Utopenci or Drowned Man sausage

Czeck Drowned man sausage

Utopenci
(Translates as "Drowned ‘persons’" because of the pale coloured ‘fingers’ floating in liquid)

Sausage Ingredients:
1 small white onion finely minced
1 tbs crumbled dried marjoram
2 tbs finely chopped parsley

2 cloves garlic

Whizz all this and simmer slowly in 2 tbs butter until well sweated but not browned and add to 8oogm pork shoulder (magro) minced twice.

Stuff into pork skins and make into links slightly smaller than a normal breakfast sausage.

Pickle ingredients:
1 tbs Allspice

Sprinkle of crushed chili flakes
4 bay (laurel) leaves
8 fresh peppercorns
½ rib of celery – sliced
2 cups white vinegar (adjust depending on acidity of vinegar used and make
1 cup water (3 cups by volume
salt to taste

Simmer pickle, covered, for 5 minutes.

When ready to poach sausages bring pickle to a boil and carefully place sausages into boiling pickle, do not stir, removing from heat immediately the pickle returns to the boil. Cool then refrigerate, leaving sausages in pickle. I put them in jars, topped up with the pickle, let them cool and then put them in the fridge

Age for at least 2 days before using. Will keep for 5-6 days covered in refrigerator.

Serve cold with a bit of mustard or hoseradish.

Freezing is not recommended.

Christmas Stuffing

Ho! Ho! Ho! 'Tis jollity time again and don't let the Scrooges dampen it for you (even if there is no bonus, Christmas lunch etc.), as long as there's Cider in the barrel go for it. We will be stopping production over the festive period so if you need anything, let us know. We already have a very 'stuffed' week ahead fulfilling our orders and you wouldn't want to be left out now, would you?

Bonfire Night

Never one to pass up a chance to let off a banger, on Friday The Lock Inn (C/Santa Teresa 14) are hosting a bonfire night in honour of that hero Guy Fawkes - where is he when you need him? This time we've made a special jumbo sized Cumberland saussie to go along with our mash of mashes and the demon onion gravy which has been slow cooking for a week. Why a witch on bonfire night you ask, well, just Google images of Guy Fawkes and you'll see why.

Lighting-up time

For those who are lucky to have a terazza, a garden or you live in a part of Spain with adequate Bar-b-q pits (i.e. NOT under trees) It's time to throw a proper sausage on the coals and now we're making burgers!! Next time, I'll post the demon recipe for ribs.

South African World Cup Sausage

I was asked to come up with a 'Boereswors' or 'Farmers Sausage' and seeing as it's the World Cup and the Bar-B season here it is. It's been tried and the verdict is good. It's not the normal mix but hey, it works.

To make about 3.6 kilos

1.5k beef

1.5k Pork

500g pork belly

30g salt

5.5gm ground pepper (you choose)

15gm ground coriander

1.2gm grated nutmeg

1.2gm ground clove

1gm thyme

1gm Allspice (I used Madras)

125ml. red wine vinegar

1 clove of garlic, crushed

50ml Worcestershire sauce

3.6gm Alkaline fix (optional)

2.7gm Sulphite (optional)

Grind the meat using a medium/coarse plate

Leave to stand in the fridge for a good 2 hours or 4 pints of Cider

Don't stuff them too tightly as it's a coarse mix

NOTE: only add about 50ml of water as the vinegar and sauce add a lot of moisture.

Spice specialists in Ireland

On a recent trip to Dublin I was able to visit the facilities of Blakes Ingredients http://www.blakesingredients.com/ where I was treated to a master-class in spices and additives by the staff. I didn't want to impose so I didn't take photos of the installation suffice to say it's the biggest spice-rack I've ever seen. I think I have the spice mix sorted out, now it's a problem to get get the correct casing, apparently the Spanish one I'm using is of a different calibre etc. But Hey Ho! These boys can supply it all plus, they were telling me, they can make up batches of spice mix AND they use the famous Irish rusk. I've brought back a few samples so look out.

A BIG THANK YOU to all at Blakes.

Cumberland sausage

The 'Cumberland Gap' by Lonnie Donnegan was No. 1 on the day I was born and one of my favourite series of books as a child (apart from 'Biggles') was 'Swallows and Amazons' by Arthur Ransome about the exploits of a group of kids in The Lake District. There was also a H.M.S. Cumberland which went all over the place.

Anyway, the Cumberland sausage has been requested by a potential client and who am I to stand in the way of progress. The sausage is normally presented in a large coil and then either baked whole or sold in lengths, it's ideal with mash and gravy. The raw ingredient for this was the Cumberland pig, a breed that died out in the 60's but has since been re-created genetically.

The Cumberland sausage's main characteristics are a courser mince and a reliance more on spice than herb although I think I will have to go there to find out.

To make 1 kilo, more or less. By the time butchers have finished adding bits and with rusk and water it can come in at 1.5k but the spice mix is constant;

900 gm pork shoulder

100gm fat

100 ml water

The mix;

20 gm salt

10 gm black pepper

3.3 gm nutmeg

.3 gm marjoram

1 gm ground cayenne pepper

.5 gm sage

100 gm rusk

Get your butcher to coarse-mince the meat and fat once, they can also just mince it once with their normal plate, end of story, sometimes a butcher might be reticent to start taking his mincing machine apart at 12:30 on a Saturday midday with a counter full of anxious shoppers, none of whom want to make sausages. This is where having your own little machine comes in handy.

Make up the mix and add to the meat.

Add water, just enough to make it 'sticky' but not enough as to turn it into a paste - way too much.

Chill the meat, drink cider, talk to women, watch Star Trek, footie, rugby...This process is quite important as it allows the mix to permeate and there are some discreet chemical things happening too and I'm not talking about the mixture of cider, women and Star Trek.

Stuff into hog casing.

As with most sausages, they are best left overnight in the fridge to 'bind' before cooking.

Sausage Fest in The Irish Rover

We are going to have a massive sausage fest on Sunday 7th Feb. The 'ad says it all. There will be photos.

Spanish Chorizo from the village beside where Alba's granny lives

Right, finally cracked a Spanish Chorizo recipe. Thanks to Alba's Granny. This has a had one or two changes but it meets with approval. This is a fresh sausage so don't hang it up in your kitchen and expect to enjoy it over the coming months - you might get more than you bargained for.

Chorizos del pueblo al lado de donde vive la abuela de Alba;

1k - Pork shoulder (Magro)

1k - Beef (Magro de ternera)

200g - Pork fat (Tocino)

60g - Paprika, not too hot - the authentic is 'Pimienta de la Vera'

3g - Alcaravea, if you can't get this substitute fresh ground fennel seeds.

10g - Fresh ground black pepper (Pimienta negra molida)

5g - Cayenne

40g - Salt

2.2g - Thyme (Tomillo)

2.2g - Cumin (Comino)

4 cloves garlic, crushed and lightly boiled in white wine for three minutes, strain and discard the wine (Cuatro dientes de ajo, machacado y rehogado en vino blanco durante tres minutos, colar y tirar el vino).

The meat and fat should be minced using a big diameter plate, combine all the ingredients, leave in the fridge for about 12 hours and stuff into hog casing.

The combination of the beef and the chunky mince give this a very tender, meaty flavour.

Chorizo Criollo and Chimmichurri recipies

A special Summer Bar-B-Que recipe – Chorizo Criollo and thanks to El Turco’s Brother-in-Law in Argentina for sending me this – makes about 2 Kilos

1.25 kilo minced shoulder of pork.
1 kilo minced beef.
44gr. salt.
10 gr. ground ‘aji’ (you can substitute cayenne pepper seed for this).
4 gr. ground black pepper.
2 gr. ground nutmeg.
6 cloves of garlic.
1 glass of white wine.
3 gr. ground fennel seeds.

The meat mix should only be minced once to get the right consistency.
Mix up the spices and mix into the meat well.
Heat the wine, add the garlic cloves (crushed) and boil for three minutes, strain and add the garlic to the mix.
Leave the whole mix, covered, in the fridge for about 10 hours then stuff it into your preferred casings.
You could always ask the Proper Sausage Company to do it for you.

No bar-b would be complete without Chimmichurri sauce. It goes with any kind of meat from the grill
300 ml. Olive oil.
200 ml. Red wine vinegar (you can experiment with proportions or types of vinegar though I'm begining to find that less vinegar is better).
2 Tbsp. orégano
2 Tbsp. cayenne pepper (crushed type are better than ground)
1/2 Tbsp. cumin
3 crushed cloves of garlic
1 large tomato, finely chopped
1 Tsp. salt
1 cup of chopped, fresh parsley
1 Tsp. thyme
1 pinch of ground black pepper

Mix it all well together and leave to stand in the fridge for a few hours before using - Tip; Don't blend it or whizz it as it ruins it - I know.

The Mega-Stuffer

The Proper Sausage Company are proud to announce the arrival of a smart piece of hardware, none other than a 'Trespade' Mark 5V sausage stuffer, this will make our lives so much easier and allow us to produce even more. Another great piece of news is it looks as if we have a backer so things will be going global. Meanwhile, our products are available from the usual outlets.

How to make sausages Part 4

So here's a straightforward, basic, traditional breakfast sausage recipe. As I've said before, the beauty of this is you get out what you put in so if ground clove or nutmeg doesn't do it for you, leave them out and try something else.

1 K minced pork shoulder

1gm ground black pepper

1gm ground clove

1gm ground nutmeg

1gm thyme

20gm salt

100gm rusk (I use the dried breadcrumb type known in Spain as 'pan rallado')

A couple of cups of water, enough to moisten the mix but not too much as to turn it into a pasty goo as you will then be faced with exploding sausages which is where the word 'banger' came from. Apparently, in England during the Second World War, sausages contained quite a lot of water and were prone to burst so if the Luftwaffe didn't get you, the sausage would.

How to make sausages Part 3

So you've bought a kilo of (minced) pork, it saves time if you can get the butcher to mince it once for you. Now you make up the secret recipe. There are loads of recipies available in THE BOOK or on d'Internet. A handy thing to have is a small weighing scales, the type favoured by anorexics and drug dealers. I got a digital one that measures in tenths of grammes. It's useful for weighing out spice, herb, salt and rusk. It's a good idea to make a note of what and how much you put in to a batch, this way you can repeat the success or learn from the mistake. By the way, you eat your mistakes. Useful guidelines are up to 15% of rusk, I use 10%, and less than 3% salt, so for example for a 1K. batch I'd use 100g. of rusk and 20g. of salt. Mix it all up and put it in the fridge to chill, you could also put the mincing part of the machine in the fridge too as the whole process works much better when everything is chilled. Crack a beer and chill for an hour or so. The skin should be soaking in water. Make sausages. Interesting tip; though I've never tried it, you don't need loads of machinery, you can actually stuff a sausage by using a piping bag, the thing your mother used to put dainty floral arrangements on birthday cakes. There's only one way to do it and that's jumping off the top board in Blackrock baths without looking down. Fresh sausages will keep for up to 5 days but it's always a good idea to freeze a few for a rainy day or if you want to impress members of the opposite sex with your handy work, assuming that your patois, chocolates and dubious choice of lighting and/or music are going nowhere.

How to make sausages. Part 2

As with most things on the planet, you only get out of a sausage what you put into it. The raw ingredients are fundemental and the choice of them will only dictate how seriously you want your sausages to be taken. This is a kind of neat lifestyle philosophy which can be applied to babies or investment banking.

Skins or 'casings' as they're known in the trade are one of the secrets to a good product. Keep away from synthetic or dried casings as they affect the final product. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A VEGETETARIAN CASING, or at least as insofar as I've been able to find. All synthetic casings will contain some animal. More of that later. By far and away the best casing is fresh 'hog' or 'sheep'. It comes prepared, covered in rock-salt and in lenghts of about 25 M. Any you don't use can be covered in salt and stored in the fridge for later. The sheep casing has a smaller diameter so make sure you have the right nozzel for that. In Madrid I get my casings (and spices) in 'Casa Pajuelo', C/Atocha 95, Metro Anton Martin, they also do excellent honey (bring your own jar) and herbal teas.

Meat. It's a good idea to get to know your butcher and aquaint him or her of your intentions. Even if they don't make sausages, they will know where you're coming from. The best pork cut is shoulder ('magro' in Spanish) as it contains a good ratio of fat to meat which is very important. Don't think that you can make a good lean sausage - it's a contradiction in terms. A good sausage must have between 5% and 10% of fat to make it 'cook'. If you are going to use beef as well (good bar-b-que saussies demand this) splash out and get steak.

Herb, spice, rusk and sex.

It's a good idea to expand your spice rack and get in special quantities of ground black pepper, ground nutmeg, ground clove, cayenne pepper, thyme, cumin, salt and whatever you think would look good wrapped in the aforementioned hog casing. Oh and the sex, apparently hog casing was, and maybe still is, used as a prophylactic to prevent the spread of nasty disease as opposed to birth-control or worse still, holding hands and watching the sun go down.

Don't be put off if your first attempt looks like this. It was delicious.

How to make Sausages. Part 1

OK. So you want to make your own sausages - Easy Peasy.

First you need 'The Book', the best one I've found, or rather was given for Christmas is 'The Sausage Book' by Paul Peacock. It's published by 'Farming Books and Videos' and it's funny code is ISBN 978-1-904871-17-0. It's full of useful easy-to-understand tips as well as some demon recipies (more of that later) as well as some great contacts for supplies e.g. http://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/ who I've used for bits and pieces. Another book, American, is 'The Sausage-Making Cookbook' by Jerry Predika, published by 'Stackpole Books', Ref: ISBN 0-8117-1693-7, it has loads of recipies as well as serious advice on curing and smoking.

You need a machine.

