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. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ 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 don't 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: "Since 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 and be safe to eat sometime in the future? > > Yes, I know meat is often smoked for taste, but I want to know how long > do I need to smoke it to preserve it. > Stefan li Rous I hate to seem evasive, but there is no simple answer to the question, so far as I know. Food smoked long enough to preserve it (coated with smoke tar [creosote?] primarily to drive off insects, and semi-dried, since even smoke-houses are a bit warmer than the surrounding air, even without active flames) is considered by many to be inedible. Sir Hugh Plat's recipe for Polonian Sawsedges says, in his tactful way, that they will make one "relish a cup of wine". I don't think the modern sense of taste, used to eating food that's been refrigerated instead of being smoked fully, is ready for that sort of thing. Your best bet would be to keep the food in a smoker for flavor (approximately 2-6 hours) and then finish curing/drying the food in the smoker without additional wood chips. Or you could use a food dehydrator. Smoked hams that are actually treated for storage without (much) refrigeration are generally cured with the smoke going for only part of the process, until the hams have lost about half of their original weight. This "rule" varies according to the ratio of weight to surface area, the presence of bones, fat, etc. I'm not sure there's any really effective way to smoke-preserve a liver sausage for, say, Pennsic conditions, for any significant length of time, and have it still be edible. I suspect it would rather resemble a rubber eraser. Your best bet is probably to get a book on charcuterie. My favorite is Jane Grigson's "The Art of Making Sausages, Pates, and Other Charcuterie". Another good choice is Jocasta Innes' "The Country Kitchen", which is an overall book on "putting food up". Adamantius From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 16:40:13 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - black puddings Cindy Renfrow wrote: > Hello! Does anyone have an early recipe for black pudding (a blood > sausage) made with pork blood? > > Sincgiefu Yum! There's a relatively blow-by-blow account of the annual pig-killing and charcuterie in Le Menagier de Paris. It includes a recipe for black puddings which is almost identical to some of the modern French boudins noir. Jane Grigson's "The Art of Making Sausages, Pates, and other Charcuterie" has several good recipes for boudins noir which provide some useful guidelines for someone trying to redact Le Menagier's recipe. Adamantius From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 17:17:39 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - black puddings Uduido at aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 97-06-26 14:19:33 EDT, you write: > << Jane Grigson's "The Art of Making Sausages, Pat=E9s, and other > Charcuterie" has several good recipes for boudins noir which provide > some useful guidelines for someone trying to redact Le Menagier's > recipe. >> > Please post the publication details, dates, ISBN, etc. of this book. I have > Jane's vegetable book and it is my Bible on vegetable preperation. I'm sure > the book you mention above would be a welcome addition to my cookbook > collection. > Lord Ras "The Art of Making Sausages, Pates, and Other Charcuterie" by Jane Grigson, pub. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967, 7th printing 1986. Paperback. ISBN: 394-73252-9, LoC # 76-13670 Very, very cool. I just wish the recipes weren't usually scaled to make two pounds of sausage. Otherwise, the best book I've seen on the subject. Adamantius Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 11:08:42 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: SC - Culinary A&S Entries Mark Harris wrote: > I'd be interested in hearing more about the dry, smoked sausage and the > cheese. Did you make these from the raw materials? recipes? The sausage was as close as I could get to the Polonian Sawsedge in Sir Hugh Plat's "Delighted for Ladies" (c. 1609), made following the recipe pretty closely. It is, in fact, a kielbasa. As for the cheese, it was an English Slipcote, so called because it is a pretty soft cheese inside a rind of the dried outermost layer, rather than a mold coating. You can give it a squeeze, and the coat slips off. Recipes for this are found in numerous sources, ranging from the Penn Family receipt book to Kenelm Digby to Martha Washington's Cookery Book. I neither slaughtered the hog nor milked the cow, but otherwise did my best ; ). > I don't remember the article, but I will be trying to find it in my not > very well organised TIs, so you can tell me just to go there. But I would > like to hear any elaborations or corrections. Apart from the omission of a good chunk of the notes and bibliography (the article was pretty long, are you surprised ; ) ? ), there isn't too much I would add if I were to write it over again. You can find it on the Web, now that I think of it, on the Ostgardrian Web pages at: http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/sca/cooking/ppb.html Adamantius Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 12:01:57 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: SC - Re: Lombard Rice (fwd) Mark Schuldenfrei wrote: > While the first line of the original recipe mentions both sausage and > egg yolks, I have omitted both. I couldn't decide what would be an > appropriate substitution for cervellate (brain sausage--apparently it > is available, just not locally) While