates, and the kids who get told it is pancakes for dinner remember it for years.

This one is built around our Blueberry Smoked Sausage, a sweet-and-smoky link that sits next to a stack of pancakes like it was made for the job. It was. Add bacon, grits cooked in the bacon grease, and a bottle of syrup, and Thursday is handled.

Sweet Sausage Browns Fast, So Don’t Rush It

Smoked does not mean ready to eat. Read the package on our Blueberry Smoked Sausage and it says to cook it to 160°F in the center. So Thursday is real cooking, not reheating, and you have two jobs happening at once: get the middle of every slice to temperature, and brown the cut edges without burning them.

Fruit sausages carry natural sugar that plain pork sausage does not. Sugar browns at a lower temperature than meat does, which is why the edges caramelize so nicely. It is also why they scorch. Crank the burner to high and the cut faces go from glossy brown to bitter black before the middle is even warm.

Medium heat is the setting. Slice the links into coins or on a bias, lay them cut side down in a single layer, and let them sit two or three minutes before turning. You want sticky, amber edges and a center at 160°F. The air fryer at 400°F for about eight minutes does the same job with less watching, as the recipe says. Shake the basket halfway.

The same rule applies to our Apple, Pineapple and Maple links. Our Original and Beef can take more heat. Check a thick slice with a thermometer: 160°F is what the package asks for, and it matches the ground meat line on the USDA safe temperature chart.

The Bacon Grease Is an Ingredient

The grits in this recipe get two tablespoons of bacon grease in the boiling water before they go in. That is the step that makes them taste like somebody’s grandmother made them, and it works best with clean, well-rendered grease.

Start bacon in a cold skillet. Lay the strips flat, then turn the heat to medium. As the pan warms slowly, the fat renders out gradually and the strips cook in it. Start bacon in a hot pan and the lean seizes before the fat has melted, so you get curled, chewy strips and less grease in the pan.

When the bacon is crisp, move it to a paper towel and pour the grease through a fine strainer into a heat-safe cup. Clean grease has a mild, smoky flavor. Grease full of burnt bits tastes burnt. Whatever you do not use tonight keeps in a jar in the fridge for weeks, and it goes into cornbread, green beans and fried eggs from here on.

Short on bacon grease, cooking the bacon in the oven, or feel like skipping the bacon entirely? A tub of rendered bacon fat from the store does the same job in the grits. It is the same ingredient, just rendered by somebody else.

Blueberry Sausage, Pancakes and Grits

Prep: 10 minutes · Cook: 25 minutes · Serves: 4 to 6

You’ll Need

  • 1 pack Lil Butcher Shoppe Blueberry Smoked Sausage
  • 1 lb of Lil Butcher Shoppe bacon
  • Pancake mix
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup grits
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 to 3 Tbsp bacon grease, saved from the bacon or from a jar
  • Butter
  • Salt
  • Maple syrup

Let’s Cook

  1. Lay the bacon in a cold skillet, then cook over medium heat until crisp. Move it to a paper towel and save the grease.
  2. Slice the blueberry sausage and brown it in a skillet until heated through (160°F in the center, per the package) and caramelized around the edges. Alternatively, slice and add to an air fryer at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes.
  3. Prepare the pancakes according to the package directions.
  4. For the grits, bring the water to a boil and add two tablespoons of bacon grease. Add grits and cook according to the package directions. Finish with butter and salt to taste.
  5. Pile up the pancakes, bacon, blueberry sausage, and grits and call breakfast exactly what it should’ve been all along: supper.

Pile up the pancakes, bacon, blueberry sausage, and grits and call breakfast exactly what it should’ve been all along: supper.

The Smoked Sausage Lineup

Blueberry is just one of flavors we smoke. The sweet ones go with pancakes. The rest go with everything else.

Tips from Behind the Counter

Brown the sausage in the bacon skillet. Pour off most of the grease, keep a thin film, and the sausage picks up bacon flavor on its way to caramelized.

Keep pancakes warm in the oven. A 200°F oven and a sheet pan hold the first batch while you finish the rest.

Whisk grits early and often. Grits clump in the first minute. Pour them in slowly while whisking and they stay smooth.

Salt the grits water, not just the grits. A pinch in the boiling water seasons them all the way through. Salt at the end only seasons the surface.

Warm the syrup. Thirty seconds in the microwave. Cold syrup on hot pancakes cools the whole plate.

Blueberry sausage and syrup are not redundant. The sausage is smoky first and sweet second. The syrup ties it to the pancakes.

Ways to Change It Up

  • Swap the Blueberry for our Apple or Pineapple links.
  • Stir shredded cheddar into the grits with the butter.
  • Make blueberry pancakes and lean all the way in.
  • Fry an egg in the leftover bacon grease and put it on top of the grits.
  • Use our pan sausage instead of smoked, cooked into patties.

One Stop for Thursday Dinner in Hattiesburg

Family owned and operated in Hattiesburg since 1991. Hours: Monday–Tuesday and Thursday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Closed Wednesday and Sunday. Phone: 601-261-2765. Address: 1910 Broadway Drive, Hattiesburg, MS 39401. Smoked sausage ships nationwide; also on shelves across Mississippi and the Gulf South.

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