Old recipe, new redaction.

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe is a re-do to make it conform to the actual period recipe: Fish sausage of Bologna.

Take three pounds of fresh salmon, two pounds of carp flesh, a pound of smoked salmon, and chop well all together, then take an ounce of pepper coarsely ground, a half ounce of powdered cinnamon, three ounces of salt, half a chopine [1/4 pint] of Spanish wine, and three egg yolks, and mix all well together, and make sausage like the others.. [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 firm[ly] 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.] (Ouverture de Cuisine, 1604)

1000 grams fresh salmon
667 grams carp or other white fish
333 grams smoked salmon
20 grams ground pepper
10 grams ground cinnamon
45 grams salt
3/4 teaspoon curing salt #2
1 cup Spanish red wine
2 large egg yolks
casings: beef casings of desired thickness
1/4 teaspoon Mold-600 Bactoferm Sausage Mould
1/4 cup distilled water

Remove bones from fish as needed. Coarsely grind fish together; thoroughly mix with spices, wine, and egg yolks. Rinse casings as needed. Knot bottom of each casing used; stuff and twist at desired lengths, piercing with a needle as necessary to fill evenly. Knot to finish.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Dunk the sausages in the water for the length of time it takes for three or four bubbles to come to the surface, about three seconds, and gently pat them dry. Cold smoke the sausages for one to four hours, depending on thickness and desired smokiness.

Half an hour before removing the sausages from the smoke, whisk together the Bactoferm Mould culture and the distilled water. Let sit for 30 minutes to activate. Coat the sausages with the mixture and then hang them in a cool spot around 50-53° F and 75-80% humidity to dry. Depending on the width of the casings used, they should hang 4-8 weeks until the sausages have lost approximately 30% of their weight.

A chopine is half a pint; the pound and ounce in 1604 Liege are approximately equal to their modern equivalents. Modern egg yolks are generally larger, so I reduced the number. Other measurements have been converted to grams to make scaling easier.

I added the curing salt #2 for safety reasons; it helps prevent botulism bacteria from forming during the curing process and does not noticeably change the flavors.
I used a cold smoker and separated out the smoking and drying process, as I do not have a wood-fired chimney in which I can hang sausages. The drying instructions come from modern sausage and salami recipes that similarly call for smoking and then drying. The Bactoferm sausage mould is a commercial culture of harmless edible mold used in modern processes to help prevent more toxic molds from forming; it also adds flavor and aids in the drying process.

Sources
de Casteau, Lancelot. James Prescott et al, trans. Ouverture de Cuisine. Self-published, 2012.
Marianski, Stanley, and Adam Marianski. Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages. Seminole, FL: Bookmagic, 2010. ISBN 978-0982426739.

What worked: This is quite possibly the best cured sausage I've ever made. There is an intense salmony flavor that is totally at odds with what you'd expect from a sausage. Nice pink color, too. When I passed out samples to various cured-meat professionals at the farmers' market they were extremely complimentary (ego boost for me!)

What didn't: I ground the pepper fresh that day, a bit too finely. We kept a couple of these as fresh sausages and they were waaaay too peppery. Even now there's a definite bite (which I like, but it probably should be lower.)

Will I make it again? Damn straight. I plan to keep this as a stand-by.

What I'm reading: Joe Haldeman, Starbound

Comments

[gormflaith.livejournal.com]

This sounds really yummy!

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I'm bringing some to Beltane.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Nom. Hot-smoked or cold-smoked salmon?

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

The smoked salmon used is probably hot-smoked (commercial); the sausages themselves are cold-smoked.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

It's one of the interesting cultural differences, I think: in the UK "smoked salmon" means cold-smoked, you'd have to specify hot-smoked and you very rarely see it; here it seems to be the norm. And salmon is the only fish I've so far seen cold-smoked, where it's something we do commonly as a flavouring as well as a preservative. (No smoked haddock! How am I to make fish pie?)