Mastering the Craft of Making Sausage (40 page)

½ tsp. (2.5 ml) garlic granules

½ tsp. (2.5 ml) marjoram

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) white pepper, ground

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) mace

1 large egg, well beaten

2 Tbsp. (30 ml) light corn syrup 5 Tbsp (75 ml) cold tap water

½ cup (120 ml) finely powdered skim milk

MIXING AND STUFFING

1. 
Grind the chicken with a
-inch (4.8 mm) or smaller plate—the smaller the better. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

2. 
Measure the seasoning and other ingredients—including the egg, corn syrup, water, and powdered milk—into a large stainless steel mixing bowl. Stir until the mixture is uniform; it will be a slurry or a thin paste. Refrigerate.

3. 
Follow the instructions in
HOW TO EMULSIFY SAUSAGE
near the beginning of this chapter.

4. 
Stuff the emulsified sausage into the prepared casings, and twist the links. Refrigerate the links overnight (or at least a few hours) to permit the sea-

soning to be absorbed by the meat. Use an uncovered container with a paper towel placed over the sausage.

If the wieners will be smoked, please see Chapter 7. (If they will be smoked, cold smoking is recommended.) If they will be cooked without smoking, please see Chapter 6.

Greek Gyro

When our family lived in Chicago in the 1970s, we often went to one of the numerous gyro restaurants for a delicious gyro. What is a gyro? It could be called a Greek sandwich. It is thinly sliced roasted meat piled on pita bread, garnished with chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and a little crumbled feta cheese. A dressing made of yogurt and shredded cucumber is drizzled on top of these fillers. The round, thin, pita bread is folded over the filling—much like one would fold a flour tortilla.

The word
gyro
comes from the Greek work
gyros
, which means
to turn
. (The meat is turned as it is roasted.) I have heard the word
gyro
pronounced in many different ways, but one of the common pronunciations is “ye¯ ro¯.”

The two things that make this sandwich-like creation so decadently delicious are the exotically seasoned roasted meat and the yogurt sauce. We left Chicago in 1980, and I have not been able to find a gyro equal to the Chicago gyro. The ones I have had in Portland, Oregon, and even the ones I had in Detroit, Michigan, pale in comparison.

The yogurt dressing is easy to make, and various recipes for it can be found on the Internet. However, the meat filler is difficult to duplicate because recipes that produce roasted meat equal to the taste of that used in the Chicago gyro could not be found. The gyro loaf recipe below is my creation. The taste and texture are close to what I tasted in Chicago.

In Chicago, the professionals use a special roaster having upright panels that partially surround the cylindrical-shaped mass of meat. The mass of seasoned meat rotates vertically—not horizontally, as in a common rotisserie— and the radiant heat inside the hot walls of the roaster cooks the meat. The chef slices off the meat a little at a time when a gyro is to be prepared.

In this recipe, the gyro meat is cooked as a loaf. Custom meat processors here in the United States prepare and cook large gyro loaves in a similar way and sell them—cooked, presliced, and frozen—to small Greek restaurants that want to offer gyros on the menu, but do not wish to invest in the special roaster.

Instructions for preparing the cucumber-flavored yogurt sauce, and suggestions for preparing and serving the gyros, are below the instructions for making and cooking the meat.

THE MEAT FOR 2½ LBS. (1,150 G) OF GYRO LOAF

A combination of lamb and beef is usually used for the gyro loaf. But, in the United States, it seems that some people use only beef, others use only lamb, and yet others use various combinations of beef, pork, and lamb. About 50 percent pork and 50 percent beef is suggested to start, and then you may wish to use the more expensive lamb after some experience with the formulation and processing has been acquired. If lamb is used, you might wish to use lean lamb, and use the more pleasant tasting beef fat to replace the lamb fat. The total fat content of the meat should be about 20 to 25 percent.

Prepare 1¼ lbs. (570 g) of pork shoulder butt (or lamb), and 1¼ lbs. (570 g) of beef chuck. Cut the pork butt and beef chuck into ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes. Refrigerate these two meats until they are well chilled. While this meat is being prepared, chill the grinder in the refrigerator.

SEASONINGS AND OTHER INGREDIENTS

2½ tsp. (12.5 ml) salt

1 Tbsp. (15 ml) lemon juice

1 tsp. (5 ml) crushed dry mint

1 tsp. (5 ml) marjoram

½ tsp. (2.5 ml) granulated onion

½ tsp. (2.5 ml) rosemary

½ tsp. (2.5 ml) black pepper, ground

½ tsp. (2.5 ml) coriander—packed in the spoon

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) summer savory

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) thyme

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) garlic granules

1 egg, well beaten

¼ cup (60 ml) cold tap water

¼ cup (60 ml) powdered milk

MIXING AND STUFFING

1.
Grind the pork butt and the beef chuck with a
-inch (4.8 mm) or smaller plate—the smaller the better. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

2.   
Measure the seasoning, water, and powdered milk into a large stainless steel mixing bowl, and add the egg. Stir until the mixture is uniform; it will be a thin paste. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

3.   
Follow the instructions in
HOW TO EMULSIFY SAUSAGE
near the beginning of this chapter.

4.   
Grease the inside of a loaf pan with margarine, butter, or shortening. Pack the emulsified gyro paste into the pan. (A loaf pan measuring about 8¾ × 5 × 3 inches works well. Metric measurements are 22 × 13 × 8 cm.) Refrigerate the sausage loaf while the steamer is being prepared.

5.   
Insert the cable probe of an electronic thermometer into the center of the loaf. Cover the loaf pan and the thermometer probe with aluminum foil. Steam the loaf at about 175° F (79° C) until the internal temperature is 160° F (71° C).

6.   
Remove the loaf from the pan. Cool at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Cover with paper towels and refrigerate. The next morning the loaf may be sliced and wrapped. Freeze the portion that will not be used within a few days.

TZATZIKI SAUCE

This sauce is spooned onto the gyro after the sliced meat, chopped tomatoes, sliced onions, and shredded lettuce are put on the pita bread.

1 lb. (450 g) plain yogurt

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and shredded

1 Tbsp. (15 ml) olive oil

2 tsp. (10 ml) white wine vinegar ¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) garlic granules ¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) salt

1.   
The best tzatziki sauce is made from yogurt with reduced water content. This is not difficult to do, but it is a little messy. Suspend a tea towel (a dish-towel) over a bowl by using whatever method you can improvise: clothespins, a large rubber band, paper clamps, etc. Spoon the yogurt onto the towel. Allow the water from the yogurt to drain through the tea towel into the bowl for 2 hours while it is in the refrigerator.

2.   
Remove as much moisture from the shredded cucumber as possible by placing it on paper towels atop several layers of newspaper, or by putting the shredded cucumber in a tea towel and squeezing it.

3.
Discard the liquids from the yogurt and the cucumber. Combine the yogurt, cucumber, and all the other tzatziki ingredients in a small mixing bowl, and mix well. It may be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.

SERVING GYROS

A generous quantity of cold, sliced gyro meat is piled on a piece of cold pita bread. This is put on a plate and heated in the microwave oven for about 40 seconds.

Next, the chopped tomatoes, sliced sweet onions, crumbled feta cheese, and shredded lettuce are put on the meat. Finally, the meat and vegetables are drenched in tzatziki sauce, and the pita bread is folded over—similar to the way a flour tortilla is folded. Enjoy!

Ham Sausage Supreme

Ham Sausage Supreme is one of those sausages that most everyone likes. As far as seasoning ingredients are concerned, it is one of the simplest sausages in this book. Pork is naturally flavorful, and pork made into ham needs only a few ingredients to complement that flavor.

This sausage is not difficult to make, but the processing time is long because five days of waiting patiently are required to cure the chunks of ham that will be embedded in the sausage paste.

The basic plan for making this sausage is as follows:

Half of the meat will be lean pork; it will be cut into large cubes and cured for five days. At the end of five days, these cubes of fresh pork will have been changed to cubes of raw ham.

The remaining pork will be ground, seasoned like ham, and made into emulsified sausage paste.

The cubes of ham will be mixed with the emulsified paste, stuffed into fibrous casings, smoked (optional), and cooked.

THE MEAT FOR 1¼ LBS. (570 G) OF HAM CUBES

Prepare 1¼ lbs. (570 g) of lean pork. Cut this pork into 1-inch (2.5 cm) “cubes.” (These small hunks of pork can be any shape, but the volume should be one cubic inch, more or less.) Any lean pork may be used. The cubes may be cut from pork sirloin, pork loin, or even from the lean parts of pork butt, for example. Refrigerate these cubes until they are well chilled.

CURE INGREDIENTS FOR 1¼ LBS. (570 G) HAM CUBES

1½ tsp. (7.5 ml) salt

1½ tsp. (7.5 ml) brown sugar—packed in the spoon

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) Cure #1

½ tsp. (2.5 ml) onion granules

½ tsp. (2.5 ml) white pepper

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) garlic powder

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) allspice

cold water to make a slurry

CURING THE HAM CUBES

1. 
Day 1
: Measure the cure ingredients into a plastic container that is large enough to allow the cubes to be stirred easily. (The container should have a tight-fitting lid.) Add enough cold water to make a slurry. Place the pork cubes in the container, and stir the cubes vigorously to ensure that all surfaces of each cube are coated with the seasoning cure. Push the cubes down in the curing container so that they are packed together tightly. Cover and refrigerate.

2. 
Days 2, 3, and 4
: Each day, stir the cubes thoroughly at least once in order to recoat each of the cubes with curing mixture. Again, push the cubes down in the curing container so that they are packed together tightly.

3. 
Day 5
: The curing is finished. Remove the cubes from the plastic container, place them in a colander, and spray with cold water while thoroughly agitating them. (This is to remove all curing compound and excess seasoning from the surfaces of the cubes.) Drain well in the colander, and then place the cubes atop a paper towel with several layers of newspaper underneath. Refrigerate the cubes while they are on the paper, and prepare to finish mixing and stuffing the sausage.

CASINGS

If 2½-inch (6.4 cm) diameter fibrous casings are used, three 12-inch (30 cm) casings will be required. Fibrous casings must be soaked in water for 30 minutes before stuffing. Be sure to fill the casings with warm water.

THE MEAT FOR 1¼ LBS. (570 G) OF SAUSAGE PASTE

Prepare 1¼ lbs. (570 g) of regular pork butt that has about 25 percent fat. Cut this pork into ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes. Refrigerate these cubes until they are well chilled. Chill the meat grinder and the sausage stuffer in the refrigerator while this meat is being prepared.

SAUSAGE PASTE SEASONINGS AND OTHER INGREDIENTS

¾ tsp. (3.75 ml) salt

¼ tsp. (1.25 ml) Cure #1