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| Name: | Sausage Making Instructions | Contributor: | Martin Golding |
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| Description: | Sausage Making Instructions | Posted: | 2002-01-08 |
| Key words: | casings | Category: | Other |
| ID: | 593 | Updated: | 2005-12-08 19:40:14 |
| Ingredients: | Pork
Garlic fennel truffles cumin |
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| Preparation: | Sausages. Shiny fat juicy sausages hanging in serried ranks. Plump sleek promises of future eating pleasures. We made some fifty or sixty pounds of sausages over the weekend. Chorizo (far too mild), garlic sausage (NOT mild, because we learned our lesson last year), fennel, truffle, cumin sausage. A fruited chorizo sausage of our own invention, Kielbasa. Six pounds of bulk Italian sausage, because we got tired of grinding before we ran out of meat.
The previously announced Sumeet made short work of the spices, powdering a batch worth in under a minute. It broke up the toasted fennel and cumin, and minced garlic in red wine, almost as fast as it could be started and stopped. Chopping the garlic directly into the spices turned out to be mildly undesirable; it formed a paste that had to be carefully worked into the ground meat. To twist a string of sausages, pinch at appropriate lengths, twirling each successive sausage like a jump rope in opposite directions, so that twisting the second sausage doesn't unwind the first. To braid a string of sausages: -(=a=)-(=b=)-(=c=)-(=d=)-(=e=)-(=f=)-(=g=)-(=h=)-(=i=) Fold =a= and =b= together, with the joint uppermost*. Lay the joint between =c= and =d= over the joint between =a= and =b=, and tuck =d= back between =b= and =c=. The first four sausages now make a neat bunch, connected at their ends. Tuck sausage =e= and =f= over the joint between =b= and =c=, the opposite way that you tucked =d=. Tuck =g= between =e= and =f=, as =d= between =b= and =c=. Continue in that wise until the entire string is braided. Pass a small loop of string around the first joint, and hang in a cool place until somewhat dry (overnight in a fridge, for example). The total weight of the string of sausages may be enough to pull apart the top sausages, as the gut is very soft when wet. If so, knot a piece of string around the top joint, then use a butcher's wrap or similar knot to tie it around each successive joint, making sure that the string is shorter than the sausages for each bunch. *This is the easiest way to start the braid, but puts a 4 sausage bunch at the top. Alternatively, tie b's leading tail around the c-d joint, making sure to catch both bits in the string when you hang or bind them. Braiding the sausages prevents them from untwisting, greatly improves the aesthetics, and cuts the total hanging length by two thirds. For short persons, this can be a Good Thing. Last night, italian style bulk sausage tomato sauce over farfarelle(sp). Tonight, leftover fennel sausage in a tomato/red wine sauce (to each lb browned meat, add 1 can tomato paste, 1.5-2 cans red wine. I got that recipe from a nice lady who'd occasionally let a gaggle of homeless hippies hang out at her place) over homemade fettucine. |
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