Aidells' Hunter Sausage

[NCPaul]

This past weekend I made a couple of sausages from Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book. I made his recipe for Iowa Farm Sausage, which was good, and I made his recipe for Hunter's Sausage, which was outstanding. This appears to be his version of the German sausage Landjaeger but is not dried and pressed into a square shape. It is a coarse ground sausage which uses smoked bacon (streaky) with the pork shoulder and uses both mustard and mustard seed along with garlic and omits the caraway. I thought at first it was maybe too much seasoning, but after allowing the sausages to bloom overnight then poaching for 1/2 hour at 72-75C, I find them to be prefectly balanced in spice and "smokeyness". For people without a good setup to smoke sausage, this is a very good way to get a smoked sausage taste without resorting to liquid or powdered smoke flavoring. I plan to grill these this summer and have them with onions and potato salad.

[grisell]

Yes! I'd love to see the recipe since smoking is out of season for me.

[TJ Buffalo]

I have also made these in the past and they were quite good.


Hunter's Sausage

Makes about 3 pounds

This hearty sausage has an ample, smoky flavor from the bacon and a nice lift in its aroma and taste from the spices and mustard. Hunter's sausage is excellent grilled and served with a coarse-grained mustard or braised with beer and onions.

2 pounds pork butt
1 pound lean smoked bacon
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon whole yellow mustard seeds
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sweet Hungarian paprika
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Medium hog casings

For details on sausage making, see page 10 of the book.

Grind the pork and bacon through a 1/4-inch plate. Mix the ground meat with the water, mustard seeds, garlic, black pepper, paprika, dry mustard, salt, coriander, nutmeg, and ginger. Knead until all the spices are thoroughly blended with the meat. Stuff into medium hog casings, and tie into 6- to 7-inch links. Dry the sausages, uncovered, in the refrigerator for 1 or 2 days.

To poach, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the sausage and reduce the heat to maintain the poaching liquid at 180 degrees F. Poach for 25 minutes. Drain.

Cool and refrigerate. The poached sausages will keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days, or in the freezer for 2 months.

from:
Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book
by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly
Ten Speed Press, 2000
$21.95, 336 pages
ISBN 1-58008-159-2
Recipe reprinted with permission.

[NCPaul]

Thanks for typing out the whole recipe TJ, and for having permission. Do you know Bruce Aidells? The photo above is 1.5 times the recipe.