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:



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.



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.



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



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



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.











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



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



Meanwhile in the kitchen Mom and JL made pretzels





Dipped in a lye solution.



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 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.





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:







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.

O’zapft is! Time to get to the Wiesn.

Webcam 1: Wirtsbudenstraße

Sausage Week 2010. Oktoberfest started today in Munich. Mayor Christian Ude tapped the keg at noon. Above is a live shot from the fest. You can check all the activity on the webcams at the Oktoberfest Website.

Today also marks the beginning of Sausage Week 2010. Have you ever wanted to have an Oktoberfest in your back yard? Follow along I'll show you how.

Prosit.

Sausage Week Finale: Oktoberfest

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures because I was busy eating sausage.

(Roll Credits)

Thanks to
Mom for making the Pretzels
Jolie (Jeanlouise) for making the cream puffs
Grandma for keeping the party going
Ekarhu (Eliot and Liisa) for the mustard in the tube
Jerry for helping stuff 30 lbs (117 links) of Bratwurst
Lisa and Phil for the Jumpy thing
Alison and Ron for the Bean Bags
Marge for the extra beer steins
Karen and Joachim for the tent

And thanks to everybody for coming.

click here to see how much garbage 62 beer drinking, sausage eating adults generated.

click here to see all the photos from Sausage Week on flickr.

Cheers.

Live from Sausage Week: Southside Larder

I think I never got my "Foodie Blogging Badge" (and Food Buzz never got back to me about being a "Featured Publisher") because I never did the requisite post with a picture of my fridge along with a description of it's contents. Here's my picture, can I be in the club now?

Yeah, ok, that's uh 40 lbs of sausage 2 racks of PBR, 2 dozen eggs, 2 gallons of milk, 3 quarts of yogurt and 4 lbs of Plugra.

Meanwhile The kitchen cavarly has arrived from Columbus just in time to inspect Bonne Femme's German potato salad.





gotta get back to work, we have a bunch of cream puff shells to fill.

Cheers.

Live from Sausage Week: Bratwurst

Three hours, thirty pounds of Bratwurst. I'm sure glad I don't do this for a living. It's hard business. Jerry came over to help and between the two of us we knocked it out.



First we had to cube the pork shoulder, Then we mixed in the seasonings: Salt, white pepper, ginger, nutmeg, caraway and mustard.



Working in 10 pound batches Jerry ran it through the grinder. Then I kneaded the mixture adding a little cream and water.



I mentioned in a previous post that I got casings from a packing house. The advantage to these casing versus asking for some at the grocery is that I was able to get casings long enough to do 10 pounds in one run.





Ok I'm done making sausage. What else do we need to make? Sausage Week Continues.

Thanks for coming over, J.

Cheers.

Live from Sausage Week: Chicken n Cheese

I don't usually do a test of a sausage mixture before stuffing, it is what it is right? But I do write down everything I put in and I have notes from almost every sausage I've made (I've got this blog too). When stuffing there is always a little bit at the bottom of the canister that doesn't make it in, that's what gets fried up for snack after a job of grinding and stuffing. Let's get to it:



here are some whole spices about to be ground, Fennel, mustard and coriander. I add salt, spices and powdered milk to the diced chicken.



I dice up some parmesan cheese and put it in the freezer before grinding.





The grinding station is set up, the cheese is mixed with the chicken and we are off and grinding. After grinding I mix in the parsley and a bit of vinegar and water.



Here is a hank of hog casings. Bonne Femme picked them up at Grant Park Packing.



The stuffer is loaded, let's get cranking.



I can run the stuffer solo, but it more fun with two.





Seven pounds of Italian style Chicken, Parsley and Parmesan sausage. That's just a tune up for tomorrow, Sausage Week continues.

Cheers.

Live from Sausage Week: Making Stock

What? You didn't know it was Sausage Week? Well, 'round here it is, and I will try my hardest to keep you updated on all the excitement. Right now, maybe not so exciting, I just finished prepping some chicken.



The Chicken is for sausage the bones are for stock.



First I sweat (no color! says Chef)the vegetables in a little butter. the vegetables (or mirepoix) 50% Onion, diced, 25% carrot diced and 25% celery diced. The total weight of the vegetables should be about 25% of the weight of the bones (i.e. 4lbs bones, 1lb vegetables). That's just to give you an idea of proportions, I don't do any weighing I just chop up whatever I have laying around. Once the vegetables are softened, throw in the bones, and add enough cold water to just cover the bones.



Next we need some herbs. Fresh Thyme, Fresh bay, and parsley stems. These could be tied up into what the pros call a Bouquet Garni, but since I am going to strain the stock there is no need to hassle with the twine.



With the stems in the pot, I got all this chopped parsley for my sausage. Don't you hate it when you are trying to garnish something with fresh chopped parsley and it all sticks to your fingers? Here's what you do:



Use cheesecloth or a tea towel or unbleached muslin bought at JoAnn's, and wrap up the wet chopped parsley. Rinse it under cold water then twist and squeeze.



Hey Presto, dry chopped parsley. You can even freeze this stuff.

Now my stock is boiling. I throw in a few of cloves of garlic, crushed but not peeled, and maybe a tablespoon of whole black peppercorns. Simmer for at least three hours, try for four. After that I will strain it, chill it, then skim of the fat. But that's later, I gotta go make the sausage now.

Cheers.