09 October, 2010

Oktoberfest Wrap Up

Oh suffer little sausage blog. I'm sorry I wasn't able to do live blogging from Sausage Week, but we did have some fun. Here's the Recap:

Hocks and belly

I started the Saturday before with a trip to T&J Meat Packing. I picked up a pork belly and some hocks. I put them into a cure using the recipe from Taking Back Bacon.

A hank of casings

Monday, I picked up a hank of hog casings from Howard's in Munster.

Tuesday, we lost power. I was supposed to cut up chickens and make stock, but instead went out to dinner.

Wednesday, smoked bacon, cut up chickens made stock.

Bacon:  Removing the rind

Thursday, Bonne Femme made 30 lbs of German potato salad...

Piping the puff

I made 200 shells for puffs. The Columbus crew (Mom, JL and GMA) arrive.

Dueling grinders

Friday, Jerry and Kevin came over we set up the dueling grinders and ran 35 lbs of pork and 10 lbs of chicken through the plates. We made Wiesswurst, bratwurst, bacon bratwurst, cheddar brats and chicken Parmesan sausages.

Wiesswurst

Sausage stuffing station

Bratwurst

Mix master K

Sausage Fridge

Saturday, Weisen. I picked-up a keg of Munsterfest from 3 Floyds

Our Germanic Hosts

I think this is the last year for my 40 y.o. lederhosen on little E. Here's his battle pose:

Cheeky in battle mode

Meanwhile in the kitchen Mom and JL made pretzels

Rolling pretzels

Pretzel

Dipped in a lye solution.

Pretzels

The best pretzels in Chicago. For those who asked, I never did get my mom's 'top secret' recipe, but I did spy a copy of Peter Reinhart's artisan breads every day : fast and easy recipes for world-class breads. Look for the pretzel recipe there. She made several batches ahead of time, then froze the shaped pretzels. This seemed to work well.

JL on the Pastry Cream Station

JL made Pastry cream which we put into squeeze bottles so party goers could make their own cream puffs. All the puffs got gobbled up before I could get a picture.

Sausage

Shonks picks a sausage

Remember the hocks from earlier in the week? I braised them in stock and cider along with sauerkraut, onion and apples until they fell apart. They became the bed where I held the grilled sausage for service.



Friends brought some exotic and not so exotic condiments:

Condiments

Mustard gift



Weisen (the field)



Here's Links to more photos.

Josh's Oktoberfest pictures

Eric's Oktoberfest pictures

Saucisson MAC's Oktoberfest pictures on flickr


Thank you everyone for a great time.

Cheers.

5 comments:

Dave said...

Cool that the sodium bicarbonate works for the pretzels as well as the sodium hydroxide.

Looked like a great time!

TC said...

You've inspired me to try doing the same. Looks like a lot of fun! A buddy of mine and I spent all day yesterday grinding and stuffing. Next year I'm hoping to get more people in the process.

mac said...

Dear Dave:
I talked to my mom last night said she went to a pretzel demo @Wild Goose. She said it was nice but she makes a better pretzel. My mom went looking for lye last week at Tractor Supply, the folks at the store said they where cleaned out the day before by some guy. Later she learned that the stuff is used to make meth. Go figure, I learn something new everyday. She finally found some up @ Lehman's. Thanks for writing.

Dear TC:

Making sausage is fun especially when you have help. Let me know if you have any questions.

PS: Loved your helicopter on Magnum P.I. A MD500 right?

Thanks for writing.
Cheers.

TC said...

I wish I still had a helicopter in HI because I wouldn't be here in Chicago! lol

Would love for you to post your recipe for Wiesswurst. Right now I've stuck to 3 different sausages; saucisse de Toulouse, saucisse de Ratatouille (daughter's invention) and Lemon/Rosemary sausage I've come up with but need to expand.

TC said...

I posted my adventures for Sausagefest 2010 on my blog.

http://lecochonfumant.blogspot.com/