[Sca-cooks] German Sausage recipes

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Volker Bach:
>On Thu, 6 May 2004 16:28:44 -0400, Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise
><jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> wrote :
>
>>  > <<31>>
>>  > Pratw?rst von vischen
>>  > Hakch den hechten chlain vnd gutz gewurtz
>>  > darzu vnd nim ch?m darein vnd tue das an
>>  > einen spis vnd pratz vnd pegewss mit smaltz
>>  > vnd richz an mit zukker, ymber vnd traget.
>>  >
>>  > Roasting sausages of fish
>>  >
>>  > Chop pike finely and add good spices and cumin. Place that on a spit
>and
>>  > roast it, and baste it with lard. Serve it with sugar, ginger and
>/traget/
>>  > (gum tragacanth? candied spices?)
>>
>>  Do you think this just omits to tell you to put it in the casings?
>
>I guess either is possible. There are caseless sausages in later German
>cuisine IIRC, and we all know Oxford sausages.

Caseless Oxford sausages are a pretty recent 
development, having been originally cased, then 
made as crepinettes (wrapped in caul fat). Same 
for "faggots"; the caul fat, at least.

>I'll have to try it at some point, but given what they charge for pike
>it'll be a while till I'Äm willing not only to fork out that money, but
>then to chop up the fish rather than boil, steam or roast it properly...
>
>Does anyone know a good substitute for pike? Freshwater predators aren't
>exactly common, and I'm no great fish expert to start with.
>
>Giano

You want something firm, white, and sweet. Carp, 
although quite bony, usually, and if trimmed free 
of all the reddish-brown "bloodmeat", is a good 
substitute, but there's obviously a lot of waste, 
all things considered. The best substitute among 
commercially available freshwater fish? Probably 
walleye, which is sort of a giant yellow perch, 
and sometimes known as yellow pike (and often 
used commercially for gefilte fish, so the 
precedent is basically there). Maybe some kind of 
black bass, if somebody farms them, might work.

It all depends on where you live, of course. My 
knowledge of European fish is mired between the 
theoretical and the anecdotal, while my knowledge 
of American fish is fairly broad, and probably 
better than most people's.

I'd be concerned about using the various catfish 
variants, but they _are_ firm, white, and sweet, 
and the various flavorings would probably mask 
any inherent muddiness. Yes, this is a golden 
opportunity for everyone to tell us about their 
favorite treatment of catfish, of which none of 
us have ever heard previously ;-) .

Maybe your best bet would be to list your 
options, and we could recommend a pike substitute 
more easily from that list than from an infinite 
list, if you know what I mean.

As for whether or not they're cased, I can only 
say that yes, either is possible, but that the 
job of roasting them on a spit, and having them 
not end up on the floor of the hearth, or 
impossibly dry, is much easier if they are cased, 
in one way or another. Which doesn't prove they 
_were_ cased, but it might be said to stack the 
deck a little in favor of the concept.

Adamantius