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.