sausages-msg - 1/15/08
Period sausages. Which modern varieties are close to period? Recipes. Blood sausage.
NOTE: See also the files: haggis-msg, meat-smoked-msg, butchering-msg, pig-to-sausag-art, sausage-makng-msg, organ-meats-msg.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 23:36:13 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Period sausages
Baaastard at aol.com wrote:
> Does anyone know if this sausage is period?
As with many cheese varieties, this probably developed as a local
specialty. It may be period, but it's possible that no record exists of
its earliest creation, and it's also quite possible that the technique
for making it has changed over the years. For instance, Mortadella di
Bologna is almost certainly period, but probably 90% of the mortadella
(and about 99.9% of the bologna) are made with things that would have
horrified Platina. So, it's a tough call. We do know, though, that
cured, smoked, and air-dried sausages existed in period, and there's no
reason to think they were very different from Landjaeger (except for the
ones that contain paprika).
> If it is it would make wonderful
> camp food. If this particular recipe isn't period do you know of any other
> sausages that are? Particularly cured sausages.
Le Menagier de Paris has a recipe for both black puddings and pork
sausages. I believe the sausage recipe instructs that they be hung up in
the smoke, but there doesn't seem to be any deliberate curing or drying
process separate from the smoking.
Sir Hugh Plat gives a detailed recipe for what he calls Polonian
sausages, which appear to be an attempt at recreating Polish krajana or
siekana kielbasa. The sausages are stuffed, then cured in a brine,
blanched, then hung up in a chimney. The recipe states they will keep
for a year and will engender a mighty thirst. Rather like Landjaeger,
don't you think?
Gervase Markham also gives a recipe for "links" which are evidently
fresh pork sausages. This recipe is kind of noteworthy in that it
explains in detail how to chop the meat finely enough with a knife. The
possibility is that they are meant to be smoked, but the recipe doesn't
say so. Other possibilities might include eating them fresh, air drying
without smoke, and preserving them in lard. This last technique is open
to some debate (ahem!).
There are other recipes out there, but these are from fairly commonly
available sources.
Adamantius
From: vjarmstrong at aristotle.net (Valoise Armstrong)
Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 09:03:01 -0600
Subject: SC - RE: Period sausages
Das Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin (16th C., Augsburg) gives recipes for
liverwurst, bratwurst, venison sausage, Zervelat, and a sausage refered to
as 'a good sausgae for a salad.' The 'sausage for a salad' is made from
pork and beef and hung to dry, although the instructions specifically
demand for it not to be hung directly in the smoke or near the oven to
prevent the fat in the bacon from melting. The other sausages don't mention
smoking or drying.
Valoise
From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr at postoffice.ptd.net>
Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 09:22:03 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #124
Michael farrel wrote:
>In the class I am currently in we had to make a sausage named landjager. It
>is a German sausage that is smoked then air-dried. When finished it is
>preserved and can be carried around at room temperature no problem.
>
>Does anyone know if this sausage is period? If it is it would make wonderful
>camp food. If this particular recipe isn't period do you know of any other
>sausages that are? Particularly cured sausages.
>
>Michael Farrell
I immediately went to my Sausage "Bible", Great Sausage Recipes and Meat
Curing by Rytek Kutas, and found that it says of landjager "Literally,
landjager means Land Hunter in German. A landjager in Germany was similar to
our National Gaurd or Army Reserve. It seems this sausage was used by the
field troops, as our armed forces use K or C rations. landjager also is
referred to as a pressed sausage and is very popular in the midwestern part
of the USA."
So, though we are no forrader, I can say that at least The Kutas recipe is
not medieval, since it contains dextrose powder and corn syrup solids (plus
white pepper, coriander seeds, salt, pork, beef, Prague Powder, and
something called fermento). That does not mean you are off base, however.
Modern sausage making in bulk has done both wonderful and terrible things to
sausage. Wonderful in that it has mostly eliminated food poisoning, and
awful in that the really wonderful ingredients may have been replaced with
cheap substitutes.
