The Decadent Cookbook (24 page)

A
COLD
JOINT
OF
MEAT

E
NGLISH
MUSTARD
POWDER
MADE
UP
WITH
W
ORCESTER

SAUCE
OR
CHILLI
VINEGAR

B
UTTER

D
EVIL
PEPPER
(1
TEASPOON
EACH
OF
FRESHLY
GROUND

BLACK
PEPPER,
SALT,
&
CAYENNE
PEPPER)

Cut the meat into pieces and dip in the mustard. Dot with butter and sprinkle with devil pepper, then grill furiously until scorched and crisp.

This achieves the amazing feat of making black pudding seem tropical and exotic rather than an emanation of grey northern skies.

4
TABLESPOONS
SALT

1
LIME

2
SPRING
ONIONS

2-3
HOT
RED
PEPPERS

4
OZ
SWEET
POTATO
(
OR
COOKED
RICE
)

2
OZ
PUMPKIN

SPRIG
OF
MARJORAM

BLACK
PEPPER

¹
/
₄
PINT
PIG’S
BLOOD

1
OZ
BUTTER

3-4
FT
HOG
CASING

Chop the spring onions and crush the peppers. Peel and grate the sweet potato and the pumpkin and mix with the onions, peppers, marjoram, salt and black pepper. Strain in the pig’s blood and stir well. Fill the intestine and tie off leaving 1 inch for expansion. Join the two ends to form a circle, place in boiling water and simmer for 20 minutes. Then prick the skin to prevent bursting. Cook gently for a further 30 minutes and serve hot.

The great beauty of these French sausages is that they consist of guts inside guts. As a culinary-aesthetic concept this scores highly. The taste is also a revelation. The
andouillette
is made from chitterling (the middle section of a pig’s intestines) or calf mesentery (a membrane covering part of the intestines) and tripe. It is eaten grilled. The
andouille
adds up to 50% of pork meat. It is fatter and it enters the
salle à manger
in slices.

Perhaps because of their colouring as well as their shape and size,
andouilles
and
andouillettes
can look very phallic. This is something for Decadent cooks to exploit or ignore as they think fit. The resemblance lies behind a popular song in Jargeau (‘Capitale de 1’Andouille’) -

Si t’étais venu, t’aurais mangé de l’andouille,

Comme t’es pas venu, elle est restée pendue.

If you’d come you’d have eaten andouille,

As you didn’t, it just hung there.

You can buy
andouilles
and
andouillettes
ready-made from a French pork butcher. Not all Decadents are in a position to do this, however, and as the urge for them (once tasted) can come on very suddenly and strong, here are some simple instructions:

A
CALF
MESENTERY

A
HEIFER’S
UDDER
(
T
ROYES
VARIANT)

CHITTERLING
AND
TRIPE
(
S
AVOIE
VARIANT)

HALF
THE
COMBINED
WEIGHT
OF
THESE
IN
LEAN
BACON

THYME,
BAY
LEAF,
BOUQUET
GARNI

PARSLEY
(CUMIN
FOR
S
AVOIE,
NUTMEG
FOR
T
ROYES)

1
LITRE
STOCK
(MADE
PARTLY
WITH
WINE
IF
YOU
WISH)

1
ONION
STUDDED
WITH
CLOVES

4
OZ
MUSHROOMS,
SLICED

3
SHALLOTS,
CHOPPED

6
EGG
YOLKS

CASINGS

Cut the meat into small squares. Simmer in stock with herbs and onion for 2 hours. Cook mushrooms and shallots gently in butter, then add parsley (or cumin or nutmeg). Take the meat out of the stock and chop it coarsely. Boil the stock fast to reduce it. Bind the other ingredients with the egg yolks, then mix with the stock and fill the casings to make sausages 5 inches long. Salt in brine for 48 hours, or hang in smoke for 3 days, or cook in a bouillon of wine and water or milk and water (50/50) for a further 30 minutes.

To serve: slash diagonally a few times and grill on both sides. Garnish with mustard and potatoes, puréed celery, apples or red cabbage. If in Strasbourg, surround with
sauerkraut
. A more extravagant method
(à la tourangelle)
is to souse the
andouillettes
in Armagnac for 24 hours, fill a buttered dish with sliced mushrooms sprinkled with lemon juice, lay the
andouillettes
on top, add salt, pepper and a glass of Vouvray, and cook in a blazing oven for 40 minutes, turning and basting from time to time.

Spilinga is a small grey hillside town in the far south of Italy where a unique sausage is made. Prepared from ‘the worst parts of the pig and the best parts of the pepper’, it’s a fiery concoction renowned for its capacity to scour the arteries, purge the intestines and exhilarate the sexual organs. Its bulging red balloons lie on Calabrian salami counters daring you to make their day. They look homicidal - but it’s all swagger and bluff. Once eaten they sit sweetly inside you, spreading warmth, well-being, genial effusions, lust, etc.

The ‘nduia is a mixing or spreading sausage. You mix it in with a plate of pasta, or smear it like mustard on grilled meat. You can even spread it on toast. The name sounds very like the French
andouille
, but the ingredients are as different as can be. This recipe comes from Tino Pugliese of Spilinga, musicologist, gourmet and expert ‘nduia maker.

70
LB
LOWEST
QUALITY
MEAT
FROM
A
PIG
-
THE
WINDPIPE,

FAT
PARTS
OF
THE
BELLY,
NECK,
ETC.

10
LB
HOT
RED
PEPPERS

20
LB
SWEET
RED
PEPPERS

3
LB
SALT

H
OG
CASINGS
-
NARROW,
MEDIUM,
AND
WIDE

Buy the peppers in late summer, and dry them slowly on strings in a well-ventilated place for 2-3 months. They should not be too dry and still have a little flesh left on them when you use them. In early December, at pig slaughtering time, take all the least prized pieces of meat, the left-overs from bacon, sausage and salami making, and mince them as finely as possible. Seed the peppers and mince them finely too.

Mix the meat and peppers with the salt and knead on a board for 15 minutes. Cut the casings into 15 inch lengths, tie one end of each with string, leaving a loose end of about 3 feet of string. Stuff in the mixture, packing it tight. Form into links 6 inches long and tie them off with slip-knots. Fasten the top ends and hang 6 feet above a slow, smoky fire in a room where the air can circulate. Let them smoke for 2 hours per day for a week. Smoke again as necessary in damp weather. Use the narrow ‘nduia for immediate consumption (up to March-April), medium for April to July, wide for July onwards.

When the ‘nduia is ready, try a forkful on a plate of
spaghetti alla carbonara, alla matriciana, al ragù,
or any other dish you fancy. Also good with melon.