I like the idea of considering the traditional American hamburger as a special kind of sausage. This general abstraction appeals to the mathematician in me. It also encourages one to be geared toward the closer end of 70/30 meat/fat ratio when making hamburgers! Too often I’ve had people’s homemade burgers made with 92/8 ratios and they’re just dreadful. However, he does stop short and doesn’t encourage one to use pork fat in their burgers…
Highlights, Quotes, & Marginalia
There is no such thing as a good, lean sausage.
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
The fat of choice is pork back fat, […] it’s better for you than the more saturated fat from beef or lamb.
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
Indeed, the word sausage derives from the Latin for salt.
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
Never use iodized salt, which adds an acrid chemical flavor to food. Use kosher or sea salt only.
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
Morton’s kosher is the closest to an even volume-to-weight ratio (a cup of Morton’s weighs about 8 ounces).
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
Pork sausages should be cooked to 150 deg F before being removed from the heat, and poultry-based sausages should be cooked to 160 deg F.
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
I make sausage in 5-pound batches, since that’s the maximum that will fit in the 5- or 6-quart mixing bowl standard for most standing mixers;
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
[When making] Fry a bit-sized portion of the sausage and taste…
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
One secondary and salutary effect of a brine is that it can actually carry flavors into muscle, …
For those watching closely, he’s made a pun on the word salutary whose Latin root is also the word for salt.
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
Sodium nitrite, often simply referred to as pink salt (it’s dyed pink), is a curing salt that’s inexpensive and available from www.butcher-packer.com, which sells pink salt under the name DQ Cure.
Oddly this line is repeated twice in the footnotes on opposite pages, but provides a useful link for ordering supplies for making Canadian bacon and Corned Beef
Added on Saturday, February 3, 2018
