Tag Archives: Pork

Fresh Sausage, Sausage

Pork and Apple Sausage

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I don’t write much about fresh sausage, mainly because we generally stick to the two recipes I’ve already put online, my Thurlaston sausage and Lincolnshire sausage. However, I thought I’d do something different for a change and chose to make Pork and Apple sausages. Now I’ve tried these before and wasn’t happy with the results so I trawled the web to see what I could plagiarise from other people! The results received rave reviews from the family, so here’s my recipe with thanks to Welsh Wizard and Parson Snows from the sausagemaking.org forum on whose recipes’ it’s loosely based:

Sausage Seasoning Mix

16g Salt
3g White Pepper
1g Fresh Rosemary
0.5g Dried Sage

Chop Rosemary then mix together well. I mixed them in a coffee grinder.

For 1kg of meat

1kg Locally Produced Pork Shoulder (about 20% visible fat)
85g Rusk
40g Dried Apple
110g Apple juice plus extra (see below)
20.5g Seasoning mix (above)

Start with about 400ml of good-quality apple juice. Boil it in a pan until it is reduced by half and leave it to cool. Then soak the dried apples in it for about 1 hour before chopping them.

Having kept the pork in a very cold fridge, mince it. I minced it through a plate with 6mm holes and then through one with 4.5mm holes. Add the rusk, seasoning, and chopped apple and then pour 110gm (110ml roughly) of the remaining apple juice over. Either mix by hand until you think you’re going to get frostbite or use a Kenwood-type food mixer (not a food processor) to mix it for 3 or 4 minutes until the mixture is sticky sausage meat. That is, it changes from just a burger-type mix into a sticky mass; the smell seems to change too. It’s hard to describe but you need to do this to develop the myosin in the meat that will stop the sausage from becoming dry and crumbly when you cook it. You may need to add a little more apple juice to get a good mix. Don’t add more than an extra 20ml – 25ml though, otherwise, the sausage will spit like a camel when you fry it!

Stuff the sausage into pre-soaked casings (follow the supplier’s advice for soaking the casings), then hang them to ‘bloom’ (develop flavour) in the fridge for 6 – 8 hours. Some fridges are very dry so check the sausages regularly and if they appear to be drying out too quickly put them on a tray and cover them for the rest of the ‘blooming’ period.

You could use cider instead of apple juice in this recipe. Preferably a local one.

The only disappointing thing about these sausages is that I had to buy imported dried apples; it looks like I’m going to have to dry some myself when they’re next in season

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Chorizo

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When I started making my latest batch of ASDA clone chorizo it was my intention to photograph everything and create a sort of mini-tutorial. Needless to say when I got involved with making them I forgot to take most of the photos!

I started off with a big chunk of pork collar, also known as shoulder spare rib, and cut it into strips. If you have a small mincer you will have to cut it smaller. I prefer strips to chunks as the screw in the mincer pulls them through with very little need to use the pusher.

The meat with plenty of fat attached was cooled right down and then minced through an 8mm mincer plate.

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Far-Famed Cambridge Sausage

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When I came across a sausage called the “Far-Famed Cambridge Sausage” in a 1938 ‘Handy Guide for Pork Butchers’, I couldn’t resist making it? But what type of sausage was it?

I’m guessing that it was far better known in those days: I’d only ever heard of it in passing. A quick online search told me that the best know brand was Palethorpe’s ‘Royal Cambridge sausages’, though they were made in Shropshire, and that there were 2,500lbs of them were aboard the Titanic when she sailed on her maiden voyage!

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The Not Lincolnshire Sausage

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This sausage formulation was posted on the sausagemaking.org forum. It has had a slight alteration by me. It was developed from a recipe that was originally supplied by the butcher Phil Groth to forum member Parson Snows with some adaption by another forum member, Oddley.

I have since been informed that the only herbs and spices in a ‘true’ Lincolnshire sausage are sage, salt, and pepper. This was supported by The Lincolnshire Sausage Association’s application for EU PGI status. So, this recipe is ‘technically’ not a true Lincolnshire; it is, however, a great recipe and a Lincolnshire sausage in spirit.

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Meat Recipes

Butcher’s Faggots

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In 2009, I wrote:

I’ve posted before about making faggots but they were the type you buy in gravy from the shops. This recipe is for the more traditional faggot that you get from a good butcher’s shop. I know most people reheat them and serve them with gravy; I like them sliced up in thick slices and fried.

The recipe is an adaption of one posted by ‘Somerset Lad’ on the River Cottage Forum. In the original, the meat is cooked in liquid before being ground and mixed. Around here, it is normal to mince/grind the meat and shape the faggots before cooking. I also prefer a higher ratio of pork meat to liver than in his recipe.

Ingredients

Meat
Pig’s Fry 60.00% (liver, heart, lungs, etc.)
Fatty Pork (Belly) 40.00%

Other ingredients as a percentage of the total meat weight:

Fresh Breadcrumbs 16.66%
Dried Sage 0.24%
Parsley 0.16%
Onion 10.00%
White Pepper 0.28%
Black Pepper 0.15%
Salt 1.60%

Method

Mince the meats then mix in the dry ingredients.
Leave it to stand for about an hour – it will firm up.
Shape into the size faggots you want; wet hands make this easier, put them into a dish and fill it to about a third of the way up the faggots with stock or water. Cook in a 190°C oven (170°C fan) for about 40 minutes. Cover with foil if the tops are getting too brown

If using caul, soak it in tepid water for about an hour, then wrap a piece around each faggot before cooking.

Faggots freeze well.

Meat Recipes

Faggots. No ‘Brains’ Needed

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An article in the Farmers’ Guardian titled ‘Offal renaissance to boost livestock industry’ reminded me that I had a bag of pig’s ‘bits’ in the freezer, ready for making faggots.

I used this recipe by Antony Worrall Thompson. Unlike many others, it doesn’t boil the meat before mincing. I amended the recipe slightly adding more sage, and parsley instead of chives. The gravy was made using stock, tomato puree, and soy sauce for colour thickened with a roux – my wife cannot have anything with wine in it.

I’m pleased with the end result and Emma, my younger daughter loves them – better than Brains dad! Not that that would be difficult! They are very much the ‘faggot and gravy’ type rather than the firmer faggots many local butchers prepare – I like that type sliced and fried.

Next time I’d add even more sage and cover them in the later stages of cooking, but all in all, I’m very satisfied.