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I had about 600 grams of fatty Lamb in my freezer, decided to make some Merguez sausage, found a recipe close to how i thought it should be (i spent over 20 years working in North Africa) and i had some Harissa so decided to make some, this is a mostly Len Poli recipe with a few changes from me

lamb 600 grams guessing at 35% fat
Beef 420 grams 5% fat
salt 18 grams
Black pepper 4.0 gram
garlic Powder 8 grams
Onion powder 8 grams
allspice, ground 1.0 gram
paprika 4.0 gram
cumin ground 1.0 gram
Harissa paste 3 Tbs
Coriander ground 1 gram
Water 3/4 cup iced

Test piece was really good, Nice harissa bite to it, pleased with the outcome

Nice job. I've added this to the alphabetical list in the FAQ.

Phil

wheels wrote:Nice job. I've added this to the alphabetical list in the FAQ.

Phil

Oh, thank you.

A note of caution, the recipe as i did it is quite hot, you could cut the Harissa down to 2 Tbs and still get a nice heat, i like it hot hence the extra.

Side note on Harissa
First time overseas and im in Oran Algeria, needed to stay a few days to get paperwork sorted before going down into desert to jobsite. See a street stall selling sandwiches, the smell from there was tempting so a few of us bought one, mystery meat covered in red paste, yep Harissa and strong at that, we soon got used to the heat of it and would look for the sandwich vendors everywhere we went, its addictive

Is there a brand of harissa paste you recommend or did you make your own? Why were they tied like that, are they in synthetic casing?

Hey Paul, i try to find the DEA brand, its very authentic and its in a tube, i find the cans/jars go off quicker.
They are in Hog casings, tied like that only because i had been looking on youtube on how to do it and that was a easy way

Colin

Ive only ever had these in France and they are my faves its almost a Halal chorizo

I love merguez. My recipe is similar to yours (it's based on Len Poli's) but I use quite a lot more pimenton picante in place of paprika. 20 g / kg isn't too much. My preference is for 100% lamb rather than a mix, about 20% fat. Sheep casings are more authentic. They freeze well.

Martin/

My intention was to use sheep's casings, the day i decided to make them i had forgot to order the casings hence the hog casings. I only had 600gr of Lamb so i used the Beef to make it up to 1kg, i see some Merguez recipes that use both.