I didn’t know whether to post this in the cooking category or general, but I’m sure the mods can move it if need be.
I’ve mentioned before that I must be a bad German in that I don’t go crazy over sausages. Not knackwurst, or wiener, or brats, not currywurst… it’s not even that I dislike them, I just never understood the appeal over a grilled solid piece of meat.
Well, the Lao sausages I got to try at the Philadelphia SEA market last fall made me a convert. They were absolutely bursting with flavor — ginger, garlic, lemongrass & chile peppers, with just the right amount of fat, and we brought several packages of them home. Two of them will be for dinner tonight
Today, at the fishmonger who also now also apparently carries sausages from Maine, I purchased these:
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
2
The guy from Pen-y-Lan Pork sells at a farmers market we go to (and it’s next Saturday). They have a variety but we always buy the Olde English, which is nice and peppery. Perfect for breakfast or a casserole
If we didn’t still have 3 more packages of Lao sausage (6 in each one) in the freezer plus the one I posted above, I would’ve tried a bunch more. Not the blueberry maple breakfast sausage, given my avoidance of fruit in my savories, but a few others. I’ll try to remember to take a picture of the other varieties next time I’m there.
I’ve never had Lao sausages, but I understand Hmong sausages are very similar, and I love Hmong sausage. We have a fairly large Hmong New Year celebration in my area, and I always make it a point to buy a plate of them, which usually comes with some sticky rice and a little bit of papaya salad on the side. Sweet, hot, salty, fatty, all in one meaty tube o’ goodness! Then again, I think there’s only one kind of sausage I’ve ever had that I did not like, and that was a vegetarian hot dog.
It’s been a while, but I’ve made Hmong sausages before, and while my version has not been as good as most of the ones I’ve purchased at various festivals, I still like it.
We purchased a package of the sweet & salty pork sausages at the SEA market as well. They are delicious, too, but the lemongrass ones are my favorites.
I’m boring. Sweet Italian sausages from my local butcher that have a nice bit of fennel in them are usually what I buy. On occasion, I’ll get their hot Italian sausage.
I’ve tried from supermarket Aidell’s chicken & apple sausage; meh. Not even sure if they sell it anymore.
Giving a shout-out to our favorite local guy, who appears to be extending his territory. The down-side of his success is that he has closed his meat counter and bierstube at the Pike Place Market.
You can still purchase directly from him by picking up at the factory. (You also can shop online, but I’ve not had the best experience with their fulfillment service.)
Not a fan of the Aidell’s sausage products at all. Rubbery texture was off-putting for me. Yup, they are still around.
My favorites in our area were any variety from the recently closed Karl’s Sausage Kitchen. I hope to find another all-around source to make up for the loss of Karl’s.
Lilac Hedge Farm [MA] has tasty chicken sausages even though the shape is unappealing to me. Luckily the shape matters not when cooked in a sausage, onions, and peppers preparation.
@linguafood
Chorizo of the Palacios brand (Navarra) or the Cantimpalos brand from Segovia
Chistorra from Navarra
Linguiça from Portugal or made by the US Portuguese American residents
Merguez from North Africa
5 lbs boneless pork butt
2 jalapeño peppers
½ C lime juice
2 T kosher salt
1 t Instacure #1 (pink salt)
1 head fresh garlic
½ C ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
½ C fresh thai basil
½ C fresh cilantro
2 T crushed red pepper
15 feet of hog casing
Cut the pork butt into 1” chunks and put into freezer for about half an hour. Pulse pork butt chunks, about ¾ lb at a time, in a food processor about 30 times. Repeat until all the pork has been roughly chopped. Return to freezer.
Process jalapeños, lime juice, salt, instacure, garlic, ginger, basil, and cilantro in food processor until smooth, about 60-90 seconds.
Remove meat from freezer and put in bowl of stand mixer. Add the jalapeño mixture and crushed red peppers and mix on low for 1-2 minutes until mixture gets sticky. Scrape mixture down as necessary. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
Rinse the hog casings of salt and load onto the sausage stuffer feed tube. Pack the sausage mixture into the hopper and crank slowly until the mixture starts to fill the casing. Tie the end, and continue to crank slowly, modulating the feed rate with your free hand. When the mixture is completely stuffed or the end of the casing is reached, tie off the end. Twist links to desired length.
Hang sausages for 2-4 hours to dry and tighten. Refrigerate overnight before cooking or freezing.
“garlic”–basically Italian with added garlic
“olive”–basically Italian with chopped olives
“Sicilian”–basically Italian with rougher-chopped meat and no fennel. I don’t care for
fennel-class flavors
“Greek”–a local purveyor’s take on loukaniko.
All except the last are from the butcher counter at Berkeley Bowl West. The Greek is from the bargain bin at a local supermarket. BBW used to carry a lamb-rosemary sausage, but stopped. I miss it.
