Merguez?

[Fricandeau]

Thanks for the posts Jenny and Saucisson.

I'm not used to being slapped down like an idiot, having thirty (hard) years of experience as a chef: Dougal could do with joining the site admin (if they'd have him), and Porkerpete needs to learn to read English. I don't accept anyone's right to piss on a newbie.

[pokerpete]

Easy, chaps!

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.

[Fricandeau]

Nope, I was wrong about this site.

Free exchange of ideas and recipes: open attitudes to new members, and a willingness to ACTUALLY READ WHAT WAS POSTED.

All wrong,

bye bye.

[pokerpete]

Hi Muncher,
I would be interested to here your views on the recipe. Specifically if you think it a true Merguez or what needs changing. I quite liked it as it was and it went well in a cassoulete.

Off topic slightly, but I noticed that your filler seems to have SS nozzles. I've got to replace my worn out Lynx, so what model are you using? I really want untapered SS nozzles as they are by far the best for loading casings.

[saucisson]

The Porkert stainless steel stuffing tubes fit with a little widening of the hole, in the stuffers retaining nut. As shown below

Thanks for that Oddley, looks like an interesting proposition.

[pokerpete]

:?:

The Porkert stainless steel stuffing tubes fit with a little widening of the hole, in the stuffers retaining nut. As shown below

Thanks for that Oddley, looks like an interesting proposition.

Thanks Saucisson, reaming out is not a problem, but aren't their nozzles a little on the expensive side. I'm sure I seem to remember �68, but I'll check again.

[vinner]

Oddley and Pete:

Wh size nozzle, and what size sheep casings are you using? I am still having fits with the sheep casing experience.

Thanks,

Tim

[tristar]

Nope, I was wrong about this site.

Free exchange of ideas and recipes: open attitudes to new members, and a willingness to ACTUALLY READ WHAT WAS POSTED.

All wrong,

bye bye.

Fricandeau,

If you think that Pokerpete is representative of the majority of people on this site, you are very wrong, he can be very obnoxious and has on more that one occasion caused much trouble here, once so much that somebody asked for him to be removed from the site. This site and the people here are all about the free exchange of ideas and help with regard to our hobby, please do not let the rude behaviour of one grumpy old man put you off posting here. When he makes such mistakes, he doesn't even have the common courtesy or decency to apologise and just changes the subject and totally ignores the trouble he has caused. Mostly we choose to ignore him.

Regards,
Richard

[Fricandeau]

Thanks for that Richard, and to Dougal and Saussicon for the messages.

I appologise for taring you all with the same brush, and I don't think you're all rude buggers (like Pokerpete and myself ) This is too good a forum to just walk away from, and, if you'll have me back after acting like a snubbed ballerina, I'd like to offer you as much as I have already learned from you all.

Note: I have editted my signature to something less offensive, and edited my prior posts to be a little less juvenile.

And Jenny, the only recipe I have is from Master Escoffier, simply braised to a melting tenderness, served cold with a glaze of it's own clarified braising liquor. Very nice, but I haven't cooked it since I was training. I chose it as a handle because it is cut from an immature cows backside, which describes me fairly well.

[jenny_haddow]

I've just got in from a hard morning's work to find Fricandeau has returned to the forum.

It's cheered me up no end!

Jen

[Fricandeau]

Aw, shucks

I guess that we all have moments of passion, if we didn't we wouldn't care about the vital stuff of life so much.

And Porkerpete, no hard feelings: can we start again? (Offers an e-handshake..............)

[pokerpete]

Aw, shucks

I guess that we all have moments of passion, if we didn't we wouldn't care about the vital stuff of life so much.

And Porkerpete, no hard feelings: can we start again? (Offers an e-handshake..............)

Of course.

[Fricandeau]

Thank you.

[hotgoblin]

tryed this recipe for our our first atempt only diffrence we used mutton would have found it hard to say what was french and what was ours
thanks

[Zulululu]

Welcome back to both of you, sometimes we have to swollow our pride for the common good of this excellent source of information to which we can all contribute.