SC - Period Sausages

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Korrin S DaArdain wrote:
> 
> I did find the following in my collection. Enjoy.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >From the Twelfth Night Feast In The Crown Province of Østgardr, East
> Kingdom
> A.S. XXIX (A.D. 1995) by Phil Troy (Gideanus Adamantius)
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>         Venisoun Sauseges with Compote

Cool! I was looking for this on one of my less-than-400 floppy disks; I
had backed up more than half of the stuff on my hard drive in such a
manner as to make the information temporarily inaccessible (SyQuest
drive taken out of SCSI chain while I mess with CD burner...).

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, á 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.

Happy hunting, have fun!

Adamantius, apparently a.k.a. Master A. ;  )
Østgardr, East 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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