[Sca-cooks] Another sausage question

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Oct 9, 2009, at 4:12 PM, Deborah Hammons wrote:

> I have an out of kingdom laurel who swears that it is period to boil  
> the
> sausages/brats etc in  beer or wine or mead.

I can think of at least one English recipe, probably 15th century, for  
simmering meat in ale wort (it's for faux sturgeon made of veal  
shank), and several for simmering meats in ale or wine. I haven't seen  
any direct evidence for doing this with sausages, and I thought the  
whole point of bratwursts is that they're grilled or fried (yes, I  
know they are so treated in the modern US and Europe, but think about  
the name).

I think it would be perfectly acceptable to go to your laurel friend  
and tell him or her that you'd like to learn more about this subject,  
and ask for the source of the information on boiling sausages in beer,  
wine or mead. This is kind of what Laurels are for... of course, how  
would I know??? ;-)

>  I couldn't find any recipes
> that are period that mention it.  I used new world rather than  
> period so
> that I wouldn't get the what period are you looking at comments.  Just
> sausage.  And I don't want to add any pork products.  So I will make  
> a small
> batch without fat, one with probably beef suet or lard, and see what  
> the
> taste and texture is like.  Thank you.

One thing to consider is that without added fat, you're going to have  
a much narrower window of forgiveness on things like overcooking and  
drying out (which is where bratwursts, fried or grilled where you can  
see what's going on, might come in handy). Lard, without some  
qualification, is pretty much always pork fat, but beef kidney suet  
might work.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter