dried spices in cured sausages

[mrphilips]

relating this topic to the previous recent posts regarding fresh and dry herbs in cured sausages...

obviously, i'm getting bored of fennel, pepper, garlic and paprika. has anyone used any of the more unique spices? caraway, anise & corriander aside.

mustard - i know i've had slami with mustard seeds in it, but has anyone ever tried it ground? or prepared?
fenugreek?
ajwain?

anything else exciting?

[vagreys]

I've made sausage spiced with my dry rub (recipes in the Rubs and Marinades sub-forum), which contains both powdered and whole mustard seed. I thought it was good.

Have you considered making your own masala or curry spice blends, using things like fenugreek, annatto, asafoetida, etc? In making medieval sausages, I've spiced them with grains of paradise, cubebs, and long pepper. Might be worth a try. If you search for the medieval sausages recipes, I included some spice blends, there, that you might give a shot.

[mrphilips]

oh sure, before i took on charcuterie i focused primarily on spice blends. in fact, that's what's prompting me this way - i got bored of fennel and pepper, and i miss my masalas!
it's just that i'm starting at the basics here, and have noted that there's only a handful of spices typically being used in the recipes i'm looking at, and i wonder if there's a reason... much like the reasons to (or not to) use herbs in the recent posts.

if you're saying there's nothing to stop me - barring the additional risk of botulism - then i'm ready to go! i eat my spice blends raw ALL the time, so i'm sure the cures and ferments will finish anything i haven't already come across.

[vagreys]

I think a lot of basic backyard sausage recipes that have been handed down called mostly for herbs and spices that came out of the garden or were readily available (vs exotics). The umbellifers, like caraway, anise, fennel and cumin, grow readily in temperate climes and self-sow. Mustard, too. Coriander, being a bi-annual, offers cilantro in the first year, and coriander seed in the second, and grows readily in temperate climate, though it doesn't winter well, where the winters are more harsh. Garlic is very easy to grow, of course. So I think that's why we see so much of these.

There's no reason not to try anything that sparks your imagination. When I was on a contract in California a few years ago, there was a great Persian restaurant across the street, and they had a very good dish of chicken in spiced pomegranate sauce with ground almonds. So I tried making a sausage with skin-on chicken thighs, pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses, spices, and ground toasted almonds! It was very....maroon. It tasted good but not great. I need to work on the balance of seasoning, some. It was worth the try, anyway.

[mrphilips]

well, that's the thing - red wine, rosemary and berbere make a great variation of duck bresaola - ethiopian style. but the herbs are all on the outside and yes, they mold over if you don't wipe them off before you start to cure them. i want to do similar things with cured sausages, but since i see so few recipes with herbs and the more exotic spices, i assume at first they're omitted for a reason? but i guess maybe they just complicate, and can be used if it's well thought out enough.

then again, cured meat have their own great flavour and it often best to enjoy it with minimal affect...

your persian chicken makes a great sounding fresh sausage, but there's something about the raw cured meats that grabs me entirely!

[vagreys]

...then again, cured meat have their own great flavour and it often best to enjoy it with minimal affect...

Feathers of jabugo ham come to mind. One of my favorite memories from Barcelona. That and a salchichon from Vic - simple salt and pepper with the concentrated flavor of excellent pork.