Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (124 page)

SALT AND SPICES

Seasoning is always an important part of sausage making and of
charcuterie
in general, since this is what gives the meat character, making your own brand different from any other. Furthermore, the salt and spices that enter into the preparation retard oxidation in the meat and are thus preservatives. French recipes often specify simply
épices, sel épicé,
or
quatre épices,
meaning use your own spice formula. The old standby,
quatre épices,
is a bottled mixture available everywhere in France; the four spices are usually pepper, clove, ginger or cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Sel épicé
is spiced salt that is usually 2 parts white pepper and 2 parts mixed spices for every 10 parts of salt.

You will find it useful to have your own spice mixture that you can keep at hand in a screw-top jar. Use it not only for sausages but for
pâtés,
meat loaf, as a marinade before cooking pork chops, and so forth. Here is a suggested formula: be sure all items are fresh-tasting and fragrant.

For 1 cup
épices fines

1 Tb each: bay, clove, mace, nutmeg, paprika, thyme

1½ tsp each: basil, cinnamon, marjoram or oregano, sage, savory

½ cup white peppercorns

If ingredients are not finely ground, either pulverize in an electric blender or a coffee grinder (finest grind), then pass through a fine-meshed sieve, and repulverize any residue.

For each 6 cups (3 lbs.) of meat mixture:
Suggested proportions of spice and salt

1 level tsp (2 grams)
épices fines

Plus other flavors such as more pepper, garlic, more of a specific herb, and so forth, depending on your taste and recipe

For fresh sausages,
pâté
mixtures, and stuffings: 1 level Tb (½ ounce) table salt

For sausages that are to be air-dried 2 or more days: 1½ Tb table salt

NOTE
: These proportions are what seem correct to us. Salts and spices vary in strength, and you may find you prefer a little more or a little less per pound.

PORK CUTS AND PORK FAT FOR SAUSAGES

Sausages, and
charcuterie
in general, are a byproduct of butchering. If you raise your own hogs and do your own butchering, you will have all the lean meat you need out of the trimmings from hams, loins, necks, and other large pieces. You will have, as well, the various types of fat, such as the hard fat from the back of the hog between the meat of the loin and the skin; this is the fatback, which is used not only for sausages and
pâtés
but also for larding roasts. You will have the leaf lard, almost impossible to find nowadays, which comes from inside the hog around the kidneys. You will have fat from the jowl, the neck, the belly, the hams, and the shoulders. Those of us not so fortunate have to buy retail cuts from the butcher or the supermarkets; our sausages will be a little more expensive to make, but they will be far better than anything we can buy because we will be using fresh meat of the best quality.

Unless your market goes in for foreign or regional cuts or you live in a
pork-eating area, you may have only the loin to work with. However, you can buy a large piece from the shoulder end, bone it out, roast or sauté the lean pieces, and turn the rest into sausage.

Rather than the difficult-to-find fatback, you may use fat trimmed from the outside of a loin roast; it works well because it is neither too soft nor too hard. Fat trimmed from the outside of fresh hams and shoulders is less desirable because a little soft, but it is quite usable when you have no alternatives. If you have a fat-and-lean cut like boneless shoulder butt, make a guess at the proportion of fat to lean and add whichever is lacking according to your recipe requirements. One cup of meat or of fat is approximately ½ pound.

CHAIR À SAUCISSE

[Plain Pork Sausage Meat—for Sausage Cakes, Breakfast Sausages, Chipolatas, and as a Stuffing Ingredient for
Pâtés,
Poultry, and So Forth]

It is so easy to make your own sausage meat and it is so good that you will wonder, once you have made it, why you ever were so foolish as to buy it. Usual French proportions of fat to lean are one to one; you may cut it down to 1 part fat and 2 parts lean, particularly when you are using the retail pork cuts suggested here rather than trimmings; less fat than this will give you less tender sausages.

For 6 cups (3 lbs.) sausage-meat mixture

1)
The sausage mixture

2 lbs. (4 cups) lean fresh pork meat such as fresh ham, shoulder, or loin

1 lb. (2 cups) fresh pork fat, such as fatback, fat trimmed from loin roast, or fresh leaf fat

A meat grinder

A heavy-duty mixer with flat beater blade, or large bowl and wooden spoon

1 Tb salt

1 tsp
épices fines
or ½ tsp white pepper and ½ tsp pulverized mixed herbs and spices to your taste

Put meat and fat through finest blade of meat grinder; for a very smooth mixture, you may put it through the grinder again. If you have a heavy-duty mixer, beat thoroughly with the seasonings until very well blended. Otherwise, blend thoroughly with a wooden spoon and/or your hands, first dipping them in cold water. To test for flavor, sauté a small spoonful for several minutes until cooked through; taste, and add more seasoning if you feel it necessary, but remember that the spice flavor will not develop to its full in the meat for 12 hours or more.

2)
Forming and cooking

Sausage Cakes or Sausage Roll.
Either form into sausage cakes with a wet spatula on waxed paper, or with your hands, dipping them in cold water frequently; then, if you wish, wrap cakes in
caul fat
. Or form into a cylinder 2 inches in diameter in cheesecloth as illustrated at the beginning of this section and chill; then unwrap and cut into cakes. Sauté slowly in a frying pan until nicely browned and thoroughly cooked through.

Sausage Links and Chipolatas.
For these you should have narrow sheep casings ⅝ inch in diameter, if you can get them. Breakfast links are usually 3 inches long; chipolatas, the tiny sausages used for cocktails and garnitures, 1½ to 2 inches. Form as illustrated at the beginning of this section.
To cook, prick in several places with a pin and place in a frying pan with ½ inch of water, cover and cook at just below the simmer for 5 minutes or until sausages have stiffened slightly. Pour off water and sauté, turning frequently, until nicely browned.