www.sausagemaking.org

Waitrose sell "Unearthed" brand semi-cured "Catalan" sausages with fennel. They're very nice, and I'd like to try to make something similar. Having never done a cured or semi-cured sausage before, the following seemed a reasonable approximation (based on ingredients listed on the packet and on the Unearthed web site, plus a lot of study of recipes here and on Len Poli's site).

Ingredients

1000 g pork shoulder
2.4 g cure #1
30 g salt
6 g fennel seed, ground
5 g black pepper
5 g garlic (maybe more as I like it!)

Mince pork and mix with dry ingredients. Leave in fridge 24 h and stuff into casings, twisting into 5 cm links.

Cook in simmering oven of Aga over a pan of water until internal temperature is about 70 C. Cool and store in 'fridge for a few days. Grill before use.

Any comments? The recipe includes various varieties of dextrose, sodium triphos and sodium erythorbate, but I'm not sure if these are necessary. (Would a little sugar be recommended in place of the dextrose?)

Martin/

In the absence of any advice, I tried them. Recipe as above, plus about 5 g of sugar and 50 ml water per kg meat. The ingredients were blasted in the food processor to a nice consistency and stuffed into hog casings after 24 h in the 'fridge, then left for another night.

After three hours in the Aga simmering oven they were still only in the low sixties celcius, (the Aga was running a bit on the cool side) so popped them in the hot oven under the baking shelf for a few minutes to bring them up to 70 C or so.

Crash cooled in the back garden at about -7 C for a few minutes. Tried them tonight after fifteen mins in a hot oven. Really rather good. mmmm! My son who is a bit of a teeny-gourmet likes them too so they can't be bad.

The fennel is quite pronounced but not excessive. Very like the Waitrose ones. They're a little salty for my taste, I'd go with around 20 g / kg next time. Perhaps a little extra water too, as the mix was quite stiff.

Martin/

Sounds like a Butifarra, there are many similar recipes around Cataluna, I think I have a couple, I will look them out for comparison.

How did these work out? Did you modify the recipe any further as i notice unearthed have stopped making these so i'm looking for a substitute.

Pretty good, quite close to the original. I've made them several times now. To my taste 15 g of salt per kilo of meat is about right. I added 5 g of sugar per kilo. Around 40 g of water helps as well, but you'll have to judge that according to the consistency. Otherwise as above.

The original ones are part-dried, I think the packet quotes 1.3 kg pork per kg of sausage. I've not tried this, and would be nervous unless using some cure #2, but the ingredients don't include nitrates. The cooking process will reduce the weight a bit, but haven't ever checked what the weight loss is.

Home made ones are a lot cheaper too, as I recall the Waitrose ones worked out at about £30 / kg.

Martin/

Thanks Martin,

They sound great, I'll give them a go and let you know how I get on

John