Sunday, May 23, 2010

Current sausages

Most of the fermented sausages I've made recently are now ready to eat. The only one left hanging in the pantry (I had to move them out of the spare shower when I had visitors and the weather is cool enough now to be able to keep them elsewhere anyway) is the saucisson d'Alsace. It'll probably be ready in another couple of weeks. Here is a sample platter:

They are, clockwise from top left; Venison salami seasoned with white pepper and garlic; a pork salami seasoned with garlic, cinnamon, allspice, cumin, and nutmeg; Spanish chorizo, which has garlic, cayenne, and both sweet and hot pimentón; and hare salami with garlic and a lot of black pepper.

The Spanish chorizo is delicious, this is the third time I've made it and it will be something I make fairly regularly for the foreseeable future. It's also quick to make (ready in 2-3 weeks), which is nice.
The pork salami with cumin etc is an adaptation of a recipe for sujuk. The recipe said to use lamb and beef if I remember correctly, but I had pork so that's what I used. I can't imagine it would taste as good made with lamb, this is the nicest salami I've made so far. You can't notice the cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, I think they just round out the flavours; the strongest taste is cumin.
The hare and venison salamis would benefit from being made with pork back fat instead of the random pork fat I got from the butcher. They're perfectly nice, but the texture isn't quite right. They're also seasoned mainly with pepper, which is a little boring. On the other hand, turning these meats into salami has removed all traces of "gamey" flavours from them. This was the prime motivator in the case of the hare - Stephen, who shoots the game I get, dislikes the gaminess of the hares' back legs.
I'm looking forward to trying the saucisson d'Alsace, it also has cakey sorts of spices in it, but with the addition of rum.

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