For those who have not tried making their own sausage, I urge you to give it
a shot. I attended a sausage-making class at pennsic (of all places), and
was so inspired that I went home and 2 months later made home-made sausage
for our next event. By hand. With some of the most loyal and wonderful
friends helping me that a gal could want. It took hours, but it was
definately worth it. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
You'll need to find a good book about sausage making. I gather that there
aren't many out there. You can get a copy of the above mentioned title from
The Sausage Maker, 26 Military Road, Buffalo NY, 14207. They also send free
catalogs to anyone who requests one, at which time you'll be placed on their
mailing list.
Not much help, I know, but an interesting topic.
Aoife
From: Baaastard at aol.com
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 11:30:05 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #124
As far as the topic of non-period ingredients in the landjager sausage is
concerned:
1. Prague Powder is a brand name for an ingredient which is simply a curing
salt. 94% salt, 6% sodium nitrate/nitrites, and a touch of pink coloring so
you can distinguish it from salt. Having a brand name to a salt is
distinctly unperiod. However, most natural salt deposits contain nitrates at
some concentration. In period times they would have used salt in the sausage
from the local source thereby including nitrates. The period recipes
therefore wouldn't have included this ingredient, but would have included
nitrates. They have the benefit of being the only food additive to meat
products allowed by the USDA that prevent botulism.
2. Dextrose is used in modern sausage-making because it tastes less sweet
than other sugars. To be period don't use refined sugars. Use a touch of
honey or leave it out entirely.
3. Spices will change from recipe to recipe, I was more concerned with the
process being period and I could haggle about individual flavors later.
4. Fermento. This one takes a little more explanation. It is a lactic acid
producing bacterial culture. Live germs in a freeze dried powder. Again, as
an additive it is non-period. However, considering period sanitation
practices, it is extremely likely that these opportunistic germs were hanging
around the sausage shop. After infecting a few batches, it wouldn't take
long for the sausage maker to realize they weren't all bad. They add a
pleasant tangy flavor to the sausages they are used in. By lowering the ph
of the sausage they also help to preserve it against other microbes. The way
it was explained to me, before modern sanitation techniques, the sausage
maker would use some of the last batch to infect the next one. Sort of like
working with sourdough, a piece of the last one is the starter for the new
batch. How far back in time this practice was done I do not know.
Anyway, I hope that clears up some of the mysteries. And again, if anyone
knows if this particular series of steps was used in period, I would
appreciate the information.
Thank you,
Michael Farrell
From: lynchs at macquarie.matra.com.au (Shayne & Trudi Lynch)
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 12:36:39
Subject: SC - Roman spree
Have you tried the recipes for the brain sausage- isici de cerebellis and
the liver kromeskis- omentata? I made these for a mundane competition late
last year and got excellent reports back, not only from the judges, but
from my head chef ( who I do belive is now a new convert to the enlightened
ways of the medievil cook. ) For those interested, it was a Salon culinare
and I walked away with an award of merit, 3 sponsor prizes and a t-shirt.
Not bad for a first comp.
Aelfthrythe of Saxony
Journeyman to Master Charles of the Park
Shayne Lynch & Trudi Lynch
[AKA] Francois Henri Guyon & "He's like a giant boulder:
AElfthrythe of Saxony I too thick to think and
lynchs at macquarie.matra.com.au I too heavy to move" (anon.)
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 1997 19:30:10 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - brain sausage
Mark A. Sharpe wrote:
> I have seen brain sausage mentioned here a few times and I was wondering
> if it is actually made of what the name implies.
>
> Terrendon the Wanderer
Yup.
"1. Make a mixture of eggs and brains, pounded pine-kernels, pepper,
liquamen, a little asafoetida, and with this stuff a sausage-skin. Boil.
Afterwards grill and serve."
--Apicius De Re Quoquinaria; Lib. II, Sarcoptes
Translated by Flower and Rosenbaum, 1957
Not too different from various white pudding sausages...
