madbaker | Meatless Dessert Sausage!

...sort of.
This coming week's Resolution Recipe, which the apprentice and I made today: White Saveloy Sausage.

Take a pitcher [enghistara] of milk, twelve egg whites, and two pounds of grated fatty cheese, and half a pound of wheat starch, and put it in a pot, and beat all these things together well, with one pound of sugar, and one pound of clean raisins, and half an ounce of cinnamon and a quarter of an ounce of ground pepper, and incorporate all these things together well. And have your intestines well washed, and make your saveloy as long as you want them, and then put them in a cauldron of water, and give them a good boil, and then let them cool, and fry them in fat.
-Messisbugo, 1557

1.31 cups whole milk
6 medium egg whites
12 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
3 ounces wheat starch
6 ounces sugar
6 ounces golden raisins
1/4 ounce ground cassia cinnamon
1/8 ounce ground pepper

50 mm beef casings
unsalted butter

Whisk together the milk and egg whites and mix in the cheese. Whisk in the wheat starch. Beat in the sugar, raisins, cinnamon, and pepper. Pour into the cleaned casings, being careful not to over-fill. Knot the casing at six-inch intervals to separate the links. Yields about 24 inches of saveloy.

Bring a large pot of water to a low boil and gently lower the links into the water. Gently simmer over medium-high heat for 50 minutes to set. Remove the saveloy, drain, and pat dry. Let cool. Slice 1/4" rounds and fry in melted butter for 30 seconds per side, until lightly golden brown. Serve warm.

According to Archaic Units of Measure (www.dotroot.net/ArchaicMeasures/), an enghistara equals 2.62 liquid cups. A pound in 16th century Venice was twelve ounces rather than the modern sixteen.

I used a young Parmesan as the fatty cheese since it is high fat and a documentable cheese that has stayed relatively unchanged since the Middle Ages.

Sources
Messisbugo, Cristoforo. Libro novo nel qual s'insegna a' far d'ogni sorte di vivanda (aka Messisbugo). Ariane Helou, trans. (written in Ferrara, published in Venice) – facsimile of 1557 edition by Arnaldo Forni Editore, Bologna 2008.
Zupko, Ronald Edward. Italian Weights and Measures from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1981. Print.

What worked: This came out a lot better than I expected. It's about 70% of the way there. It was tasty, reminiscent of French toast without being jaw-rottingly sweet. The beef middles softened up during the boiling and were barely noticeable; we did not need to remove the casing to eat. The pepper wasn't as assertive as I was afraid it would be (although neither was the cinnamon...)

The texture was good: similar to a chicken quenelle, with an almost tofu-like meaty feel.

What didn't: First attempt, lots of things to fix. Pretty damn good for a first try when neither of us has ever made anything like this before, though.

We grated the Parm in a fud processor and it was a coarse-ish grind. When we started to mix in the starch, we could tell that it was adhering to the cheese rather than dissolving, so we strained out the milk/egg white and whisked in the starch, then recombined. I'd start that way first next time. The coarse shreds of Parm stayed in the funnel rather than pouring through with the liquid; all the liquid went to the bottom and the cheese was at the top. We had to palpate the whole section to distribute the cheese evenly. Microplaning would solve this. While the young Parm didn't taste as noticeable in the final product as I was afraid it would, I think I want to try with a whole milk Mozzarella or maybe a Fontina.

We probably didn't need to boil them as long as we did, although I don't think over-boiling hurt them (unlike a meat sausage). I think 30 minutes might have been enough to activate the starch. We used a large pan and the saveloy links lay in there, so we had to flip them partway through; the contents settled to one side rather than being evenly distributed. I think suspending them in a full pot of water like a modern English pudding will solve that.

We also cut one off after 10 minutes to see if it was set (it wasn't) and in the immortal words of Chris Cosentino, the open end then "spooged out the *bleep*". Making separate links that are knotted at both ends will solve that, although simply cooking the whole thing through would too.

I want to use white pepper next time to keep the color consistent. Likewise, I chose golden raisins rather than standard seedless Thompsons. However, I might substitute currants; they would would look like cracked peppercorns. I might try using true cinnamon for its floral notes rather than cassia, but I'm not sure there will be any difference after boiling and frying.

Will I make it again? The apprentice and I are trying this again on our next work day in January.

White saveloy, post-boiling, cooling