Jane Grigson's (French) Mortadelle recipe

[vagreys]

After the question about mortadella, earlier this week, I'm interested in comments on this recipe from Jane Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery. Looks like a lot of salt (2.7%) and fat (55%), to me, but I could be mistaken. The saltpeter is...generous. The fresh fat content is 22%. The salted fat is the cubed fat (33%). If you only consider the mince of the meat and fresh fat, then the fat in the mince represents 33% of the blend, but the cubed salted fat gets mixed in, and the salt, there, isn't accounted for, either. Then, this sausage gets soaked in a salt and saltpetre brine for 10 days (if stuffed in a bladder) or 5 days if in large casing, then 4 days of cold smoke, then 3 hours of poaching. Seems like overkill for a 2-lb sausage.

1 lb. lean pork
1/2 lb. fresh back fat
3/4 lb. salted back fat, cubed
1 oz. salt
1 teaspoon saltpetre
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon ground coriander

[wheels]

I agree - it wouldn't be my choice of recipe.

This one of Jason's is very good:

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... della#5355

Phil

[Zulululu]

I have her book must be honest I have never used one of the recipes.