Adamantius
From: lynchs at macquarie.matra.com.au (Shayne & Trudi Lynch)
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 14:44:33
Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #135
> (Grin) Way cool! No, I'm not much of a meat person--hate handling the
>stuff--so I confined myself to less "hands-in" flesh dishes. I really do like
>liver though--any chance you might share your redactions with the rest off
>us? I'm not quite sure who among my aquainances would actually eat such
>"oddities", but maybe if I didn't tell them what it was first................
>;-)
>Ldy Diana
Brain sausage- isicia de cerebellis
put in the mortar pepper, lovage and origany, moisten with broth and rub;
Add cooked brain and mix diligently so that there be no lumps. Incorporate
five eggs and continue mixing well to have a good force meat which you
may thin with broth. Spread this out in a metal pan, cook, and when
cooked [cold]unmould onto a clean table. Cut into a handy size. [now prepare a
a sauce] Put in the mortar pepper, lovage and origany,crush, mix with broth
put into a saucepan, boil,thicken and strain. Heat the pieces of brain
pudding in this sauce thoroughly, dish them up,sprinkle with pepper,
in a mushroom dish.
APICIUS
cooking and dining in imperial Rome
Soak your brains overnight in milk.Next day poach them in new milk and throw
out the milk you soaked them in (which will now be pink from the blood
that you've leached from the brains.) Let the brains cool.In a mortar,
crush pepper, lovage and origany.In a bowl,beat your brains with a wooden
spoon till smooth. Add your eggs and beat them in,but not to roughly,or
you will get to much air through the mixture. Now this is where I moved
from the recipe. The mix as it now stands will bake well as the above says,
but I put it in sausage casing, poached it and then panfried some of it
in butter. others I wrapped in the liver kromski recipe, wrapped that
in caul fat and smoked. Will send the liver recipe later. Late for work.
Aelfthrythe of Saxony
Journeyman to Master Charles of the Park
Shayne Lynch & Trudi Lynch
[AKA] Francois Henri Guyon & "He's like a giant boulder:
AElfthrythe of Saxony I too thick to think and
lynchs at macquarie.matra.com.au I too heavy to move" (anon.)
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 1997 10:10:04 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - sausage questions
Mark Harris wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 4, Aelfthrythe of Saxony gave a recipe for
> brain sausage.
> 1) What do you mean by "poaching" something? In cooking, not hunting.
Poaching is a process of cooking in liquid, generally a seasoned,
acidifed water, which is like a very gentle simmer. You want to see tiny
bubbles forming, but not blooping (a technical term every cook should
know) to the surface. Liquid temperature averages about 160=B0F at this
point.
> 2) "others I wrapped in the liver kromski recipe"? Huh? I thought this
> was another sausage. Do you mean a different casing?
Durned if I know. Not being the original postor, I'd have to say it
probably should read "AS in the liver kromeski recipe". Kromeskis are
usually wrapped in bacon, IIRC.
> 3) What is "caul fat"? Do you just smear this on the sausage? Or perhaps
> wrap it in some kind of cloth after you smear on the fat?
Nahh, caul fat (FR. crepin) is a fatty abdominal membrane. A.K.A. lace
fat or, I think, mesentery. It has veins of fat in it, is rather elastic
when raw, so it's good for wrapping sausage meat or pates/terrines in,
to keep them in shape and from drying out.
> 4) How would you smoke the sausage? How long? How do you know it has
> smoked long enough?
Sausages are generally smoked in a smoke house, or sometimes hung high
up inside a fireplace. Depending on your purpose, you can either smoke
for flavor (which takes a couple of hours or so), smoke to preserve in
addition to air drying (as with things like Smithfield ham), or fully
smoke to preserve and/or dry. The latter two would have been more common
in period. Hot smoking, which actually cooks the food, seems to have
been rarer than cold smoking, whose primary purpose is to drive away
insects, actually.
> > The mix as it now stands will bake well as the above says,
> >but I put it in sausage casing, poached it and then panfried some of it
> >in butter. others I wrapped in the liver kromski recipe, wrapped that
> >in caul fat and smoked. Will send the liver recipe later.
As I say, only the original postor can tell you what that means.
