Italian Sausage
Pork in the Midwest · down 6% this week
Per a typical 85g serving, scaled from the per-100g figures in USDA FoodData Central (Sausage, Italian, pork, mild, raw).
- 1 MidwestCheapest $4.15/lb
- 2 Northwest $4.20/lb
- 3 Southwest $4.38/lb
- 4 Northeast $4.39/lb
- 5 Southeast $4.49/lb
- 6 Southcentral $4.74/lb
Buying italian sausage in the Midwest saves about 12% versus the Southcentral this week.
- How to pick a good one
- Sold sweet or hot, in links or bulk. Look for plump links with intact casings and no dry or discoloured patches. Bulk sausage is usually cheaper than links and is the same meat without the casing.
- What a good price looks like
- Usually $4 to $6 a pound. Under $4 is a good price. Compare it directly against ground pork in the same case: the difference is typically a dollar or more per pound for fennel, garlic, and chilli. Seasoning your own ground pork is a genuine saving if you use it often.
- What you actually get
- A pound of links is usually five and cooks down to about 12 oz, serving three to four. Casings are a negligible fraction. Removed from casings, a pound of sausage meat behaves and yields exactly like ground pork.
- How to store it
- One to two days refrigerated for fresh sausage, one to two months frozen.
- In the kitchen
- If the recipe wants crumbles, split the casings and discard them rather than trying to brown the links whole and chop them later. If you want whole links, poach them gently first and then brown, which cooks them through without splitting. Pricking the casings is a common habit that lets the fat and juice out and makes them drier.
- Getting the most out of it
- Do not prick the casings — that drains out the fat and juice you paid for. Brown links gently rather than over high heat, which splits them. Squeezing the meat out of the casings gives you seasoned ground pork for sauce or ragù at no extra work.
- One Pot Sausage & Mushroom PastaRecipe by Budget Bytes~$0.81 / serving 4 in-season
- One Pot Sausage and Sun Dried Tomato PastaRecipe by Budget Bytes~$1.29 / serving 4 in-season
- Crockpot Tortellini SoupRecipe by Spend With Pennies~$1.48 / serving 6 in-season
- Baked RavioliRecipe by Spend With Pennies~$1.69 / serving 0 in-season
- Sausage and Vegetable SkilletRecipe by Budget Bytes~$1.70 / serving 3 in-season
- Rigatoni with SausageRecipe by Two Peas & Their Pod~$1.75 / serving 2 in-season
See all 122 recipes with italian sausage →Filter by diet, time, budget, and macros.
Price from the USDA weekly retail meat report (conventional, per lb). Nutrition per typical serving, computed from USDA FoodData Central.
Italian Sausage — FAQ
What's the price of italian sausage this week?
As of the week of September 4, 2026, the price of italian sausage in the Midwest is $4.15/lb, down 6% from last week. Prices come from the USDA's weekly retail meat report.
Which region has the cheapest italian sausage right now?
The Midwest has the cheapest italian sausage this week at $4.15/lb — about 12% less than the Southcentral, where it runs $4.74/lb.
How much protein is in italian sausage?
A typical 85g serving of italian sausage has about 11.8g protein and 247 calories (20.7g fat), per USDA FoodData Central.
What can I cook with italian sausage?
SeasonSort indexes 122 recipes using italian sausage, each priced per serving from this week's data — starting from about $0.39 a serving. The cheapest are listed on this page, with a link to the full filtered list.