Merguez?

[Meat]

Hi all.
I thought merguez calls for harissa?

[johnfb]

That is one variation of it, but I make these at least once a month and they are great.

[Meat]

Boy, did I ruin my merguez -- and about 7 pounds of lamb. I used the recipe from http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298, almost. I think I put in half the amount of spice and way, way too little salt. All my fault.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Oh -- I thought it was odd that the natural lamb casings I got from Butcher-Packer didn't quite get crisp/snappy when cooked. Not sure if that was because there was too much liquid in the mixture or a problem with the casing themselves.

[wheels]

Sorry to hear of your mishap - it's often best to make only a small amount when you change a recipe.

How long did you soak the casings for?

Phil

[Bonfireboy]

I have just tried johnfb's recipe and made patties as I have run out of skins!! They were so good I had to sign up and tell you all! I don't think I was as accurate as I could have been with the spice mix but it did not seem to matter. Cheers for the recipe I am off to eat some more.

[wheels]

Welcome to the forum Bonfireboy.

Stick around and make more of the recipes - there's some super ones on here.

Phil

[cannyfradock]

Hello wheels and Forum crew. Would somebody on the forum please help out a new kid on the block.

Am attemting to make Merguez style sausages after a recipe off the how2heroes site for "Lamb Merguez Sausages". It uses A pork combination with the lamb which appeals to me especially if the fat content comes mostly from the pork. My question is that they ask for 0.13 oz of dextrose and 0.5 tsp of pink salt .........can I omit them? Being so precise in their quantities has me worried. I am hoping to serve them after A day or so, and freeze the rest (If they turn out O.K)

I would also like to add sweet paprica and cayenne pepper which they don't mention. Would this also be O.K if proportioned correctly?

Any advice would be truly appeciated

Many Thanks Terry (C.F)

p.s..I've made sausage before but am still a novice.

[saucisson]

Welcome to the Forums Canny Sorry it took a while to get you here...

Dave

[cannyfradock]

Welcome to the Forums Canny

Dave

saucisson

Many thanks for your help with my little problem.(!!???!!)

New site....how do I do this? how do I find that? Have I posted correctly? Trial and error.....I love it!!!! Next project........Would love to home cure a belly of pork, but shall do much research before I ask any questions.

Again many thanks Terry (C.F)

[wheels]

Terry

Welcome.

You can omit them or replace them with sugar for the dextrose and salt for the pink salt. In this case use the sausage within a couple of days or freeze it.

Let us know how they turn out.

Phil

[cannyfradock]

Phil

Many Thanks for your advice. I took it and used it!!!!

Once you start to do a reccy of the same recipe on different site's then you find out how many different conflicting version's of the same recipe there are. I used a melange of many in my recipe plus a sneak look at the ingredients used in packet bought Merguez sausages, plus A little twist of my own. They turned out much better than anticipated and were really enjoyed by me and the family. I tried to post...before,during and after pics but could'nt manage it (am a bit naff with computer literacy) so here's one link I did manage.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cannyfrad ... 2033805970

Regards Terry (C.F)

[wheels]

Terry

Those look great.

...and the recipe is?

Phil

[saucisson]

They look nice Terry.

What did you want to do with the belly pork?

Dave

[cannyfradock]

Dave and Phil

And the recipe was ..........

1lb shoulder of lamb (7%) fat and 1lb of belly pork(20%) fat ground on a medium plate.

1 1/4 ozs of pure flaked sea salt
14 grinds of black pepper
3 tsp sweet paprica
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp dried oregano
6 cloves
1 tsp sugar
......all ground together, then brought together to a slack paste with(recipes said....chilled water,others said chilled red wine some said both and others stated mix dry.....I brought the spices together with only thing that was chilled in the fridge...chilled cider!!)

1/2 green bell pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 med red onion
2 med. green chillies
All pulsed very fine to make 6 heaped tsp of which I used 4 of them.

1 tsp harissa paste

Mix all together to produce about 25 (used lamb casings) sausages.

Belly pork: de-rind and minced separately by the butcher along with the lamb (I would have minced it myself, but the butcher offered to do it for me). Percentages given are in rough ball park figure of what I asked from the butcher and what I also believe to be true (-ish).

Frank Sinatra style Merguez sausages done.....'my way'.

Thanks for the interest and help.
Regards, Terry (C.F)

[cannyfradock]

They look nice Terry.

What did you want to do with the belly pork?

Dave

Dave
Got a bit confused with your last post re belly pork and my merguez sausage.

Would like to buy a whole belly of pork and take off the ribs with much more meat than you can get from buying ribs in supermarkets and marinate and barbecue them (have seen Dr Sweetsmoke's pics of barbecued ribs and they are totally different to what you would buy in a supermarket) . With the rest of the meat I would like to dry-cure and hang the rest to use as home-cured streaky bacon and lardons in cooking purposes.

Regards, Terry (C.F)