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.

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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.

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On the Sausage Trail in SW Michigan

My kids have been all over the world in search of summertime fun, but this year we found good times only an hour away in Southwest Michigan.

We found:



Beautiful Dog-friendly beaches



Lot's of U-pick



A winery trail




And a Sausage Trail.

Now gentle reader you may be saying to yourself "A Sausage Trail? How come I've never heard of that? I'm moving!"

Even though it's very plain to see now, it took me three years to connect the dots and I now only have a rough guide for you. We must undertake further investigation. For now I have mapped out four small shops where they make the sausage on the premises. Here's the 2010 SW Michigan Sausage Trail ver. 1.0 in Beta:


View SW Michigan Sausage Trail in a larger map


1st Stop: Drier's Meat Market, Three Oaks, MI,



When you think smoked meats in SW Michigan, you think Drier's. It's a beautiful shop with all kinds of smoked delicacies. I love their liverwurst, Bonne Femme loves the tub cheese.



If you are anywhere near Three Oaks, you should stop in. Three Oaks is nice place to walk around, other interesting things to see are:



A log smokehouse, on the second floor of the library,



Seifert's Farm Supply (but only if you are getting feed for your chickens or salt for your ice cream machine),



and Dewy's cannon, maybe not so interesting, but the kids liked climbing on it.

Drier's Meat Market
14 S. Elm ST.
Three Oaks, MI 49128
888-521-3999

Driers.com

2nd Stop: Sawyer Market, Sawyer, MI

I wandered into this place looking for beer. In the back is a very nice meat counter where I discovered freshly made sausages and other deli delights. I got some fresh bratwurst and they were very good.



The Sawyer Market also had a good price in beef tenderlion, it grilled up real nice.

Across the street from the market is the Sawyer Garden Center, lots of great produce there, but buy your meat (and PBR) at the Sawyer Market.

Sawyer Market
5864 Sawyer Road
Sawyer, MI 49125

269-426-4646

sawyermarket.com


3rd Stop Falatic's Meat Market, Sawyer, MI.

Warren Dunes State Park is one of my favorite spots to camp. To get there you have to drive by Falatic's. I stopped when I saw the sign advertising pickled herring. The place rates an eleven on the authentico meter, A small cold case, a huge grinder behind it, and the rest of the space is crammed with chest freezers and huge walk-in. The have a lot of sausages, some of it frozen, smoked beef sticks and of course, pickled herring. Definitely worth the stop.

Falatic's Meat Market
12236 Red Arrow Highway
Sawyer, MI 49125

269-426-3224

falatics.com



4th Stop: Bridgman Premier Meat Market, Bridgman, MI. (pictured earlier)

I stopped into this place on our last day, and I wish I had found it sooner. Great sausages for the grill and very nice guys behind the counter. They had a box of old butcher knives behind the register, not really good for buying, but fun to look at. Bridgman is on the way to the wineries we visited, Lemon Creek, Round Barn and Tabor Hill.

Bridgman Premier Meat Market
4352 Lake St
Bridgman, MI 49106

269-465-3533

bridgmanmeatmarket.com

So that's my sausage trail, I'll update it with more details and photos for ver 2.0. In the meantime enjoy the rest of your summer.



Cheers.

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World Cup Algerian Merguez

What's the best way to get inside your opponent's head? Find out what they eat. Merguez anyone? World Cup is on and the American's have a crucial test against Algeria tomorrow. So will the play be spicy? Let's find out.

I looked at a bunch of recipes and I concluded a good Merguez is just lamb and harissa. Harissa is a condiment of peppers garlic and spices used throughout Northern Africa (referred to by some as the Mahgreb).



For the Harissa I re-hydrated some dry red peppers, crushed some garlic,



And toasted some spices.

Everything went into the blender with some olive oil and some water and presto!



Harissa.

Here's the quantities:

10g (25-30) small dry red peppers
12g 2T whole coriander
12g 2tsp whole cumin
24g 4 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup 200 ml EV Olive Oil

Cold Water as needed.

The peppers. For better flavor you can toast them in a dry skillet until fragrant, or quickly blanch them in oil. Following either way, soak them in very hot tap water until soft about 15 minutes. Toast and grind the whole spices then throw everything into the blender. Only add cold water if you need to get things moving, up to 2T (30 ML)

Since I'm making this harissa for the sausage, I'm holing off on the salt. If you want to use it as a condiment, salt to taste (TT), my taste is about 1/2tsp (3g)

For the Sausage I use 2tsp (14g) of salt for 2 pounds (900g) of ground lamb. add all of the prepared harissa and 2T (12g) of fresh thyme. Mix well, add a little cold water to smooth it out.

Try to find some sheep's casing to stuff (pork casing are haraam), or make meatballs and call them keftas.

These sausages are spicy but not overly so, my kids ate them. You can serve them with couscous, but I also found a potato pancake (Makoud) recipe that was kinda fun. Sorry Algeria, I love your sausage but I'm going to have to root for the US on this World Cup.

Cheers.