cervelles, in culinary French, are indeed brains, I'm almost positive that cervellate is not brain sausage. It is what they call a boiling sausage, similar to a cotechino, usually made from a mixture of pork and veal. There are still several Italian varieties of a sausage called cervellato available, not to mention saveloy, the French equivalent. Mostly they're along the lines of a cotto (rather than Genoa or hard) salami. I suspect, based on some of the (admittedly modern) recipes I've seen, that the sausage mixture was formed into a ball, wrapped in some kind of wrinkly membrane like caul fat or calves' tripe, tied up with string, and boiled, the whole thing looking vaguely brainlike. If you've ever seen a zampone, which is an Italian specialty (I've forgotten the region if I ever knew) consisting of a boneless pig's foot and hock, kinda like a lady's evening glove, stuffed with sausage meat and smoked/air dried. The stuff inside is cervellato. This being one of the few topics the Larousse Gastronomique is pretty reliable on, you could probably get more info there. Adamantius Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 18:42:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Uduido at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #294 << remembered to throw my communal offering of Scots beef link sausages >> Master A, The recipe fpr Isicia ex Sponddylis occurs right after Isicia de Cerebellis (Brain Sausage), Book II. Other notes: Sch. sfon dilis; G.V. sphondylis; List. spongiolis Acording to Listor this is a dish of mushrooms. He is wrong....etc. Hope this helps. Lord Ras Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 10:12:31 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: SC - Re- Illusion food- Mark Harris wrote: > Hmm. I know that I've asked for fish recipes and for sausage recipes but > this may be taking it a bit far. :-) Although I guess this is interesting > from an academic standpoint. What do you mean by "a typical Norman seafood > sausage"? Are you saying that they made sausage-like stuff from fish? Do > you have a recipe? Does this use spices? Would they have been smoked or > preserved some other way? > Stefan li Rous A typical Norman seafood sausage is, as the expression implies, a seafood sausage typical of those found in Normandy. Whether or not William the Conqueror ever ate one, I couldn't say, but there are numerous dishes found all over Scandinavia, so unless there was some kind of coincidental parallel culinary evolution, there are likely some kind of common ancestors of both the fiskeboller and fiskegrot of Norway, and the boudins de poissons of Normandy, presumably dating back to before the Norse came to take possession of their territories in Northern France. This doesn't constitute hard evidence, of course, but so far it's all we have to go on. Anyway, Norman seafood sausage is usually made from firm white fish, like cod or pike, often with scallops or lobster added, usually with milk-soaked white bread, eggs and cream added to bind it all together. Mild herbs like chervil are a common flavoring.Usually stuffed into the standard pork sausage casing, or wrapped in crepin or caul fat, or sometimes just in buttered paper before poaching. They can be eaten warm from the poaching liquid, or sauteed or grilled. Adamantius Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 15:01:43 -0400 From: Knott Deanna <Deanna.Knott at GSC.GTE.Com> Subject: SC - Suasage URL My entire adventure in sausage making is on-line now. I'm sorry it is so long. The people who know me know the whole story as it happens. I tried to explain the whole process of my sausage making experience so you all kjnow why I do they things I do. The basic recipes are right at the top. The rest is just the story of the different versions and the results. The URL is http://www.geocities.com/athens/academy/9523/sausage.html This is the only thing of substance on the web page. I have not yet put a link to my cooking section on the index page. It is primitive, but it is under construction and always will be. Comments and questions may be sent to me at deanna.knott at gsc.gte.com Avelina, Lady Keyes Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 12:08:15 -0400 From: Knott Deanna <Deanna.Knott at GSC.GTE.Com> Subject: RE: SC - period sausage Have I got a sausage recipe for you! >>>This is taken from "Platina, on Right Pleasure and Good Health : A Critical Edition and Translation of De Honesta Voluptate Et Valetudine (Volume 168)" by Platina, Mary Ella Milham. This book can be ordered by clicking the link shown above. The translation of his recipe in this book follows: If you want good Lucanian sausages, cut the lean and fat meat from the pig at the same time, after all the fibers and sinews have been removed. If the piece of meat is ten pounds, mix in a pound of salt, two ounces of well cleaned fennel, the same amount of half ground pepper, rub in and leave for a day on a litlle table. The next day, stuff into a well cleaned intestine and thus hang it up in smoke. I made this version twice. The first time was a 15lb. batch (oops!) and the second was a 1 lb. batch for an A&S competition. It is VERY SALTY!! Please note: This sausage is 10% salt by WEIGHT. But, after smoking and salting this stuff should survive nuclear attack. The complete (mis) adventure in sausage making can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/athens/academy/9523/cooking.html Good luck! If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me. Yours, Avelina Keyes East Kingdom Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 19:36:29 -0500 From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON) Subject: Re: SC - period sausage Go to the web site