Merguez?

[johnfb]

I am making a merguez mix later on i will post my recipe if that helps.

Thanks for all the help guys.
Greyham, please post your recipe when tested; and some pics too would be great.

I guess I will leave out the breadcrumbs after all.

But I really dont like that full on meat texture....just my preference.

[wheels]

Hey John

If you want breadcrumbs in it, do it. You may create a whole new sausage sensation!

[johnfb]

Hey John

If you want breadcrumbs in it, do it. You may create a whole new sausage sensation!

Ok. I am buying 2 pork shoulders and some belly this Friday to replenish my stock having thrown it all out during the scare a few weeks ago.
My kids have been moaning there are no sausages or bacon to eat and they wont eat the supermarket rubbish any more.
What I will do is buy some beef and lamb pieces as well, and grind it and mix it up some breadcrumb and some without and make up a couple of patties and test them out.
Results to follow.

[johnfb]

Made up the blend today using the following recipe:

450 gm Lean Beef
480 gm Breast of Lamb
50 gm Iced Water
50 gm Breadcrumbs
10 gm Olive Oil
38 gm Spice Mix


Spice Mix

18 gm Salt
2.4 gm Black Pepper
4 gm Hot chilli Powder
0.6 gm Spanish Smoked Hot Paprika
3 gm Ground Garlic
4 gm Ground Cumin
4 gm Ground Fennel seed
2 gm Spanish Sweet Paprika


I made up 12 patties as I couldn't be bothered taking all the equipment out and casings to make sausages.
I fried up a small piece to try it out and it was superb. Not bready at all.
I fried up 2 patteis and having just made 8 of the wheels blend bread rolls yesterday I made 2burgers for me and my wife.
Excellent recipe, really nice and subtle flavours with a nice little kick of chilli heat at the end.

This is going into my top recipe folder and will definitely be an addition to my general blends. I will probably keep these as burger patties or shaped into long strips for use in hot dog rolls, but either way a great addition to my collection.
Try this recipe out it is a winner espically with the Wheels bread rolls.

[wheels]

John

I must try these - what beef cut did you use?

Phil

[Greyham]

Sorry guys have not got roumd to making merguez yet but have made 40 spanish chorizo, 10 kilos Bratwurst and 5 kilos of boudin blanc oh and Duck and cured duck terrine and cranberry confit. A pork and pork liver pate layered with venison loin.
used spare chorizo mix to make a roasted red pepper and chorizo rissotto for dinner.

[johnfb]

John

I must try these - what beef cut did you use?

Phil

Hi Phil

I just used cheap beef pieces from the butchers, probably round steak, or some cheaper cut like stewing steak. They were really nice either way.

Try them with your bread rolls....yummmmm!
I fried up some onions and put shredded lettuce on the toasted rolls...seriously nice and I think they would be perfect for a BBQ too.

[wheels]

...and the recipes are?

[wheels]

Those bread rolls are haunting me!

I make some really good 'country' bread but will be remembered for a supermarket style burger bun.

[johnfb]

Those bread rolls are haunting me!

I make some really good 'country' bread but will be remembered for a supermarket style burger bun.

Just like the sincalr C5
Sorry Phil those flippin rolls are the business, and I defy anyone to tell me different.


Is the country bread the one on your blog???
Can you pop the recipe here for me and I will give it a spin?

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/weblog ... =my_weblog

[wheels]

Ah! I spoke too soon - it's a work in progress - but, you'll be the first to know when it's done. In the meantime both Griselda and Saucisson make a superb loaf - if the photos are anything to go by anyway.

Your Lamb and Beef (Merguez Style) is on my 'to do' list.

Phil

[johnfb]

Ah! I spoke too soon - it's a work in progress - but, you'll be the first to know when it's done. In the meantime both Griselda and Saucisson make a superb loaf - if the photos are anything to go by anyway.

Your Lamb and Beef (Merguez Style) is on my 'to do' list.

Phil

Yeah Phil, I really would like to know what you think of these. Make them soon and let me know.
CHEERS

[tagine]

Easy, chaps! I agree on what you said

Fricandeau, its best to read *carefully*, and interpret positively.
BTW, as regards careful reading - Pete's handle relates to card games, not pigs, despite his close involvement with the meat and allied trades...

While undoubtedly sausages have been a repository for all manner of trimmings, offcuts and offal - to make a consistent product with a specific character, you need a (more or less specific) recipe.
Now while a merguez-maker in Fez might well use various bits that he finds are best sold in sausage, those bits are not going to be the same, or in the same proportions, as sausagemaking resource used by a butcher in Lincoln or Windermere.
To replicate the product of Morocco, Lincolnshire or Cumbria one needs a bit more to go on than "whatever the guy has to hand" 'cos it certainly ain't likely to be exactly the same as happens by chance to be available to yourself.
What "you" have got most conveniently will inevitably be different for everyone.
But, even in Morocco, Lincolnshire and Cumbria, more than a single type of sausage is routinely made - and traders will strive to produce a fairly consistent product from day to day. Abdul's Merguez are intended to be the same tomorrow as yesterday. He might not achieve the consistency of Ronald MacDonald, but he doesn't intend his clients to be taking pot luck when they ask him for Merguez. There's a particular customer expectation that he is trying to meet.
Now as to how much variability there is in the method and ingredients, that's another question, but what Oddley was asking was along the lines of whether the recipe he used produces something that Abdul's clients would recognise as "Merguez"...

I've only eaten them in France, not North Africa.
The meat has been a deep dark *red* particularly after cooking.
They were frequently sold at the roadside, grilled over charcoal. I'd say that a certain amount of char and smoke greatly enhances them. Hence I'm surprised at the absence of grilled red pepper flesh from these recipes. Whereas Harissa emphasises the heat of the Chillies, IMHO Merguez wants the smokey "grilled red peppery-ness" of the sweet peppers.

I know they will have a common ancestry but I wonder what the defining distinctions are between Merguez and fresh (ie not air-cured) Chorizo.
I'd suggest that the Merguez are more likely to be in smaller casings, have more fat, finer mincing and more of a taste of peppers (and hot chillies) than just of 'spicy' (rather than sweet) paprika. That's just my suggestions - what would others say?

Thanks Dougal, that's exactly what I was going to type. So let's do your last bit first.
Merguez is made with lamb in sheeps casing. Don't forget that most North Africans are Moslems, and therefore it would be forbidden to eat hog casings. As for Chorizo they are a pork sausage, and the same applies.
The Moorish invasion of Spain integrated both peoples, and it would come as no surprise to find that the spices in both Merguez and Chorizo to be similar.
If one want's to make a sausage with 'bits of anything to hand' then check out the Dutch Frikandel. It's never travelled further than Holland and North Belgium, and never will.
Now just to round off with, my French wife worked in a bank in Algeria, we also lived near Marseilles, and in Lyons and Paris where there are substantial numbers of North Africans. I've scoffed hundreds of different Merguez sausages. Which Dougal brings us nicely back round to the main body of your text. So thank you again.
Pete.

[wheels]

Tagine

You've quoted a couple of comments from a while back, presumably with the intention of adding to them. Regrettably somewhere along the line all we can see the quotes but not what you wanted to say.

You can use the edit button in the top right of your post to access the post and add your thoughts.

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

Phil

[hotgoblin]

hi have tryed this recipe and the the french ones and they taste near as you can shake a stick up