Adamantius
From: lynchs at macquarie.matra.com.au (Shayne & Trudi Lynch)
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 15:28:30
Subject: SC - sausage questions answered! long
In answer to questions from mark Harris on june 5 ,1997 ,22:16:35
>I'm not sure if I'm willing to try this item or not, but I will show
>my ignorance of cooking and ask some questions:
>1) What do you mean by "poaching" something? In cooking, not hunting.
>2) "others I wrapped in the liver kromeski recipe"? Huh? I thought this
>was another sausage. Do you mean a different casing?
>3) What is "caul fat"? Do you just smear this on the sausage? Or perhaps
>wrap it in some kind of cloth after you smear on the fat?
>4) How would you smoke the sausage? How long? How do you know it has
>smoked long enough?
>Thanks.
> Stefan li Rous
Sorry it's taken so long to answer your questions.
1:Poaching- to quote my trade school text book, this is the subjection
of food to the action of heat in a liquid held as close to boiling point as
possible without there being any perceptible movement of the liquid. For most
purposes, the temperature for poaching is 93-97 degrees centigrade.
(a) The item to be poached must be completely immersed in the liquid
through-out the cooking process.
(b) The process must be started by bringing the article to the boil, then
reducing the heat to stop the boiling movement and allow the poaching to
take place at the correct temperature.
2: Your right. The liver kromeski is a seperate sausage recipe. For the
purpose of the competition I combined the recipes by making the brain
sausage, then half freezing the liver kromeski filling I wrapped it around
the brain sausage,there creating a two coloured sausage. Liver on the
outside and brain on the inside.
3:Caul fat is the fat from around the intestine. It's actually like small
worm like pieces of fat held together by a transparent membrain, so you
wrap up the sausages without the need for an other casing.Probably not
very well explained, sorry.
4: When I made the liver kromeskis by themselves, I made them the size of
my little finger, about 4 cm long and about 1.5 cm wide. I have in my
possesion one of the best aniversary presents any-one has ever given me,
that being a small smoke box.(you can pick them up in hardware stores.)
You sprinkle wood chips on the bottom and light a little container of metho
underneath. It takes 20 minutes for all the metho to burn out, you then leave
the box till it's cold and your sausages are done.For the liver/brain
sausage I gave it twice as long. To know when it's smoked long enough is
really a matter of trial and error and how smoke flavoured you like your
sausages.
Liver kromeskis -Omentata
Omentata are made in this monner:[lightly] fry pork liver,remove skin and
sinews first[2].Crush pepper and rue in a mortar with [a little]broth,then
add liver,pound and mix.This pulp shape into small sausages,wrap each in
caul and laurel leaves and hang them up to be smoked.Whenever you want and
when ready to enjoy then take them out of the smoke,fry them again,and add
gravy.
APICIUS
cooking and dining in imperial Rome
Clean your pork liver by removing any sinews, fat or veins.Slice the liver
up into 5cm thick slices and panfry the liver in butter until it's just
bruwn on the outside,but still red and bloody on the inside. In a mortar
crush pepper and I think I replaced the rue with sage but I can't remember
at the moment.I then blended the liver in the food processor until it was
chopped finely but a little chunky.Then I added the pepper and sage,shaped
them into little sausages, layed a laurel leaf on the top of each one,
wrapped them in caul fat and smoked them in the smoke box for 20 minutes.
You need to let them sit at least overnight (preferably 48 hrs) in the
fridge to let the smoke flavour seap through and blend with the sausage,then
fry them up in a pan like normal sausages and I served mine with a nice
red wine gravy.
Aelfthrythe of Saxony
journeyman to Master Charles of the Park
Shayne Lynch & Trudi Lynch
[AKA] Francois Henri Guyon & "He's like a giant boulder:
AElfthrythe of Saxony I too thick to think and
lynchs at macquarie.matra.com.au I too heavy to move" (anon.)
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 1997 17:02:30 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - smoked sausage and meats
> I don¹t think you have quite answered my last question although I do
> appreciate the detailed answer on this question and the others. My
> question may be better stated as: ³Since the primary purpose of smoking
> the meat or sausage is to preserve it, how long do I need to smoke it
> before I know it will keep