http://www.geocities.com/athens/academy/9523 That has a sausage recipe, and also a 'polenta' recipe that turns out like cheesecake. L. Avelina regales us with her sausage making trials. Allison Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 18:31:00 -0500 From: "Debra Hense" <nickiandme at worldnet.att.net> Subject: SC - RE: Period Sausage There is also a compendium of period sausage recipes located at: http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/4756/index.html Kateryn de Develyn Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 22:19:38 -0500 (CDT) From: jeffrey stewart heilveil <heilveil at students.uiuc.edu> Subject: SC - interesting--sausages I was wandering in and amongst the sausage recipes and found (to no great shock) two sausages with the same name and vast differences. Apicius (as quoted on Kateryn de Develyn's homepage) says that lucanian sausages are made with "pepper, cumin, savory, rue, parsley, condiment, laurel berries and broth" as well as "whole pepper and nuts." Platina, on the other hand, as we have recently been told has lucanian sausages as salt, fennel, and pepper. It would seem that these sausages would taste nothing alike. I suppose they are "lucanian" due to geographic origin (though I don't know where they would be from), but I don't know. Thoughts about the differences and how Apicius' might taste? Bogdan din Brasov Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 10:52:46 SAST-2 From: "Ian van Tets" <IVANTETS at botzoo.uct.ac.za> Subject: SC - Chawettys, lettuce, dried meats My lord husband is suggesting that, since there has been a small amount of discussion about dried meats, I should recommend to you a booklet published here in South Africa on this topic. This is not least because the Rand has now dropped from being worth 2 flat rocks to only being worth one and a half, so people shouldn't find the book too expensive. It is called Make your own Biltong and Droewors: Including sausages, and cured and smoked meats. (Struik, Cape Town, 1991). ISBN 1 86825 289 2. The publisher's address is: Struik Publishers Pty Ltd, Cornelis Struik House, 80 McKenzie Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa. Directions are very clear, with _pictures_ of every step of the way. It deals with dried sausages and meat, smoked sausages and meat, curing without drying or smoking, and fun extras like pastrami. Quantities are all metric, terms for the most part English (but then most of you know what 'grill' means anyway). It also has one or two nice ideas for rescuing stuff you think you've oversalted or wrecked in some other way. Cairistiona Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 17:57:44 -0400 From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow) Subject: SC - sausage recipe Hello! Someone was looking for sausage recipes. I just ran across this in Plat's Delights for Ladies, 1609: 12. To make a Polonian sausedge. Take the fillers of a hog: chop them very small with a handfull of red Sage: season it hot with ginger and pepper, and then put it into a great sheep's gut: then let it lie three nights in brine: then boile it, and hang it vp in a chimney where fire is vsually kept: and these sawsedges will last a whole yeere. They are good for sallades, or to garnish boiled meates, or to make one rellish a cup of wine. Cindy/Sincgiefu renfrow at skylands.net Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 15:15:31 -0400 From: Phil & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: SC - Pastrami Knott, Deanna wrote: > Does anyone have documentation for pastrami in period? Not as such, but it appears likely to have been brought to places like Northeastern Italy and Yugoslavia (whatever they were calling these places at the time) by the Turks, whose own version is a salt-cured and air-dried beef product (a bit liked spiced beef prosciutto) called basturma. Nowadays basturma is heavily coated with paprika and what tastes to me like ground celery seed, or possibly lovage. Adamantius Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 09:48:55 -0400 From: "Knott, Deanna" <Deanna.Knott at GSC.GTE.Com> Subject: SC - Re:looking for recipe Linda was looking for a recipe for liver sausage. There are a couple in Platina. I can post them either tonight or tomorrow morning if you like. I have been wanting to try one of the recipes myself with chicken liver. Avelina Keyes Du Pont Pursuivant Barony of the Bridge East Kingdom Date: Wed, 11 Nov 98 08:59:03 -0600 From: Dottie Elliott <difirenze at usa.net> Subject: Re: SC - Sausage When using pork butt, I don't add any extra fat because it seems to have enough fat as is. Clarissa Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 13:07:06 -0600 From: Melissa Martines <mmartines at brighthorizons.com> Subject: SC - Sausage/Powder Douce Just wanted to thank everyone who responded to help me with my questions about sausage and powder douce. This list is definitely a great resource :) The smoked sausages came out wonderful (for those interested, I ended up using 8 lbs of pork shoulder to 2.5 lbs lard and bacon fat) if a little bit salty. Plastic coke bottles work wonderfully as disposable sausage stuffers/funnels if anyone else out there is thinking of doing some sausage stuffing. Morgan MacBride Meridies Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 09:36:51 -0700 (MST) From: grasse at mscd.edu Subject: SC - Wanted: Sausage recipe suggestions Thank you so much for responding Lord Stefan... you were the only nibble I got. I had already checked the Floral... files... (lots of information there) as well as some other on line cookbooks. I ended up using the Bratwurst recipe out of Sabine Welserin - cutting the proportions in 1/2 (made plenty for the group I was feeding) and cutting