Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (126 page)

[Large Fresh Sausages to Cook and Serve with Potatoes, Sauerkraut,
Cassoulet,
or to Bake in
Brioche
or Pastry Dough]

The following formula produces a fine substitute for those marvelous creations you read about but cannot find except in a French
charcuterie.
This recipe is for the home sausage maker, and requires no special equipment; for that reason you cannot call your product a
saucisson de Lyon,
which is hung
for 8 days in a drying shed, or a
saucisson de Morteau,
which finishes in a smokehouse. Any of the names in the title, however, will do, and any Frenchman you invite for a meal will think you brought it back from the old country.

The sausages will develop their best flavor when you are able to hang them in a dry, airy part of the room at a temperature of 70 to 80 degrees for 2 to 3 days before cooking. If the weather is very damp, or much over 80 degrees, however, omit the hanging; several days in the refrigerator instead will help develop flavor. The saltpeter (potassium nitrate), which you should be able to buy at any prescription counter, is omitted if you are not hanging the sausages; its role is to give the meat an appetizing, rosy color that only develops after several days of hanging. Use the coarse or the fine blade of your meat grinder, whichever you prefer, but the coarse grind is more typical of a sausage that is to be hung.

French sausages of this type are not madly spiced and peppered, like some of the Spanish and Italian varieties. We have suggested 3 special flavorings, and you will eventually develop the proportions or other additions that will make your own sausage
le saucisson de chez nous.

For 6 cups (3 pounds) sausage-meat mixture, making 10 to 12 sausages 5 by 1¼ inches, or 2 sausages 12 by 2 inches

1)
The sausage mixture

4 cups (2 lbs.) lean fresh pork such as fresh ham, shoulder, or loin

2 cups (1 lb.) fresh pork fat such as fatback, fat trimmed from a loin roast, fresh leaf fat

Either
1 tsp
épices fines
plus ¼ tsp white pepper;

Or
¾ tsp white pepper and ½ tsp pulverized herbs and spices of your choice

1 Tb salt

¼ cup Cognac

Put meat and fat through grinder. With either a heavy-duty mixer and flat beater, or your hands and/or a wooden spoon, mix in the rest of the ingredients to blend vigorously and completely. Sauté a small spoonful to cook through thoroughly, taste, and correct seasoning, if necessary.

if you are to hang the sausage:

¼ tsp saltpeter, ¾ tsp sugar, and
1½ tsp more salt

special flavorings:

Either
1) A 1- to 2-ounce can of truffles and the juice from the can;

Or
2) ¼ cup chopped pistachios and 1 small clove mashed garlic;

Or
3) 2 or 3 medium cloves mashed garlic and ½ tsp cracked peppercorns

2)
Forming and curing the sausages

Form the sausages either in casings or in cheesecloth as illustrated at the beginning of this chapter. If you are forming a 12- by 2-inch sausage in cheesecloth, wind a spiral of string around the length to keep it in shape; if you are hanging cheesecloth-wrapped sausages, paint again with melted lard after forming and tying. Hang sausages up on a nail or hook, in the dry airy part of your kitchen where the temperature is generally around 70 degrees and rarely over 80. After 2 to 3 days, they are ready for cooking.

(*)
STORAGE NOTE
: After curing, sausages may be wrapped securely and refrigerated for a week, or frozen for a month.

3)
Cooking and serving suggestions

Saucissons à cuire
need 30 to 40 minutes of slow cooking in liquid, and if you have formed them in casings, prick them in several places with a pin so that the fat will run out. When you are braising sauerkraut or cabbage, doing a bean or lentil dish or a
pot au feu,
add the sausages to the dish 30 to 40 minutes before the end of the cooking period. When you wish to serve them separately, as with French potato salad, or baked in
brioche
or pastry dough, poach them at just below the simmer for 30 to 40 minutes in a wine-flavored beef bouillon, selecting a container, such as a bread pan or casserole, that will just hold them easily. There is no need to brown them afterwards, but if you wish a more elegant presentation for sausages formed in cheesecloth, roll them in fresh bread crumbs, dribble on melted butter, and brown them under the broiler.

Other suggestions

You can make delicious fresh sausages out of the all-purpose pork and veal
pâté
mixture in Volume I on page 565, plus, if you wish, diced ham, diced marinated bits of veal or game, or diced and briefly sautéed liver, as suggested in the
pâté
mixtures following it. You may also adapt any of the
pâté
mixtures in the next section of this chapter. Form and cook the sausages as described in the preceding recipe; this type of sausage, and the chicken-liver sausage in the next recipe, are particularly good when baked in
brioche
or pastry dough.

SAUCISSON TRUFFÉ AU FOIE GRAS OU AUX FOIES DE VOLAILLE

[Pork and Veal Sausages with Truffles and
Foie Gras
or with Chicken Livers—Especially for Baking in
Brioche
or Pastry Dough, or as a Stuffing for
Pâtés,
Poultry,
Chaussons
]

For about 4½ cups, making two 12 by 1½-inch sausages

2 Tb pork fat, chicken fat, or butter

¼ cup minced shallots or scallions

Either
¾ lb. (1½ cups) chicken livers;

Or
a mixture of chicken livers and block canned
foie gras,
half-and-half if you wish to pay the price (
foie gras
is used in next step)

Heat the fat or butter in an 8-inch frying pan, add the shallots or scallions and the chicken livers (not the
foie gras
); toss over moderately high heat for several minutes until liver has just stiffened to the touch; it should feel springy, but remain rosy inside. If you are using chicken liver only, cut half into ¼-inch dice and place in a bowl.