Homemade Sausage Making

It has been a case of new job (going so well), study, essay writing and sleeping for me recently. I do find working and study at the same time hard. I know in the long run it is worth it, but. Last assignment due on 8 December. After that I can continue with one of my many projects.

A while back I cooked a pork belly with coriander; fennel and pepper. It was washed down with a stunning bottle of fume blanch (like an aged sav blanch with a hint of smoke, will put a little in the sausage). I think that this mixture would make a great smoked cooked sausage or a fermentated sausage. I bought the bottle at a wine tasting. I then emailed the vineyard for some flavour matches. Much to my joy I got a reply from the wine maker. He makes his own smoked sausages. He suggested coriander citrus and fennel would work well with the wine in a sausage.

Recently I was given a recipe for a Cumberland sausage. I made some Cumberland sauce (orange, port in it) and had this on the sausage. I think that this is a good place to start with my sausage. Has anyone used orange zest in sausages? Ruhlam & Polcyn use the grated zest of an orange in their Orange and Walnut Salami (4lbs of lean pork and 1lbs of backfat). I do not want to make that kind of volume until I perfect the recipe. Any suggestions on how much I should use on a kg (2.2 lbs). Should I use just over a quarter of a zested orange?

Mark, Kutas, on page 276, has a recipe for Greek Lukanika sausage that uses orange zest - 3 T for 10 lbs pork butt.

Hi Mark,

I think Shushwap gave you a good lead on the Greek sausages using orange zest. I remembered one such recipe on Hank Shaw's site, and maybe you can gen some guidance as to the amount of orange zest. http://honest-food.net/2008/04/24/louka ... k-sausage/

If you have not visited his site before, have a look. Hank experiments a lot with different versions of sausages and is quite passionate about it.

Interesting comment about fume blanc. I discovered this type of wine nearly 10 years ago while on a cycling tour of the Loire Valley. There we visited a few wineries and I tasted Pouilly-Fumé. It is essentially a sauvignon blanc but has that distinctive smoky, fruity flavour drawn from the unique mineral composition of local soils. It has become one of my favourite whites.

Thanks for your comments. Sorry for not replying sooner. I Am bogged down in an assignment at the moment!

I jave used orange zest in my teriyaki sticks, I use about 4 teaspoons in a 8 lbs batch, I have also used lime zest alot, my wife is a lime freak, her favorite is the tequila lime sticks, for this I use the zest of 9 limes soaked ina 1/2 cup of tequilla for 3 days, they are fantastic,Tim

Starting this project today. I will make a kg of fresh sausages. I will make 2*500g batches. Both will have 27.5 g of wine (based on my standard of 55 ml per kg of meat), and 1 teaspoon of orange zest. I will not use the fume blanc in this trial. Not sure how much fennel. I am after subtle flavours not in your face. The difference will be fennel one with the other without. Depending on the results I will make a small batch of smoked cooked sausages on Wednesday (forecast is good then). I will then jiggle around with the mix and make a larger batch between Christmas and New Year. We are in early Summer come mid winter at the moment. Had to put the heat pump on for a couple of days.

Looking forward to seeing the results of your experiments.

I made 4*250g batches, with slight differences with varying degrees of success. After a taste test I now think that I know what will work. My next single batch will be 500g. If that works it will be on to a version that I will smoke and cook.

I combined all the sausage mix that was remaining and will use it as stuffing for christmas Turkey.