the bacon back even further (shouldn't have, they were a little dry - but I have trouble with too much fat and was afraid of the fat in a whole pound of bacon.) seasoned with salt, pepper and LOTS of Marjoram. It boiled up just fine, and a few reserved raw sausages ended up getting pan-fried for supper and were great that way too. I also made "Haggis-oids" (Oids because there was no lung to be found, no pork innards to be found at this time, and no sheep innards found (ever)) so I made do with: 1 lb beef heart, 1/2 lb beef liver, some fresh beef and fresh beef fat, 1 large onion, and 1 cup toasted oats (used Quaker whole (not quick) oats and ran them through the grinder). Seasoned with nutmeg, salt, and pepper (not enough pepper...) and stuffed them into pork casings (because that was all I could get.) They turned out well and some got eaten - (got some feedback - all positive). For the record, I have the Kitchen aid with the meatgrinder/sausage stuffer attachment... I love it for this sort of thing but the next time I teach an SCA sausage class the stuffing portion will be hands-on, using 3 liter pop-bottle top funnels - THANKS to the poster for the budget conscious suggestion. Gwen Cat Carthe Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 18:12:09 EST From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: Organ meats (was SC - Hedgehogs) pndarvis at execpc.com writes: << Ras, you stated you added organ meats to your vension sausage, did it add to the consistancy for better or worse? how about flavor? >> It's hard to say whether it was better or worse. I thought it was good. :-) Here's my recipe: Venison Sausage ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ingredients 15 pounds venison, cut into chunks and strips 7 pounds lean ground pork 1 whole deer liver, fried until half done 1 whole deer heart, cut into chunks 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons white pepper, ground 1 1/2 cups oatmeal 3 medium onions, cut into eigths 2 tablespoon nutmeg, ground 4 tablespoons dried sage 2 tablespoon black pepper 1 tablespoon Garlic powder 1 tablespoon mace, ground 1 tablespoon Ginger, ground 3 tablespoons mustard seed, ground 1/2 cup salt 1 quart cold water 3 Eggs Run venison, liver, heart and onions through the grinder twice. Mix all the ingredients together until very well blended.Run through the grinder again with sausage funnel attached, filling casings. Make links in stuffed casings every 4 inches. In a large pan heat 2 or 3 inches of water to about 175 deg. Immerse sausages in water. and cook until internal temperatures reach 150 deg F. Drain. Cut links apart. Cool. Package and store in the refrigerator or freeze until ready to use. Ras Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 23:34:05 EST From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Re: link sausage him at gte.net writes: << Is that fully cooked or do they need to be cooked some more?? >> I haven't tried preparing them for a meal yet. I will most likely simmer them in water until they are cooked through when I use them at the event. The recipe is not period but a concoction of my own. I initially tested the mixture by raking a snall amount of the sausage mixture and formed it into a patty which I fried. In that state it was good. From the odor of the finished product, I have no reason to believe that the final cooked sausages will not taste equally good. I'll know for sure this coming Christmas Eve when I will be taking some as a dish to pass at the employee's pot luck at work. :-) Ras Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 08:38:14 -0700 (MST) From: grasse at mscd.edu Subject: re: SC - Bratwurst - Sabine Welserin style Zoe Valonin asked: >How did the Sausage do? Do you have your [redaction] of it? or what did you >use? please do share!!! IMHO The sausage went fine, though I would welcome feedback from any of the gentles who sampled it at the War practice. I pretty directly used the redaction created by Valoise Armstrong and webbed by His Grace at http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html It is recipe # 25. and I use it as written, seasoning with salt, pepper, and lots of marjoram. Before you stuff your casings fry a spoonful and taste for seasoning. If you can't access the web page I will be happy to post the recipe, but the credit goes to Valoise! I used hog casings, and made "sample size" 1" links. Since the demo was on cauldron cooking we boiled the sausages, but I have also fried them, grilled them - they are yummy in every way. Next time I smoke a pork-loin I will hang a string in the smoker and will see how that turns out. Gwen-Cat Caerthe Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 11:05:32 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: SC - Venison sausage-update LrdRas at aol.com wrote: > I thought you might want to know that the Venison sasage experiment was a > success. I served them at 12th Night with the other meats by boiling them for > 15 mins. and serving them with a mustard horseradish sauce on the side. Out of > 4 dozen sausages there were 2 left in the dish. :-) Yeah, there's something about venison sausage. It has all the flavor of venison, but the pork element pretty much assures tenderness and moistness if done correctly. I served some at an EK 12th Night three years ago, and I think I received the ultimate dubious, backhanded compliment in connection with them. We got back a very small amount of leftovers (there was a _lot_ of other food, like the cuminade de poissons which had maybe 15% return to the kitchen, to be scooped up almost immediately by people lying in wait for such an eventuality). Anyway, the autocrat (my Viceroy) had asked me to make up some extra venison sausage, I think it