Homemade Sausage Making

Saucisson Jesus de Leon



Jesus de Lyon is one of the more famous saucissons originating from that city. The name comes from its appearance which resembles the newly born Jesus in swaddling cloth. It is served in France at Christmas time and on special occasions such as weddings, anniversaries and first holy communion celebrations. I first tried it two years ago in France when we purchased a few slices from a mobile charcuterier at a village market and became determined to craft my own. It was a bit of a challenge in finding an authentic recipe but Jesus de Lyon is a close cousin of Rosette de Lyon and there are a couple versions of it available (Poli, Marianski). The meats, ingredients and process for the Rosette are exactly the same as for the Jesus, except the Rosette is stuffed into smaller sized casings, usually 50-55mm hog middles. The best recipe source that I obtained was from fellow hobbyist Don Dao, who has been researching French charcuterie and who located and shared with me a bulletin issued in 2000 by the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry, detailing the officially sanctioned ingredients and character of the product. My version follows that in every way with the only exception being the addition of a small amount of cloves, a spice which is not permitted. Poli`s and Marianski`s recipes also include a number of ingredients that are "interdits". The drying took a bit longer than expected, 4 months and a few days.
But whatever I did, it worked beautifully. The flavour is amazing, one of the best tasting dry cured sausages that I made for quite a while. I will start another one so that it will be ready for Christmas. Hog middle caps are not that easy to source, I got mine from CBP, https://www.butcherspantry.com/natural- ... s-crespone



Jesus de Lyon
Recipe for 1kg of meat

Meats
770g class I pork, (shoulder, ham, loin) no fat or connective tissue
230g hard back fat

Ingredients
25g salt
.4g KNO3 (Substitute with 2.5g Cure #2)
3g garlic
3g pepper
.3g nutmeg
.3g mace
.3g ground cloves
75 ml red wine (I used Cabernet Franc)
B-LC-007 starter culture
Hog middle cap

Process
1. Cube meat and fat, mix with salt, Cure#2, dextrose and refrigerate in a sealed container for 48 hours.
2. Place cubed meat and fat in freezer for one to two hours and semi freeze everything.
3. Revive starter with small amount of distilled water and a pinch of dextrose. Add to meat within 20 minutes.
4. Grind everything through 8mm plate.
5. Mix starter culture and spices with the meat. Keep ground meat cold, mix thoroughly, taking care not to over mix to avoid fat smearing. You may want to refrigerate the meat between the grinding, mixing and stuffing steps.
6. Stuff as firmly as the casing will allow. Hog middle caps are irregular shaped and have weak spots, so you have to be extra careful. Tie or double net and perforate liberally to let out any trapped air.
7. Ferment at a temp of 20-22C for 36-48 hours, until pH drops to 5.2. Be careful not to let the pH drop below 5 so that the saucisson will benefit from micrococci bacteria. Bacteria such as Staphylococcus xylosus, S. carnosus and Kocuria are not effective in a high acid environment.
8. Mould starter optional, but recommended to avoid growth of unwanted wild moulds.
9. Hang for approximately 12-16 weeks at 12C and 80% RH, until a weight loss of 35%

Thanks, Chris!

Awesome Chris!,

Looks great. I’m not familiar will all of the different starter cultures out there but wouldn’t you need some sugar in the mix for the culture to feed on. I see a range of 5g/kg in Len poli’s recipe(doesn’t specify culture) @30c for 24hrs to meatsandsausage using 3g/kg with TSP for 72 hrs. Ultimately I believe all are trying to achieve the 5.2PH hurdle. I’m thinking 3g/kg at 20C with Mondostart Classic until 5.2 is achieved.
I tell ya figuring out this culture thing makes me want to drop the cultures all together.

Good eye, Ed! There should be 3g total sugar in the there, 1.5g dextrose and 1.5 sucrose. 5g would be too much for a product such as this. And with all due respect to Mr. Poli, fermenting at 30C when making any Southern European fermented/dried sausage is just plain wrong. The higher the temp, the faster the fermentation, which is not what you want.

Thx. I’ll let you know how it turns out

Is there a link(s) in here somewhere that would shed some light on why refrigerate for 48hrs. It looks to me that it gives the salt and cure a “head start”. I’m not sure of the dextrose- does this not give both “good” and “bad” bacteria (I’ll get there with the true names ) an equal chance? Bare with me I’m not the sharpest tac but I am persistent (a least that’s what my wife says )

By curing the meat prior to grinding, it will firm it up and the salt will also allow you to chill it to a lower freezing temp. You will get a a better grind, good meat to fat definition and less chance of fat smearing. Adding the sugar to the cure is optional if you will be adding starter culture after grinding. If not using a starter, it's best to add it with the curing salts.