Original Country Sausage (Medium)

It all started in Momma Clara Purnell’s kitchen back in Tennessee. Daddy “Old Folks” Purnell had been accustomed to his family’s homemade country sausage and found there was none available in the city, so he started making his own in the fall of 1932, using only the choicest cuts from the whole hog. These were ground and combined with just the right blend of sages, salt, pepper and other Gooo-od spices.

When packing his lunchbox for work, Daddy would take leftover biscuits from the breakfast table to go with his own ‘Purnell’ sausage. Once, he shared his lunch with a helper who enjoyed it so much he offered to buy whole-hog sausage from Daddy. That popular lunchbox started Fred and Clara Purnell in making old-fashioned country sausage a ‘business.’

In 1944 “Old Folks” gave up his job with the railroad because of a disability and focused on making whole-hog sausage from his special recipe. It became a full-time family business. Mamma sewed up the bags that Daddy filled with his homemade sausage. There were a few years when they quit making sausage and had their own packing house and several grocery stores, but demand from their neighbors kept bringing them back to making sausage. The neighbors had all tried it and knew it was Gooo-od!