was five pounds, for his own use (he paid for the ingredients, and since the butcher actually made them from my recipe, it was no additional effort). Anyway, I cooked them on site, so they'd just need to be reheated, and left them in the kitchen, labelled as reserved, do not touch upon pain of slow death, etc. I left the kitchen to walk around a bit, get some air, some feedback, that sort of thing. I can't help but laugh, although what I'm about to say is deplorable. Somebody stole the sausages. Adamantius stgardr, East Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 10:50:55 -0700 (MST) From: grasse at mscd.edu Subject: re: SC - Period Sausages The following sausage recipe is from Valoise Armstrongs translation of the Sabine Welsering cookbook which is webbed at http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html#fn1 25 If you would make good bratwurst Take four pounds of pork and four pounds of beef and chop it finely. After that mix with it two pounds of bacon and chop it together and pour approximately one quart of water on it. Also add salt and pepper thereto, however you like to eat it, or if you would like to have some good herbs, you could take some sage and some marjoram, then you have good bratwurst. I have made this and it is very good - just remember to check your seasoning before you stuff the casings. (they can come out a bit bland) I have boiled and fried them - yummy both ways. There are also several sausage recipes in Marx Rumpolt (who is not at the office with me.) Most contain a single meat and some bacon chopped together and seasoned. Of course this is all German, but if you are interested in a specific meat made into sausage please let me know. I will be happy to have another excuse to rummage through the pages of my favorite x-mas goody. Gwen-Cat Caerthe, Outlands Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 09:30:09 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: SC - Period Sausages Here's another; my redaction of Sir Hugh Plat's Polonian Sawsedges. Please excuse the format. The recipe, documentation and notes are pretty well stirred together. At least the quantities are a bit more managable: 1) Polonian Sausage "12. To make a Polonian sawsedge. Take the fillers of a hog: chop them very small with a handful of red Sage: season it hot with ginger and pepper, and then put it into a great sheep's gut: then let it lie three nights in brine: then boile it, and hang it up in a chimney where fire is usually kept: and these sawsedges will last a whole yeere. They are good for sallades, or to garnish boiled meats, or to make one relish a cup of wine." [1] First off, why is this sausage Polonian? Based on the seasoning and smoking method, it appears to be an Englishman's approximation of the type of large smoked sausage found in the much-disputed lands northeast of Germany. This is, I believe, a Polska krajana or kielbasa. The term "fillers" is probably a corruption of fillets, which in medieval cookery parlance are muscles in each of the hog's inner thighs; corresponding to, in a steer, what we now call the eye rounds. In pork butcher's jargon it's just part of the hams. Today the fillets of the hog are the tenderloins, which would make unpleasantly dry and tasteless sausage. On a full-grown hog, the combined weight of the fillets is a bit under five pounds or so. Lacking the facilities, as well as the freshly killed hog, to do my own butchering, I used an equal weight of pork shoulder butt or blade roast, which is what my rather expensive and extremely competent butcher makes his sweet Italian sausage out of. The handful of red sage wasn't a problem. Salvia officinalis purpurea is known in Britain as red sage, and, although perfectly edible, is now primarily an ornamental plant. Here it's plain old purple sage, la Zane Grey, and was available fresh at the farmer's market. For quantities on pepper and ginger, I consulted my favorite modern sausage recipe, and favorite Chinese cookbook, respectively, and figured on three tablespoons of cracked peppercorns and three tablespoons of grated fresh ginger. Large mutton casings were unavailable. Lamb casings, such as you find in frankfurters, were inappropriate. I chose pork casings because they were easiest to find, and were also small enough to dry quickly, without affecting the flavor of the final product. My brine was more than just salt water; I figured a household making sausage would also be curing other pork products, and would have an all-purpose brine crock on hand all year round. The brines in various brawn recipes, for instance, are pretty involved, including not only salt but sugar and saltpeter, as well as a wide variety of herbs and spices. In most cases the saltpeter would occur naturally as an impurity present in the commonly mined salt of Northern Europe. The brine recipe I settled on was a modern English pork pickle, and included salt, sugar, saltpeter, juniper berries, bay leaves, thyme, pepper, nutmeg, and cloves [2]. Period brine recipes are, for the most part, found only in very late sources, and don't differ significantly from modern recipes, anyway. Whether the pickled sausage is boiled until fully cooked is debatable; it may be simply blanched to tighten up the casing so it doesn't burst in the smoking process. Dried raw sausages are still common in Continental Europe, but not in England, so I simmered the sausages to the minimum safe temperature (140 F). Not having a chimney operating year-round, I warm-smoked the rings for about two hours over hickory chips. Apple or oak would have been better, but hickory was what I happened to have. I then finished the drying process in an electric food dehydrator, largely for safety considerations, given the weather at