I bought the Anthony Wirrel Thompson Meat grinder and Sausage maker in Argos for about 100€. It's electric and does the business and can also provide you with great mince for meatloaf, burgers and so on, the BEAUTY being that you decide what to put in it. I regularly make 20K+ of sausage with this at one go and it's held up for a year. You can also get hand-crank mincers in any good hardware shop, make sure they provide the all-important nozzels for sausage stuffing

Sausages will travel

I asked The Irish Times for permission to post part of an travel article about Corsica but they never bothered replying so here are some extracts;
Corsica is a perfect destination for the hungry hiker, writes Elgy Gillespie, especially if you’re a fan of all things sausage.
But after a week of hiking through rosy peaks and dining on Corsican sausage wolfed on crusty bread by mountain pools, my hiking buddy and I threw our picnic knife down.
Enough sausage. Enough, we moaned, of wild-boar saucisson, of donkey sausage, of mule chipolatas, of pork terrines, pâté de campagne and rillettes de horse. Especially rillettes de horse. Assez de saucisson.
Why so much sausage? Wild boars and goats, cows and sheep wander Corsica’s canyons willy-nilly, grazing on aromatic mountain thyme, marjoram, laurel, lavender, lemon balm, scratchy rosemary and a strong local mint known as maquis . This is how Napoleon said Corsica smelled. If you are what you eat, Corsican pigs are made of maquis herbs, and Corsicans of sausages and maquis.
So we grazed on boar, extra-smoky liver sausages called figatelli , home-made coppa and tenderloin, wild boar ragout, omelettes of brocciu, or rosemary-encrusted goat’s cheese, and Fleur de Maquis ewe cheese with fig jam.
That’s just snacks – le fooding, as they say in France. It’s washed down with amber Pietra beer, perfumed with local chestnuts, maquis herbs and honey, rough red wines, eau de vie or, failing that, Orezza mineral water – iron-rich and somehow tastier.
Where to go
The Scala de Santa Regina. En route to Albertucce, this back mountain road winds around ravines and passes before eventually bringing you to the charming village of Evisa and from there to the sea.
The Les Calanches rocks. These red and orange granite outcroppings are on the famous coastal road from Porto to Cargèse, an hour northwest of Ajaccio on D81 to Calvi. Cargèse is worth a closer look, thanks to its strong Greek links.
Ajaccio. The port town is more sophisticated than bustling, vivid Bastia.
Don’t miss Napoleon’s birthplace, a fascinating place to browse (rue Saint-Charles, 00-33-495-214389).
The Fesch Museum. 50-52 Rue Cardinal Fesch, www.musee-fesch.com.
Ajaccio Cathedral. Rue Forcioli Conti, 00-33-495-210767. This ancient building is never locked.
Beaches. The Corsican capital also has many sandy beaches, fine dining options, a good fish market and high- and low-end shopping options.
Hiking tips
For rando à liberte-style hiking, where your bags travel ahead to the next comfy bed, try Vagabondages (www.vagabondages.com, 00-33-495-786519) or Grande Angle (www.grandangle.fr, 00-33476-952300).
Buy walking sticks. You might think they’re geezer-like but you’ll change your mind when you are half-way up Restonica.
On the rails
For one of the greatest train rides of your life, take the Bastia route on the “trinighellu” to the citadel and Vizzavona (www.corsica.net/ corsica/uk/venir/move/fer.htm). From Corte, this tiny train winds around crags and past ravines and over Eiffel’s bridge to Vizzavona for €10.80. It’s an unforgettable ride.
Thank you Irish Times - I'm there next hols.

Nuff said

Another bloddy telly chef

We do French

As part of the ever expanding Proper Sausage Corporation, we now do French. Well, it's my French homework for the weekend and what better way to do it than with a Proper ad'. Also it's the 2nd. May when the people of Madrid rose up and told the French to go and stuff a sausage in it. Although a lot of Madrileños were slaughtered in the uprising, they did manage to get rid of 'Los Gabachos' however, there are rumours of a secret meeting place in a bunker near Santo Domingo where clandestine groups meet to practice FRENCH and above all, torture newcomers with subjunctives.

Proper Cider

I was challenged to produce a bottle of 'Proper Cider', never a good idea on my birthday week when my intelligence quotient is inversely proportional to the amount of cider consumed - I 'produced' a bottle of Proper Cider - well I re-labled a bottle of fine Asturian Sidra. I'm not going to turn my kitchen and bathroom into a cider press just yet.

A new logo for the girls and maybe some boys too

Some comments have been made which leads me to believe that some people think our logo is 'sexist' or 'feminist'. Just get a grip. Freud said 'there are times when a cigar is just a cigar', I have made an extra proper effort and pulled out all the stops to come up with a logo for the girlies. I hope you like it, there's loads more where that came from. Oh and by the way, if you want some sort of Agatha Ruiz de la Prada pink flowery stuff you are on the wrong blog and you should be at home with your cats munching on a warm rocket salad and balsamic cheese and toasted nuts.