madbaker | "Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken."

This week's Resolution Recipe, as voted upon by YOU: To make sausage of Bologna.

This 1604 sausage recipe comes from Lancelot de Casteau's Just Add Butter. I've actually made this numerous times before, but I changed the recipe drastically since I started doing charcuterie. So in that sense it's new.

Take six pounds of pork flesh a bit fatty, and cut it into slices, and put it in a cloth, put it in a press to press the blood out, and leave it an hour in the press until the blood is all out, then chop it coarsely, not too fine, add four ounces of salt, an ounce of pepper, ground coarsely, an ounce of cinnamon well pulverized through a fine sieve, and mix all together with the salt, and put in the flesh, and take eight ounces of Spanish wine, and mix it well with the hands a half hour, so that all is well incorporated in the flesh, then take some beef intestines according to the thickness that you want to have the sausages, then fill them with flesh as forcibly as you can, and have a large pin in your hand to continually pierce the intestine, in order that it has no air inside, and so that the flesh is well squeezed, then tie the intestine very firmly on top and underneath of the length that you wish to have the sausages, then have a cauldron of boiling water on the fire, and boil the sausages in it for three or four large bubbles, and pull them out, then hang them in the chimney five or six days until they are very dry.

6 pounds ground pork shoulder butt
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons pink salt (sodium nitrite)
2 tablespoons ground pepper
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 cup Spanish red wine
sausage casings
Take ground pork and thoroughly mix with spices and wine. Rinse casings as needed. Knot bottom of each casing used; stuff and twist every six to eight inches, piercing with a needle as necessary. Knot to finish.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Immerse sausages and boil until done - about five minutes, but time will vary by sausage size. Pat dry and cold smoke the sausages for two to four hours. Hang the sausages in a cool, dryish space (60º Fahrenheit is ideal) for three to five days.

I reduced the salt somewhat. The pink salt is modern – it helps prevent botulism bacteria from forming during the curing process. I separated out the smoking and hanging for ease of preparation, as I do not have a chimney that can hang sausages.

What worked: They were okay. Not particularly strongly flavored, either spices or smoke. They were fine in Sausages in Pottage, although I think cooking fresh sausages gives more flavor and sausage juice to that dish.

What didn't: I thought three hours of cold smoking would impart more smoke flavor; certainly they looked smoky. I suppose some of the smoke flavor might have gone away during the hang time, but I'm not sure - smoke is pretty sticky stuff.

Will I make it again? Probably, although there are plenty other period sausage recipes I like better.

(Will I give bonus points for correctly identifying the header? Oh, I suppose so.)