References (all links to WorldCat, so you can find these books at a library near you)

The Great Book of Couscous, by Copland Marks

North African Cooking, by Hilaire Walden

The Soul of a New Cuisine, by Marcus Samuelsson

The Oxford Companion by Davidson

How to make habanero salsa

South African World Cup Braai

In this Episode

World Cup Boerewors (Farmer's Sausage)

Pap

Train Smash

Rhubarb Fluff

Remembering Merle Ellis, "The Butcher"

Where are you going to be when the World Cup kicks of this Friday? I'll be at work, but hopefully they'll have the TV tuned to the matches. I'm not a huge sports fan, but I really like international sporting events. They are a chance to get away from my small suburban existence and see a diverse world coming together to play. They are also a chance to eat and celebrate and a chance to learn how different peoples party. Every corner of the world has its sausage, so during this year's World Cup, I want to discover a few.

I start with host country South Africa. Boerewors is the sausage that is standard for any Braai (Barbecue)in South Africa. Sounds kinda like bratwurst huh? I don't how how to prounouce it but I suspect if you use an Austrailian dialect with a Dutch accent you'll come pretty close. Boer means farmer and wors is sausage (btw Bratwurst means grilling sausage). I found many different recipes, but most were made up of a combo of beef and pork heavily spiced with coridaner. I found a couple of formulas that called for bacon, I think that sounds good but since I was out (I'm curing some right now), here's what I did:



900g/2lbs Chuck roast coarsely ground
450g 1lb Pork shoulder coarsely ground
21g salt
10g Coriander, whole (toasted if possible)
5g Black pepper
2 whole cloves
pinch of mace

5g milk powder (optional helps with texture)
60ml/2oz/ 1/4cup white wine vinegar
60ml/2oz/ 1/4cup water

Grind spices with salt and beat into meat mixture. Then add milk powder and liquids, continue to beat until mixture comes together, maybe two minutes.



Stuff into hog casings, leave in a continuous length. Try to let the sausage rest a day before grilling. Cut to desired lengths and cook.

So what to serve with sausage? Starch and gravy of course. Mielie Pap is just as it sounds, corn porridge, or as it's pronounced in Italy, polenta. As in many cultures, pap is a staple in South African cuisine. White corn meal is typically used, but all I had was yellow so I went with that. I softened one chopped medium onion in some butter then added three cups of chicken stock and a teaspoon of salt. Once it came to a simmer I slowly stirred in 2 cups of corn meal. And I stirred and I stirred. once it started to bubble, the mixture seemed smooth but kinda bland.



I unstrapped and removed my Authentico Foodie Helmet, and phoned in East Africa for a little help. Berbere, a spice mixutre from Ethiopia consists mainly of dried red chillies, cardamom, cumin, fenugreek, coriander and other lesser variations. It's a spicy red curry powder. A tablespoon of this added a nice zip to my porridge.

Finally a sauce. I hate saying gravy, but it is what it is. I found several different names for the same sauce: Sous, Sjeba, Sheba, and my favorite, Train Smash. It's onions, tomatoes, green peppers and brown sugar stewed together. Sounds a lot like ketchup. But it's not, it's better.



I chopped up a bunch of tomatoes, added that to 3 cups of tomato sauce and put it into a hot satoir that contained one chopped onion, already softened. I roasted and skinned a poblano pepper, chopped it and threw it in. Once that mixture had cooked down a bit, I drew it out with about a cup of stock added a bouquet garni and let it simmer some more. For the sweetness I dribbled in a couple of ounces of molasses, for zip I sprinkled some hot paprika. After an hour it was about right. Let's eat.



For desert we shuffled back to the Midwest for a seasonal favorite strawberry shortcake. Remember when strawberries were seasonal?



Our patch has gotten large enough to produce berries in quantity. Bonne Femme made up some shortcakes, and I made some rhubarb fluff to go with. For the fluff I chopped up some rhubarb, sprinkled it with a heavy hand of sugar, some salt and a splash of tequila. I let it sit overnight in the fridge.



The next day I threw it in a pot with some water and cooked it down. The mash went for a whirl in the Cuisinart and then strained.



I folded the purée into some whipped cream and voilà, fluff.

let's eat.







A fine feast for World Cup. What are you going to fix?


Merle Ellis, The Butcher, 1934-2010.


When I was researching boerewors, the first recipe I found was in an old newspaper article written by Merle Ellis. In the 70's and 80's he wrote a nationally syndicated column titled "The Butcher." Can you imagine a weekly feature dedicated to home butchering and sausage recipes? He wrote hundreds of articles. He wrote several books and had a TV show called "Cut-up and Cook." He was the Original Rock Star Butcher. What I liked most about is writing was his plain straight forward approach and he could tie a recipe to a story. His recipes had soul, something that's missing from a lot of modern cookbooks. Mr. Ellis passed away in January (read the Obituary here). I became familliar with him when I found the items pictured above stuffed into two separate sausage books at used books sales. It's hard to find information about him on the internet, he stepped out of the lime light many years ago. On the blog I'm Mad and I Eat, there's a nice account of a chance meeting the author had with Mr. Ellis, and a recent comment on the the post The Ultimate Breakfast Sausage Recipe attests to kind interactions with Mr. Ellis as he worked behind the counter at a market in Petaluma, CA.

I have a copy of his first book Cutting-Up in the Kitchen. In it he dedicates the book to his wife:

"To Neva, Without her help it could have not been done. Without her it wouldn't have been worth doing."

Food and love forever, we should all be so lucky.

Cheers.



Resources used in this article (Links to WorldCat.org)

Another good Boerewors recipeThe Sausage-Making Cookbook by Jerry Predika

About Berbere, Cooking with Herbs and Spices by Andi Clevely et AL.

General Information about SA cuisine, The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson