[Sca-cooks] Sausage results

[Michael Gunter]

This weekend I finally made all of the zervelat for my A&S
display. Well, I kind of went overboard, I just can't seem to 
figure out less than feast quantities. So I made an easy
10 lbs of sausage.
 
I hand minced around 2 lbs for my entry and Mistress Clara
is sending me her large ceramic funnel so they can be hand
stuffed. My display sausage will be as authentic as I can make
them.
 
The rest I ground in my Kitchenade because hand mincing is a
lot of work and a bit time consuming.  I also took pity on our 
long suffering downstairs neighbor and spared them a couple hours
of me pounding on my cutting board mincing. 
 
I used pork shoulder with a nice layer of fat and skin (much of the
skin was discarded because it was too hard), pork belly (approx
20% - 25% in weight) and smoked Black German Bacon (approx
10% total weight)  So I used 8 lbs of shoulder, 2 lbs of belly and
1 lb of bacon. These were ground first on a coarse grind. Then
grated cave-aged Emmentalier cheese, sugar, cinnamon, cloves,
nutmeg, salt, black pepper, and ginger were mixed in.  The
mixture was then ground a second time on a finer grind to
incorporate the spices and make a smoother filling.
 
The hog casings sat in  fresh water to soak out the brine and then
soaked a long time with saffron to color them. Although the instructions
state to soak in saffron so the sausages are yellow, they never turn
that color when cooked after several tries.
 
The casings were stuffed (except for the 2 lbs or so of the hand
minced forcemeat that is in the freezer awaiting delivery of the
funnel) and the sausages boiled for 15 minutes.
 
Final result is perfect texture.  I've been very unhappy with the
texture of my previous two sausage attempts. They have been too
lean and dry. The meat was also a bit crumbly. But not this time.
Juicy and fatty with the correct mouth feel. My only unhappiness
is the spicing is a little too light. They need a bit of salt. But they
should go well with the mustard I'm serving with it which also has
cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc....
 
The machined sausage will be served with the period sausage to
look at the differences and similarities between modern processed
sausage and that produced entirely by hand. Besides, this way I'll
have lots because people always want to try more.
 
Thanks for the help and advice, it really worked out this time.
 
Gunthar
 
 
 
 
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