Author Topic: Sweet Italian Sausage (Read 11364 times)

jeff v · « **Reply #40 on:** April 29, 2009, 12:16:47 PM »

Quote from: loowaters on April 29, 2009, 10:30:32 AM

Yes, please, Jeff, I'd love to see it and possibly give it a try.

No prob loo.

November · « **Reply #41 on:** April 29, 2009, 12:20:39 PM »

Quote from: jeff v on April 29, 2009, 12:16:31 PM

This is an area for "nominal" only IMO

I'm glad you understand.

tdeane · « **Reply #42 on:** April 29, 2009, 02:02:27 PM »

I am not denying the fact that Italians make sausage without fennel. I am simply saying that what makes an "Italian" sausage vs a. Italian "made" sausage is the addition of fennel. That is what makes it Italian sausage!(or what I call fennel sausage which I think is much more accurate) I mean if a Spaniard makes a sausage is it automatically called Chorizo? No. I think sausages are categorized by what's in them, not who made them or where they were made.

PizzaHog · « **Reply #43 on:** April 29, 2009, 06:58:46 PM »

The Italian side of my family was from the areas near Perugia (Nonna) and Roma (Nonno). It was pretty clear they felt a distinction between themselves and "southern" Italians in many things, including sausage. Nonno's homemade sausage never contained fennel - that was a southern Italian thing - and I never even tasted sausage with fennel until I was an adult, which I really liked. My mom was not too thrilled about that. So a rose by any other name...
Anyway, after my Grandfather passed, my mom struggled trying to reproduce the flavor of his simple recipe, which is pretty much what Jeff v posted (without the fennel, of course), which drove her crazy since it always her job growing up to assist and she had seen it done a thousand times. The bad news is she never really nailed it and we finally decided it was a physical step she was lacking. The closest she got, which was very, very good, was only after the addition of what seemed like way too much salt. Unfortunately, my main involvement at the time was as a taster, but I recall all the rejoicing and comments about how much salt! Despite only 4 ingredients, it was very flavorful indeed. The missing step was the hanging of the sausage in the unused coal room down in the basement.
Aw, memories. Now I'm getting misty.
Chiudere la luce,
Hog

tdeane · « **Reply #44 on:** April 29, 2009, 07:24:48 PM »

I just made a batch of sausage today: 3lbs ground pork
1/4 cup dry white wine
21/2T Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
1/2T ground coriander
1T black pepper
1/2T sugar
1/2T chili flakes(ground in a spice grinder)
11/2T cracked fennel
This is my recipe and I like it very much. I just recently started adding the coriander and it made a big difference.

NepaBill · « **Reply #45 on:** April 29, 2009, 07:47:03 PM »

Wow funny I should stumble on this post. I just finished making my own sausage topping for my pizza. I tried to skip over all the bull%$# in this post about what is or what isn't Italian sausage. I just tried a sample of my sausage and felt it was too bland (lacking salt).. I then started looking for nutritional info on sausage products. Johnsonville sweet Italian sausage has up to 30% sodium in some of their sausages.. (http://www.johnsonville.com/home/products/italian/sweet-italian-links.html) So at that rate 1lb of pork (approx 448g) would require 134g of salt. Wow that seems high.. I used roughly 8% in my latest recipe. I will test it out pizza tomorrow and see how it is.

Bill

jeff v · « **Reply #46 on:** April 29, 2009, 08:01:13 PM »

Quote from: NepaBill on April 29, 2009, 07:47:03 PM

Wow funny I should stumble on this post. I just finished making my own sausage topping for my pizza. I tried to skip over all the bull%$#& in this post about what is or what isn't Italian sausage. I just tried a sample of my sausage and felt it was too bland (lacking salt).. I then started looking for nutritional info on sausage products. Johnsonville sweet Italian sausage has up to 30% sodium in some of their sausages.. (http://www.johnsonville.com/home/products/italian/sweet-italian-links.html) So at that rate 1lb of pork (approx 448g) would require 134g of salt. Wow that seems high.. I used roughly 8% in my latest recipe. I will test it out pizza tomorrow and see how it is.

Bill

Bill,

I think the 30% you're looking at is % of daily allowance. The serving size is one link which is 85g, and 30% of that would be 25.5g. The sodium listed is "only" 710mg.

Jeff

Pete-zza · « **Reply #47 on:** April 29, 2009, 10:18:31 PM »

Quote from: tdeane on April 29, 2009, 07:24:48 PM

I just made a batch of sausage today: 3lbs ground pork
1/4 cup dry white wine
21/2T Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
1/2T ground coriander
1T black pepper
1/2T sugar
1/2T chili flakes(ground in a spice grinder)
11/2T cracked fennel
This is my recipe and I like it very much. I just recently started adding the coriander and it made a big difference.

Terry,

Do you grind your own pork and, if so, what is its starting form? Are the chili flakes the same thing as red pepper flakes?

Peter

tdeane · « **Reply #48 on:** April 29, 2009, 10:44:04 PM »

Quote from: Pete-zza on April 29, 2009, 10:18:31 PM

Terry,

Do you grind your own pork and, if so, what is its starting form? Are the chili flakes the same thing as red pepper flakes?

Peter

I grind pork shoulder(butt). Yeah, they are the same thing. I have tweaked this recipe a lot trying to get the right flavour. I started adding the chili(pepper) flakes and coriander about a month ago and it really gave the flavour some depth. I just add a little so it's subtle, but you really can taste the difference.

parallei · « **Reply #49 on:** April 29, 2009, 10:59:08 PM »

Peter:

As recommended in some recipes, I start by cutting the pork butt and fat (if using) into pieces that will easily fit into my grinder. About 1 to 1 1/2-inch cubes in my case. Then the pieces go into the freezer for 30 to 40 min. to firm up. The time in the freezer does seem to help avoiding "squashed" meat and seems to give a better texture, at least in my kitchen.

Jackitup · « **Reply #50 on:** April 29, 2009, 11:00:34 PM »

I agree, pork shoulder is the best for sausage grinding. I've made thousands of pounds of sausage over the years and I've always used shoulder. The term butt or boston butt comes from the fact that the roast is the 'butt' part of the shoulder muscle. Great bang for your buck too. Can usually find them for a around a dollar a pound or so and only a small blade bone in them.

parallei · « **Reply #51 on:** April 29, 2009, 11:10:00 PM »

Jackitup:

Yeah, pork butt/shoulder is the way to go. One needs that FAT! On the other hand, I once had a kosher goose sausage in Italy that was pretty darn good. I tried making goose sausage with wild Canada geese breasts once. Not good. I guess I'm pretty off topic now, so I'll go away....

mmarston · « **Reply #52 on:** April 30, 2009, 08:04:43 AM »

In Umbria they make many different types of fresh and dry sausage from wild boar. Some of best sausages I've ever had IMO. I suspect they may sometimes add fat to the Boar as it's very lean. The old town of Norcia feels like it has more pork stores than Brooklyn. The pork products and stores from the area are sometimes called Norcineria.

Michael

tdeane · « **Reply #53 on:** April 30, 2009, 12:41:49 PM »

Quote from: mmarston on April 30, 2009, 08:04:43 AM

I suspect they may sometimes add fat to the Boar as it's very lean.

I've seen several good looking Italian sausage recipes that use ground pork shoulder and fat back. Seems like a lot of fat but I'm sure that those delicious sausage and pepper sandwhiches I ate by the dozen, had more fat in them than the sausage I make does. I've been thinking about adding it to my recipe but only when I get a sausage stuffer.

mmarston · « **Reply #54 on:** April 30, 2009, 12:56:23 PM »

Quote from: parallei on April 29, 2009, 11:10:00 PM

Jackitup:

Yeah, pork butt/shoulder is the way to go. One needs that FAT! On the other hand, I once had a kosher goose sausage in Italy that was pretty darn good. I tried making goose sausage with wild Canada geese breasts once. Not good. I guess I'm pretty off topic now, so I'll go away....

I've found the flavor of wild Geese depends a great deal on what they have been eating.
Geese shot on salt water often do not taste very good.

apizza · « **Reply #55 on:** April 30, 2009, 02:46:05 PM »

[. The missing step was the hanging of the sausage in the unused coal room down in the basement.
Aw, memories. Now I'm getting misty.
Chiudere la luce,
Hog
[/quote]

PizzaHog, was anything done to the sausage before it was hung to prevent spoiling? Salted? ...Etc?

jeff v · « **Reply #56 on:** May 01, 2009, 10:31:31 PM »

loo,

I use 3T of salt for 5 lbs of meat. The meat consists of 4-4.5lbs pork shoulder, and I usually add some pork fat to get to 5 lbs depending how lean it is. I would also suggest seasoning after you cut into chunks before you grind, then chill the chunks well for a few hours if you can before grinding.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

P.S. Keep everything very cold!

PizzaHog · « **Reply #57 on:** May 01, 2009, 11:16:26 PM »

Quote from: apizza on April 30, 2009, 02:46:05 PM

[. The missing step was the hanging of the sausage in the unused coal room down in the basement.
Aw, memories. Now I'm getting misty.
Chiudere la luce,
Hog

PizzaHog, was anything done to the sausage before it was hung to prevent spoiling? Salted? ...Etc?

Not that anyone could recall, unfortunately, so Mom never tried it. That may explain the high level of salt?

Pete-zza · « **Reply #58 on:** May 08, 2009, 10:57:57 AM »

FWIW, I found an article today on making sausage, at the Pizza Today website at http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?magid=164857#/page36/.

Peter

November · « **Reply #59 on:** May 08, 2009, 11:31:32 AM »

Quote from: Pete-zza on May 08, 2009, 10:57:57 AM

FWIW, I found an article today on making sausage, at the Pizza Today website at http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?magid=164857#/page36/.

I thought the pizza in the left-hand side Fontanini ad of the opening page (36) looked interesting with having sausage chunks the size of pecans. Their three options: 1) salt, pepper, and fennel; 2) salt, pepper, fennel, and garlic; 3) salt, 3 types of pepper, garlic, and fennel; are as basic as it gets. I'd like to know what their "3 types of pepper" are. I can imagine red chili pepper and black/white pepper, but unless the third is bell pepper I haven't got a proper guess on that one.