I’ve scaled back on the spice, this time, as many of tomorrow’s guests aren’t nuts about spicy food.

Update: Just sauteed one of each type of sausage over medium-high heat, and they’re great! I think it was the griller that was drying them out.

As an aside, I used MUCH less cumin this time, and the result is a much more complex and subtle flavour.

Currently on the menu:

• Mild italian pork sausage
• Mexican-style chorizo
• Ginger-szechuan brined chicken
• Smoked chicken breasts with maple-pomegranate glaze
• Satan ribs (if I can be arsed)

I’ll be uploading the photos tomorrow – there were a LOT of sausages. And the smell was awesome (garlic, red wine, and gin).

Stay tuned…

Once cured (around 12 hours, since the tenderloins are quite thin), I dried them out in the fridge for 2 hours, and then smoked them. Since I hot-smoked the tenderloins, they’re basically cooked (much the same as bacon).

I added sodium nitrite to the brine (mainly, in this case, so I can watch cure penetration, due to the way nitrite binds myoglobin).
Note the faint ring on the cross-section; this indicates how far the cure had penetrated in 12 hours.
Based on this, I’ll be curing the next lot for around 36 hours (4 days, if it’s an entire loin).

So, how does it taste? It’s a slightly cider-like taste, balanced beautifully by the rosemary and chilli. The ground mustard seems to have disappeared in there, but I’m ok with that.

All in all, a qualified success.

The flavour is definitely…intriguing. But the following flaws prevent this batch of sausages from being all they could be:

• A little too much cumin (I suspect this may mellow a bit with age but, still, it kind of overwhelms the other flavours).
• Not enough tequila (I’d say 30% more) for the flavour to really come through (although it may simply be swamped by the cumin).
• I’m not happy with the ratio of Ancho to Chipotle to Paprika. I think I’d prefer less paprika, and more Ancho (and a little more Chipotle, too). Next time, I’ll try deriving the heat less from paprika and more from some fresh chilli.

Pictures to follow.

While the test-patty is a good indicator of rough flavour, be aware that the flavour will definitely  mature in the day or two after the sausages were made.

Stay tuned…

I love the spiciness of the toasted coriander seeds, balanced with the sweetness of the toasted fennel seeds (and just a hint of chilli, of course).

This batch is a special request for mum; unfortunately, the meat I’ve been given for this batch has been frozen, so it didn’t grind so well. I had to stop and clear the grinder a couple of times, but the overall consistency’s acceptable (just).

The flavour is great – noticeably spicy, but not overwhelming.

Changes this time include:

• Dried basil / oregano (just completely forgot to pick up fresh, and the herb garden’s not ready to harvest)
• Spices mixed by weight, pro rata for amount of pork used
• Marinating pork / fat strips in spices overnight
• Around 5% more fat than the usual recipe (mum adores fatty sausages)
• Aiming for a relatively moist sausage, to take the edge off the heat a bit

[Show as slideshow]

When the meat or connective tissue is too stringy, and gets wrapped around the blade, meat reaching the cutting surface / grill is torn, instead of cut. This results in mushy mince that, when cooked, resembles paper mache. When you first notice smear, stop the grinder, remove the grill, and remove any tissue wrapped around the blade.

That’s right – they charge by weight, and then make sure as much of what they sell you as possible is water.
Fucking. Water.

This means less flavour, and a rather unpleasant mouth-feel (read: soggy smallgoods).