SC - Re: sausage recipes

[ChannonM at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/15/00 2:58:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ddfr at best.com 
writes:

> 
>  >The recipe we worked on first was the Lucanian Sausage recipe. Following
>  >Platinas instruction resulted in an unedibly salty sausage.
>  
>  Is it possible that this is intended as something like the little 
>  chinese sausages--not really a foodstuff but a condiment? They are 
>  very good in lots of things--but too strongly flavored to make a meal 
>  of.
>  -- 

That's a possibility I hadn't considered. 
Sabina Weserlin (German, 16th C I believe) says
23 If you would make a good sausage for a salad

Then take ten pounds of pork and five pounds of beef, always two 
parts pork to one part of beef. That would be fifteen pounds. To that 
one should take eight ounces of salt and two and one half ounces of 
pepper, which should be coarsely ground, and when the meat is 
chopped, put into it at first two pounds of bacon, diced. According 
to how fat the pork is, one can use less or more, take the bacon from 
the back and not from the belly. And the sausages should be firmly 
stuffed. The sooner they are dried the better. Hang them in the 
parlor or in the kitchen, but not in the smoke and not near the oven, 
so that the bacon does not melt. This should be done during the 
crescent moon, and fill with the minced meat well and firmly, then 
the sausages will remain good for a long while. Each sausage should 
be tied above and below and also fasten a ribbon on both ends with 
which they should be hung up, and every two days they should be 
turned, upside down, and when they are fully dried out, wrap them in 
a cloth and lay them in a box.

15 lbs of beef to 8ounces of salt is less than my 22lbs of meat to 18 ounces 
of salt. Now we're talking German vs Italian, 16th vs 15th C but it is a 
guidline to work with. I'm still considering that your comment is a 
possibility. It was quite comical working out the recipe, because we kept 
chanting to ourselves "trust in the recipe, trust in the recipe". 

Although, there is another alternative, which could be that Platina miswrote, 
he was pretty liberal with his adaptions of Martino. As well, there are 
apparently  other Lucanian sausage recipes in Scully's latest translations 
that give quantities considerably less, like in the neighbourhood of 1/3 salt 
compared to Platina's. I have to get my hands on a copy soon.

There are a few questions that I have yet to answer to have a complete 
picture of this recipe and other sausage recipes. I am just excited knowing 
there are so many recipes to work with.

Thanks for the consideration, I appreciate your input. When I develop more 
research I will post it and hope to hear from you again. 

Hauviette