SAUSAGE, saucisse, saucisson, derive ultimately from the Latin salsus, salted, probably by way of a Late Latin word salsicia, something prepared by salting. The Romans are, in fact, the first recorded sausage-makers, their intention being—as the derivation suggests—to preserve the smaller parts and scraps of the pig for winter eating. Though unwise to say so in a Frenchman’s hearing, the Italians are still the supreme producers of dried and smoked sausages. They use beef, as well as pork, but not usually donkey as some Frenchmen firmly believe.
For the fresh sausage, France is the country. It is still an honourable form of nourishment and pleasure there, protected by law from the addition of cereals and preservatives, produced in ebullient variety—both regional and individual—by thousands of charcutiers. In other words, the French sausage is freshly made, well-flavoured, and, apart from seasonings, 100 percent meat. Inevitably you pay more than in England, but the money is better spent. For picnickers the sausage is an ideal alternative to pâtés; cook it in foil in hot wood ashes, or unwrapped on a metal grill. At the weekends, look out for the light puff-pastry sausage rolls, friandises, and on Sundays for the luxurious saucisse en broiche (recipe), which can be bought by the piece—though if you want to be sure of it, order on Thursdays, no later.
Although the meat is basically pork, from neck and shoulders and fat belly, a resourceful use of seasonings (spices, onions, sweet peppers, chestnuts, pistachio nuts, spinach, quite large amounts of sage or parsley, champagne, truffles) produces a variety of sausages that an English traveller, going through France for the first time, may find bewildering.
Making a good sausage is a simple affair, though you mightn’t think so from the nasty pink packages sold in grocers’ and butchers’ shops in this country. Even if you haven’t an electric mixer with a sausage-making attachment, you have two alternatives: prepare the mixture and take it in a bowl to your butcher for him to put into skins; or else buy a good sized piece of caul-fat as well as the pork and make crépinettes–little parcels of sausage-meat wrapped in beautiful veined white fat and either fried or grilled, or gayettes, or faggots which closely resemble gayettes. Some cookery books suggest frying the meat in a rissole shape, with perhaps an egg and breadcrumb coating, but crépinettes are a more succulent solution.
First of all, though, sausage-meat. It is so simple to buy the necessary lean and fat pork and put it through the mincer that I cannot see why butchers find it worth their while to sell sausage-meat, with its high proportion of cereal and its poor seasoning:
Sausage-Meat (Chair à Saucisse)
Either
1 lb. lean pork from neck or shoulder
½ lb. hard back fat
1 level tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon quatre-épices, or spices to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Plenty of parsley, or sage, or thyme
Put the lean and fat pork through the mincer once, or twice, according to the texture desired. Season.
Or
1 lb. lean pork from neck or shoulder
1 lb. hard back fat
1 rounded tablespoon salt
Teaspoon spices or quatre-épices or cinnamon alone
Freshly ground black pepper
Plenty of parsley or sage or thyme
Prepare as above.
Or
½ lb. lean pork from neck or shoulder
½ lb. veal
½ lb. hard back fat, or green bacon fat
Seasonings to taste
Or
½ lb. poultry, game
¼ lb. pork, lean
¼ lb. veal
½ lb. hard back fat
Seasonings to taste
NOTE: If you want to bind these sausage-meats or forcemeats (farces), say for stuffing a bird, or making a pâté, remember these proportions:
To one pound of meat (lean and fat)
1 whole egg
1 level tablespoon salt
1 level teaspoon spices
Optional extras:
2 oz. brandy
1-2 oz. breadcrumbs
SAUSAGES WITHOUT SKINS
Crépinettes
BASIC METHOD
Ingredients for one of the sausage-meats above, plus a piece of caul fat.
You will find that the caul fat is stiff, and easily torn if you try to pull it out. Soak it in a little tepid water with a tablespoon of vinegar, when the mixture is prepared, and it becomes pliable and easily cut into rough 4 or 5 inch squares with a pair of kitchen scissors. Lay one of the squares over your hand, put a lump of sausage-meat in the middle and wrap it up. The conventional shape is a flattish, rather round-angled triangle or oval, about half an inch thick. See that the edges overlap each other nicely. Continue until you’ve used all the mixture.
The crépinettes are now ready to be fried, or else brushed with melted butter or beaten egg, rolled in white breadcrumbs and grilled.
Crépinettes aux Pistaches
To 1 lb. of sausage-meat, add 2-3 oz. of blanched pistachio nuts. Follow the Basic Method.
Crépinettes aux Marrons
To 1 lb. of sausage-meat, add 4 oz. of roughly chopped chestnuts—not too fine, or you lose the mealy chestnut texture. (Slash half a pound of chestnuts, put them on a baking tray and leave in a hot oven for ten minutes before shelling them.) Follow the Basic Method.
Crépinettes au Cumin
To 1 lb. of sausage-meat, add the flesh of one red pepper, which has been well seeded, then blanched for five minutes in boiling water and roughly chopped—and 2 crushed cloves of garlic, 2 oz. caraway seeds. Follow the Basic Method.