the time. I suspect sausages smoked over several months would be quite overpowering, and a bite or two would definitely make one relish that cup of wine. BTW, you'll find more sausage recipes in, among other sources, Apicius (1st-2nd century C.E.), Le Menagier de Paris (~1390 C.E.), Platina's "De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudinae" (~1475?), Gervase Markham's "The English Houswife" (1615 C.E.), and "The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight, Opened" (1669 C.E.). Note that the last named is the _short_ title of this work, which is why we usually just call it Digby. Adamantius stgardr, East Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 16:08:33 -0600 From: "Debra Hense" <nickiandme at worldnet.att.net> Subject: SC - Period Sausage Recipes I have a site out on the web which lists many, many period sausage recipes. (Most of these recipes are not redacted although there is discussion about the ingredients.) It is located at: http:\\www.geocities.com\athens\acropolis\4756\ In the contents table on the left side of the page, is an entry labeled sausages. This will take you into a booklet which was published 3 or 4 years ago. I am currently in the process of updating and adding much new information for a new booklet to be published later this year. Kateryn de Develyn Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 22:24:42 -0500 From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net> Subject: Re: SC - Period Sausages At 7:43 AM -0500 1/15/99, Margo Farnsworth wrote: > Does anyone know of a source for period sausage recipies? I have a Spanish recipe for one type of sausage; I do not know how useful it will be for a Scottish feast. from: "Libro del Arte de Cozina" (Spanish, 1599) "Salchicas for Summer" [note: salchicas are a particular kind of suasage.] Take a piece of veal, from the shoulder or the leg, and if it were from the shoulder, remove those nerves, and chop the veal very well with a good piece of bacon, and chop it all together, and take your sheep intestines and wash them very well with your water and salt, and season the meat very well with pepper, ginger and nutmeg, and little clove, because it is bitter, and a little fennel, breaking it, and first clean it, and cast it into this same meat, and stuff it inside the intestines, and tie them like salchicas, and then roast them and garnish them with small boneless loins of mutton upon a sop, or however the official desires. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 09:47:52 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: SC - My latest feast (and a few comments) Stefan li Rous wrote: > Did you actually make the salami? If so, I'd love to hear more details. > We've talked about various sausages before, but I'm not really sure > how salami differs. It is air dried perhaps? Yes, normally. Its distinctive flavor is partly the result of bacterial action, which modern charcuterers usually introduce artificially as cultures. But yes, it's normally air-dried after having lost a fair amount if its water mass through salt-induced osmosis (it's too early in the morning for me to recall the special name for the osmosis of water). Adamantius Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 21:15:39 EDT From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Turkish Breakfast - Suggestions Anyone? mbrunzie at dba-sw.com writes: << Sausages are made from pig, which are strictly _haram_ >> IIRC, there are recipes for lamb mutton and chicken sausages in al-Andalusia and al-Baghdadi. Here is the redaction I used at my recent medieval middle eastern feast. Dish of Chicken or Whatever Meat You Please If it is tender, take the flesh of the breast of the hen or partridge or the flesh of the thighs and grind it up very vigorously, and remove the tendons and grind with the meat almonds, walnuts, and pinenuts until completely mixed, throw in pepper, caraway, cinnamon, lavender, in the required quantity, a little honey and eggs, beat all together until it becomes one substance, then make with this what looks like an 'usba' made of lamb innards and put it in a lamb skin or sheep skin and put it on a heated skewer and cook slowly over a fire of hot coals until it is browned, then remove it and eat it, if you wish with murri and if you wish with mustard, if God so wills.- from 'An Andalusian Cookbook; A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks, Vol. II; pg. A-35. Duke Sir Cariadoc of the Bow. Redaction by al-Sayyid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib, AoA, OSyc Copyright c 1999 L. J. Spencer, Jr. Williamsport, PA 2 LB Boneless chicken breast or thighs 2 1/2 oz. Almonds 2 1/2 oz. Walnuts 2 T. Pinenuts 1 tsp. Caraway seed, ground 1/2 tsp. Black pepper, ground 1/2 tsp. Lavender, dried and crushed 2 T Honey 2 Eggs Sausage casings (see Note*) Skewers Grind chicken on coarse. Mix almonds, walnuts, pinenuts, caraway, pepper, lavender, honey and eggs into chicken. Grind again with medium blade. Then force into sausage casings tying off into links. Grill on skewers over charcoal until browned and cooked through. Serve with murri or mustard. Serves 8. (NOTE: The original clearly was enclosed in a bag of skin and roasted whole. I chose to use sausage casing to gain better portion control and because it was readily available. There are examples of sausages in the original manuscripts.) Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 01:39:57 +0200 From: "ana l. valdes" <agora at algonet.se> Subject: SC - sausages Here comes some recipes of traditional sausages or "chorizos", taken from Spanish and South American recipes. I can guess in SA they are definitive OUP, since the Aztecas or Incas had not pigs. But in Spain they were used along the Middle Age. Take the innards of the pig (heart, liver, lungs, some fat) Cut it all in small pieces Add a lot of salt Add sweet pimiento, spicy pimiento, oregan, several cloves of garlic, a little part of water Let it be two or three days Knead it twce every day If its to dry, add more water Take off the garlic cloves and put the hole into the tripe Hang it over the fire and let the smoke dry it Pigblood Cooked Rice Onions Garlic Spices (Peppar, Cummin) Pigmeat Fry the onions and the garlic in some oil Fry the meat until brown, cut in small pieces Mix with the cooked rice Add spices Mix with the pigblood until it thickens When you got a kind of bland "dough", put into tripes and close them at the extremes Sweet Bloodsausage Pigblood Breadcrumbs Cloves Raisins Pinenuts Wine Pigmeat Fry the meat and mash it down Mash the cloves and the pinenuts Cut the raisins in small parts Mix with the breadcrumbs Add the wine Put into tripes Close in each extreme I apologize if the translation is rough, I have very little idea how to translate the different parts of a pig, and all the recipes are written in Spanish dialects, not in castillan. Ana Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 11:57:52 +0200 From: "ana l. valdes" <agora at algonet.se> Subject: SC - more homemade sausages Homemade salami Lean meat from a pig fed with vegetables and herbs Fat from the same pig, proportion 5 procent for 100 grams Salt, 25 grs for each kilo of the mixture Garlic, mashed in the mortar, 10 grs for each kilo of the mixture Black peppar corns, 30 grs for each kilo With a sharp knife cut the meat and the fat in smallest possible pieces Add the spices and let rest for 20 hours Put into thick tripe Homemade chorizo Lean meat from pig fed with vegetables and seeds Fat from the same pig, 20 procent for each 100 grms Salt, 25 grms for each kilo of the mixture Crushed sweet peppar, 3 grams for each kilo of mixture Crushed or mashed garlic, 10 grs for each kilo of the mixture With a sharp knife cut all in pieces, (but not so small as you did when you cut salami) Dont use a machine Knead the meat with all other ingredients in a bowl of clay or wood, not of metal When the mixture is ready, take a part and fry in a pan, to taste the quality of spicing Let it rest 18 or 20 hours Put into thin tripes, bind them in a horseshoe form Ana Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 11:35:50 EDT From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - more homemade sausages-OOP agora at algonet.se writes: << Lean meat from pig fed with vegetables and seeds Fat from the same pig, 20 percent for each 100 grams >> According to the Anthropologist's Cookbook, use of the shoulder meat when making Chorizos would be the ideal as it contains just about the right proportion of fat to lean thus eliminating the need for added fat. Ras Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 20:37:26 -0400 From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net> Subject: Chorizos (was Re: SC - Sausages from the Danish cookbook) And it came to pass on 3 Sep 99,, that Nanna Rgnvaldardttir wrote: > BTW, I was wondering about something: What exactly defines a chorizo > sausage? Is any Spanish/Portuguese/Latin American sausage a chorizio, or > is the term only used for certain types? And if so, which? I thought > chorizos always included some capsicum peppers - if not chilies, then at > least some sweet paprika/pimiento - but judging from Anas recipes, this > is not the case. > > Nanna Here are the definitions (translated) that I found in two Spanish dictionaries: Diccionario de Autoridades (1726-1739) -- A piece cut from intestine stuffed with chopped meat, usually from pork, marinated and with spices, which is cured with smoke so that it will last. Diccionario Usual (1992) -- A piece cut from intestine full of meat, usually from pork, chopped and marinated, which is cured with smoke. _The Heritage of Spanish Cooking_ by Rios and March says that chorizo was invented following the importation of New World peppers to Spain, and that paprika is its defining ingredient, which gives it its characteristic color. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 20:56:45 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: Chorizos (was Re: SC - Sausages from the Danish cookbook) Robin Carroll-Mann wrote: > Here are the definitions (translated) that I found in two Spanish > dictionaries: > > Diccionario de Autoridades (1726-1739) -- A piece cut from intestine > stuffed with chopped meat, usually from pork, marinated and with > spices, which is cured with smoke so that it will last. > > Diccionario Usual (1992) -- A piece cut from intestine full of meat, > usually from pork, chopped and marinated, which is cured with smoke. > > _The Heritage of Spanish Cooking_ by Rios and March says that > chorizo was invented following the importation of New World peppers to > Spain, and that paprika is its defining ingredient, which gives it its > characteristic color. Garlic would also appear to be an essential in most cases. I'm wondering, though, if another original typifying factor (and one which may since have been lost, as per the example that follows) was a specific piece or part of intestine, stuffed in a particular way. For example, French saucisson andouille and andouillettes were originally made from either rolled tripe or intestine threaded in and out of itself repeatedly, until it was, essentially, an intestine stuffed with itself. BTW, those are heavily spiced, usually with paprika and garlic, among others, and smoked. In general, though, chorizo seem to quite regionally variant, both in style and in quality. In general the Mexican chorizo I've seen have been pretty awful, usually either packed in rendered lard (which I bet would be terrific for frying potatoes!) or even canned like a sort of spicy dog food, while Spanish and South American ones, particularly Argentine, are quite firm and of excellent quality. Of course my experience is with imported articles or locally made products theoretically adhering to style, so it might be hard to tell. Adamantius Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 22:33:39 EDT From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: Chorizos (was Re: SC - Sausages from the Danish cookbook) troy at asan.com writes: << Garlic would also appear to be an essential in most cases. >> Correct. For 30 lb. shoulder meat use 7 oz (200 grams) salt, 9 oz (290 grams) Spanish or Hungarian paprika, 2 heaped tblsp Oregano and 3 1/2 oz (100 grams) garlic, crushed. 