Sausage making recommendations?

Nicko · #1 03-17-2006, 08:49 AM

I am looking for a good book on sausage making and curing meats. Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks.

cape chef · #2 03-17-2006, 09:39 AM

Nicko,

I use Garde Manger The art and craft of the cold kitchen from the CIA.

Great sausage, cured and smoked meat chapters.

phatch · #3 03-17-2006, 10:21 AM

I learned a lot from this book, Bruce Aidells's Complete Sausage Book : Recipes from America's Premium Sausage Maker. Haven't bought a copy yet, as I'm working through suasage info in my present books. I have an older copy of the book CC mentions too.

This site, while not the best, is part of a web-ring, a series of different sites on the same topic. At the bottom of the page is a box with a series of links to the next sites. The home page for this specific web-ring is down, but still plenty of good info to explore.

http://www.exit201.com/sausstart.htm

My bro-in-law killed a pig recently. In the side I bought, I had the butcher package up the trim and fat in 2 pound packages for me to make into sausage at my leisure. I made some breakfast style sausage two days back. The package was close to 1/3 fat, more than I wanted, but much more than you get in commercial sausage anymore. Turned out a tender and flavorful sausage with real drippings for the biscuit and gravy and sausage breakfast.

The butcher rendered out an amazing amount of lard from the pig too, a very fat pig. I trimmed and trimmed on the ham to get it down to the fat I wanted and it was still the fattiest ham I had in a long time. Excellent flavor though.

Phil

Nentony · #4 03-17-2006, 01:52 PM

Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn is really good.

Tony

Mezzaluna · #5 03-17-2006, 04:01 PM

Nicko, I have The Art of Making Suasages, Pates, and Other Charcuterie by Jane Grigson (1985). I'm not using it. Are you interested? It looks pretty good. Just let me know.

Mezz

cakerookie · #6 03-17-2006, 06:51 PM

Check out this book "Barbecuing and Sausage Making Secrets" Culinary Institue of Smoke-Cooking. Charlie & Ruthie Knote ISBN #0-9632082-0-9.

phatch · #7 03-17-2006, 10:29 PM

I've got that one too. I'm not impressed with it.

Phil

cakerookie · #8 03-18-2006, 04:37 AM

I was not either really.Just throwing out some options. I have uncles that make sausage all the time and they are really good at it. Some kind of old family recipe handed down through the ages even I have no idea how they do it but its darn good.

shroomgirl · #9 03-19-2006, 09:36 AM

I've got Aidell's Hot Link and Country Flavors; Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating; and then because of this thread I looked alittle deeper and found....Zuni Cafe has a Sausage and Charcuterie chapter that's succinct yet oh so detailed....pix too.....and then Paul Prudhomme's The Prudhomme Family Cookbook has Craswfish Boudin (in hog casing), Boudin Blanc!!! yes HURRAY if anyone knows good boudin it's Chef Paul, he was raised in the bayou and those Cajuns know boudin (I was right about pork liver, 1 1/4# pork shoulder to 1/4 # pig liver, rice, loads of green onions, garlic, and cayene....looks like the boudin I know and adore)....Then Chef Paul included Red Boudin...." This is a recipe that Paul feels is important to put in the book for historical reasons. Very few people will be able to make red boudin, or blood sausage, because there are almost no sources for purchasing fresh pork blood. There is little demand for red boudin and small meat-packing plants, because of the great expense involved, are rarely able to comply with federal and state regulations for handling the fresh blood for commercial use. (Louisiana does have three commercial meat companies that have state approval to handle and sell it).
The family made red boudin only during a butchering or for a boucherie, because the blood has to be extremely fresh-just as they made Bouilli onl when they butchered because the organ meats also must be extrememly fresh. Cajun families who still do their own butchering continue to make red boudin at boucheries. This is really the only place to find it; we were unable to find any stores even in Cajun country that still sell red boudin. So visit a Cajun family during a boucherie; not only will you get to taste red boudin, you will also surely "pass a good time"!"

That book was written in 1987....almost 20 years ago. I wonder how many others have recorded recipes from special sausages...St. Louis, actually Missouri had a strong German and French settler base that made wonderous sausages, there are still a few old world butchers here....very few. G&W makes a liverwurst in a stomach pouch that is rich and lucious, if you shop on Sat. and it's crowded they'll offer you a can of Busch beer to help time pass as you wait your turn with the salesmen (women). When I talk to farmers about their grandmothers they tell stories of women who made everything...they bought flour,salt, sugar and oil period....everything else came from their farms. I asked one of the sheep/cattle farmers who is in charge of a co-op canning plant about leaf lard and he talk of Germans preserving in meat in lard....I mentioned confit and he had never heard of it. Funny how rural Germans are familiar with a process that urban high end chefs are using...the craftsmanship speaks of another time, and hopefully a time to come....or at least one not lost.

Still no further along on the canning of leaf lard, but so far I figure I'm going to have to render then have some room temp for rapid use (2-3 months) then freeze the rest....Bummer. The goal is to have freezer space available things that absolutely need to be frozen.

Peachcreek · #10 03-19-2006, 01:50 PM

Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas.
The first book I read on how to make sausage. I read it close to 15 years ago but I don't know if it has been revised since then. Easy to follow and a good starting point to learn. At least it was for me. Good luck on your quest.

Pete · #11 03-19-2006, 10:13 PM

One of my favorites is "Home Sausage Making" by Susan Mahnke Peery & Charles G. Reavis.

shroomgirl · #12 03-20-2006, 06:43 AM

Would you guys write which recipes you use from the books or what you like about them please? I just contacted Jan Langone from Ann Arbor who sells out of print cookbooks....like 20,000 of them. But knowing what to select is a delimma since you can't decide it's not what your looking for and return it.

Nicko · #13 03-20-2006, 03:00 PM

I am currently working my way through

Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn which is very good.

Pete I have heard the book you recommended is very good I will check it out.

I have made salted cod so far (my wife almost left me on that one because the fridge smelled so bad) and I am currently making some bacon one with a maple cure and one with a plain salt cure.