Grains, not Brains
Jan. 7th, 2025 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Cervellata.
I am teaching a class at the next Culinary Symposium on this (mostly) non-meat sausage, so this was a first pass testing the interpretation.
6 eggses
300 g grated Parmesan
1 g pepper
1 g long pepper, ground
1 g ginger
1/2 g nutmeg
a few threads saffron
1 g true cinnamon
4 g salt
35 mm hog casings
Beat the eggses and mix in the bread crumbs, cheese, and spices. Rinse 60" of 35mm casings as needed. Double-knot the bottom of the casing and stuff, only filling halfway - the egg mixture will expand during cooking.
Cook the sausage sous vide at 165° for 30-40 minutes. Remove, drain, and dry. Roast the sausage at 425° for 10 minutes to brown. Serve warm.
The spices are all cited in the manuscript. Cassia is distinguished from (presumably) true cinnamon. Salt is mentioned in a few recipes, albeit not as a spice. I chose Parmesan cheese as a standard type of hard cheese that is likely to have been available.
I am assuming that "roast it in among the bread" is putting it in an oven with baking bread, which is usually a fairly high heat.
Sources: Boström, Ingemar ed. Anonimo meridionale: Due libri di cucina. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1985. Friedman, Rebecca trans. Self-published.
What worked: Sous vide cooking was easier than simmering on the stove, and no work to keep it at a constant temperature. I left it for 40 minutes but I think 30 is enough. The nice thing about sous vide is that a bit longer didn't hurt it any.
It produced what looked like a standard meat sausage and it browned well in the oven. I believe this was meant as a subtlety, a dish that in this case really does look like meat but then isn't. It achieved that.
What didn't: The flavor was kind of nondescript. Not bad, just... not that interesting. I kind of expected that; it is similar to the Herb Omelette Sausage recipe, but that one has onion and herbs to punch it up which is why I made that one first. This would go much better with mustard and/or strong green sauce for extra flavor.
I forgot the ginger and we were out of saffron (which made it slightly more beige than it should have been). I would reduce the salt to 2g; Parm is salty enough. I think 40 g bread crumbs might be slightly better, texture-wise; it was slightly cakey. The casing was nicely filled out but cracked in a few places from roasting so I will try reducing the heat to 400.
Will I make it again? At least once more before my class in April.
I am teaching a class at the next Culinary Symposium on this (mostly) non-meat sausage, so this was a first pass testing the interpretation.
To make cervellata. He who wants to make a sausage, take bread crumbs and grated cheese and eggs and spices, and put it in a gut, and get a needle and pierce it, and make it boil and cook in water, and then roast it in among the bread, if you like that. (Due Libre B, early 15th c.)60 g bread crumbs (1/2 cup)
6 eggses
300 g grated Parmesan
1 g pepper
1 g long pepper, ground
1 g ginger
1/2 g nutmeg
a few threads saffron
1 g true cinnamon
4 g salt
35 mm hog casings
Beat the eggses and mix in the bread crumbs, cheese, and spices. Rinse 60" of 35mm casings as needed. Double-knot the bottom of the casing and stuff, only filling halfway - the egg mixture will expand during cooking.
Cook the sausage sous vide at 165° for 30-40 minutes. Remove, drain, and dry. Roast the sausage at 425° for 10 minutes to brown. Serve warm.
The spices are all cited in the manuscript. Cassia is distinguished from (presumably) true cinnamon. Salt is mentioned in a few recipes, albeit not as a spice. I chose Parmesan cheese as a standard type of hard cheese that is likely to have been available.
I am assuming that "roast it in among the bread" is putting it in an oven with baking bread, which is usually a fairly high heat.
Sources: Boström, Ingemar ed. Anonimo meridionale: Due libri di cucina. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1985. Friedman, Rebecca trans. Self-published.
What worked: Sous vide cooking was easier than simmering on the stove, and no work to keep it at a constant temperature. I left it for 40 minutes but I think 30 is enough. The nice thing about sous vide is that a bit longer didn't hurt it any.
It produced what looked like a standard meat sausage and it browned well in the oven. I believe this was meant as a subtlety, a dish that in this case really does look like meat but then isn't. It achieved that.
What didn't: The flavor was kind of nondescript. Not bad, just... not that interesting. I kind of expected that; it is similar to the Herb Omelette Sausage recipe, but that one has onion and herbs to punch it up which is why I made that one first. This would go much better with mustard and/or strong green sauce for extra flavor.
I forgot the ginger and we were out of saffron (which made it slightly more beige than it should have been). I would reduce the salt to 2g; Parm is salty enough. I think 40 g bread crumbs might be slightly better, texture-wise; it was slightly cakey. The casing was nicely filled out but cracked in a few places from roasting so I will try reducing the heat to 400.
Will I make it again? At least once more before my class in April.
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