2-4 oz (50-100 grams) cayenne and 10-12 oz dry anise are listed as optional. (Source: The Anthropologists' Cookbook) Ras Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 22:39:52 -0400 From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net> Subject: Re: SC - more homemade sausages And it came to pass on 2 Sep 99,, that LrdRas at aol.com wrote: > This is all I could come up with. It is from Miriam-Webster. > > cho*ri*zo (noun), plural -zos > > [Spanish] > > First appeared 1846 That's peculiar. I wonder where they got their information. I quoted a dictionary definition of "chorizo" from an early 18th century Spanish dictionary. Furthermore, the definition was followed by two quotes from Spanish literature which used the term. One quote was from an author who lived 1603-1676. The other was from a novel written cerca 1599- 1604. Perhaps "first appeared" means that it appeared in an English- language work in 1846? Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 19:37:29 GMT From: kerric at pobox.alaska.net (Kerri Canepa) Subject: Re: SC - Recipe request for trotters Lucretiza wrote: >Whilst excavating in my chest freezer a couple of days ago, I came across >some pig's trotters which I bought for goodness knows what reason. But >they're there, so I may as well use them. Can anyone think of any recipes, >preferably period, for these? Failing that, anything you've found tasty. > >Al Vostro e al Servizio del Sogno >Lucretzia If you feel up to making something like salami, I'd suggest you try your hand at zampone, which is a meat mixture stuffed into a pig's lower leg. This is what information I have which is out of Traditional Italian Food by Laura Busini Birch. zampone - Zampone is very similar to cotechino, but the meat mixture is stuffed into a pig's leg. cotechino - ...Cotechino looks like a small salame, but it is very different, in the fact that the main ingredient in its making is the cotica or cotenna (skin) of the pig. The skin is put through a mincer a couple of times, then mixed with some lard and the cheapest cuts from the pig, and all minced together. It is preserved with salt, pepper and spices in gut. Cotechino has to be boiled and is eaten hot. I had zampone while in Italy and it's quite yummy. Kerri Cedrin Etainnighean, OL Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 09:10:14 -0400 From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net> Subject: SC - Re: OOP Sausage Phlip Wrote: >Ana, as far as I'm concerned, speak of sausages to your heart's content. I'm >still learning about them, and as far as I'm concerned, the more information >I have, in or OOP, the better. In that case try "The Savory Sausage, A Culinary Tour Around the World" by Linda Merinoff, 1987, Poseidon Press Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 11:50:34 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com> Subject: Re: SC - Sausages LrdRas at aol.com wrote: > Is there anyone on this list who actually lives in England and either makes > or purchases various English sausages who can shine light on the various > types that are available in Britain? I suspect that not all sausages made in > England can be described in the same way. Is there a specific sausage that is > called by the name 'English' sausage (e.g., containing slimy stuff) in the > same manner that we have 'Italian' sausage (e.g., with fennel) or 'Polish' > sausage (e.g., kielbasi)? According to various sources such as the Jocasta Innes book about food preservation and Jane Grigson's "Art of Making Sausages, Pats, and other Charcuterie", what most people are talking about when they say "English Sausage" is the banger, the English version of the chipolata. They tend to be rather mildly spiced with pepper, and sometimes nutmeg, with an extremely fine grind (recipes often instruct the cook to grind the meat two or three times) and are often bulked out to various extents with cracker crumbs generally known as "rusk". Good-quality bangers are usually stuffed into small lamb casings, have little or no rusk, and are at least noticably flavored with the spices. Bad-quality bangers (and unfortunately many people are familiar only with this type, just as some people are only familiar with the McDonald's hamburger) are stuffed into collagen casings which burst into rubbery strands in cooking, are utterly bland, and and are vaguely reminiscent of modelling clay or Silly Putty. As with hamburgers, there's a broad range of quality available, and many people whose first exposure was a bad experience aren't inclined to arrange a second exposure. A shame. I've had imported commercial bangers which were okay, and some bad ones, too. The best ones I've had were made locally by butchers catering to immigrants from the English-Speaking Banger Belt ; ), or homemade. On a tangential note... I should reiterate my position that I have great respect for the cuisines of the British Isles, but I feel that until the last ten years or so, many of