Italian/Hispanic sausages

[Janne]

if you like the dryish Italian or Spanish ( Hispanic) sausages type Chorizo I have a small taste improving tip for you.
Find a dry place in the house, a plus if it is colder too. Hang them up and let hang for a couple of months. You might find that they get covered with white mould, but that is all good.
It will improve the taste hugely. They go harder and shrink, in fact the casing is much easier to remive.
But the main benefit is the taste. It intensifies.

Me and Son did a test last weekend, we compared Waitroses Spanish Chorizo, newly bought and aged around 4 months.
Like two different products!

The only one so far that has not benefited is Beretta Italian mild dry sausage.
Tasteless and soft before, tasteless and hard after.

The drying and aging should improve the ability to not go bad if you take a few out bushcrafting for some days during summer!

 

[Erbswurst]

I currently eat them, but from France.

Tomorrow I will eat them in France.

 

[santaman2000]

Improve them? How do you improve perfection? Well, the Cajuns did as they evolved proper smoked sausages from their original Spanish sausages.

 

[Janne]

But Cajuns were French/German with a sprinkling of African?


I am sure you can imprive those too by further aging and drying.
Modern commercial manufacturing wants to get them quickly on the market, and does not want to lose weight by drying to much.

 

[santaman2000]

But Cajuns were French/German with a sprinkling of African?


I am sure you can imprive those too by further aging and drying.
Modern commercial manufacturing wants to get them quickly on the market, and does not want to lose weight by drying to much.

Cajuns inherited Louisiana from the original Spanish explorers. Most Cajun cuisine is more Spanish influenced then French. Jambalaya’s just a Cajunized paella.

The sausage is already perfect. Aging detracts from good smoked sausage.

 

[Janne]

I met Chef Prudhomme years and years ago ( I was in a cookery class with him as the teacher) and that is what he told us.

If you try an artisan made one and compare with a 'factory' made one you will see what I mean. All sausages we are aging are made in factories, we do not have access to the better ones.

 

[santaman2000]

I met Chef Prudhomme years and years ago ( I was in a cookery class with him as the teacher) and that is what he told us.

If you try an artisan made one and compare with a 'factory' made one you will see what I mean. All sausages we are aging are made in factories, we do not have access to the better ones.

Ahhh. Ok then. I have better access on the mainland. That said, most of the sausage I buy is still factory produced, although by small(ish) family factories. With the exception of a local German restaurant that makes its own wurst.
https://schnitzel-lodge.com/

 

[Robson Valley]

The Cajun people are decendants of the Acadian French (not Spanish) from Canada.
The Spanish influence came about in their new home.

Since I have a big walk-in cold room in the NW corner of my basement, I want to learn to make prosciutto (air-dried?) ham.
I'm all set = even the butcher hooks left from the original Italian family who had this house built.

 

[Janne]

Season: Autumn
Piece of pig.

Salt it, or heavy salt brine.
Leave for a month or two.
Hang up in an airy, dry and cold area. Must not freeze.
Wait minimum one year.
Buy a nice knife.
Cut @ Enjoy!

You can make it from other animals too, lamb is nice, hogget nicer. Venison is truly divine!

Parents used to brine and dry hogget and venison.
Sometimes dad hung it up high above the fire in a chimney for a couple of weeks, then dried it.

 

[Robson Valley]

So, I could buy salami and other sausages like that and just hang them up for 6 months?
Debone and brine a couple of hams for 6 weeks then hang to dry for 3-6 months?
I can keep the cold room from freezing if necessary (home-canned fruit & juices etc).

 

[Janne]

Sausages - yes. Very simple!
The meat you need to brine for a certain time, months, depending how thick it is.
Then hang it for at least a year.

Another way is to have a large container full of ashes from wood, and bury the ham in that.
That was done more in Central Europe in the past.
The take says is that a farmers wife wanted to save her pork leg from the marauding Swedish army and buried it in the container she saved ashes for her soap making, then forgot about it.

I do not know the taste of that meat. Ashes dissicate well, but are also alkaline.

 

[santaman2000]

The Cajun people are decendants of the Acadian French (not Spanish) from Canada.
The Spanish influence came about in their new home.......

Exactly. The Spanish influence occurred when the Acadian immigrants arrived in an already well developed Spanish-Caribbean culture and melded into it along with the Caddo, and the Africans.

 

[Keith_Beef]

The Cajun people are decendants of the Acadian French (not Spanish) from Canada.
The Spanish influence came about in their new home.

Since I have a big walk-in cold room in the NW corner of my basement, I want to learn to make prosciutto (air-dried?) ham.
I'm all set = even the butcher hooks left from the original Italian family who had this house built.

University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment (famous for it's signature dessert, KY Jelly) has a video on YouTube about making a country ham. This might be a good start.

 

[Janne]

University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment (famous for it's signature dessert, KY Jelly) has a video on YouTube about making a country ham. This might be a good start.

Which tastes does that dessert have?