Sausagefest! 2005
Another December, another Sausagefest in the books. And colons. This year, we held our second Annual SausageFest! It's not the traditional meaning of "Sausagefest," although I must confess that the common meaning is the reason I chose to have an event named "Sausagefest." No, this is a literal sausage party, where guests grind various meats and other accoutrements and stuff them into casings made of hog intestines. People are generally intrigued/absolutely disgusted in equal amount when they hear about it. but really, the sausages we make are probably much healthier than anything you buy in the store. Afterall, we use fresh, natural ingredients. The slogan of this year's Sausagefest was "Sausages Absolutely Guaranteed to Contain No Lips or Assholes!" And I think we came through.
There were a lot more people this year than last year, and a surprising number of people honored the BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat) request. Many delicious sausages were made, ranging from pork and lamb to more adventurous ingredients like duck and octopus. Unlike last year, we used real hog casings, which looked a lot like udon noodles. Indeed, both guests of asian persuasion thought they were noodles at first glance. We like noodles. And this year I fulfilled a small dream by making sausages out of bacon. One of the biggest dilemmas at breakfast is whether to get sausage or bacon. Problem. Solved. I added a little maple syrup, and it was a resounding success. The later part of the evening somehow devolved into tests of strength, with James coming out as the arm wrestling champion. Greeks.
Someone suggested that we should also have a "Cootie Couch" party. I'd never heard the term, but I guess it's the female equivalent to the sausage party. When the question was asked what we would serve, Katey W. immediately said "Tacos." I suggested clams.
The casings, ordered from the good old internet, soak in preparation of being stuffed with meat. Many, many double entendres were spoken and giggled over.
The "meat flower" as coined by (I think) Jen K. (Not to be confused with the Fleur de MeatHer friend Kate prepares to harvest said flower.
The meat grinder, for all its charm, is really just for show. Last year, it was our sole source of meat-grinding power, and it's terribly inefficient. It's a very old, cast iron jobby, and it doesn't so much grind me as just smoosh it and pulverize it into smaller pieces, tearing the flesh as it goes along. And then it just pours out the holes, resulting in the aforementioned meat flower, with a lot of meat remaining inside. So this year we employed a food processor, in order to better mix the ground meat with the various seasonings and other ingredients, which included cranberries, walnuts, wine-soaked bread, and even foie gras. Above is the resulting "meat wave" after processing the meat.
The casings came in one, giant strand, I think over 90 feet long. So it was necessary to tie it off in sections and then stuff the meat. To this end, we employed a mechanism that was meant to be used for putting icing on a cake. It basically is a big plastic syringe. Honestly, watching the meat come out of the plunger and going into the casing... I don't actually know what it looks like, but I can't imagine that it looks much different than if you were watching someone take a poop into a condom.
See what I mean.
Yeah, and then we ate it.
The finished product. These were the first three made- One bacon sausage and two with ground pork, brie, and cranberries. I was actually shocked at how well they came out. They not only didn't look like plastic-encased turds, but they also looked delicious.
Hot meat injection
More pictures courtesy Patricia.
The aforementioned octopus. Though daring, it was the evening's only flat-out failure. It was really pretty bad.
Somehow, Indian leg wrestling occurred.
There were a lot more people this year than last year, and a surprising number of people honored the BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat) request. Many delicious sausages were made, ranging from pork and lamb to more adventurous ingredients like duck and octopus. Unlike last year, we used real hog casings, which looked a lot like udon noodles. Indeed, both guests of asian persuasion thought they were noodles at first glance. We like noodles. And this year I fulfilled a small dream by making sausages out of bacon. One of the biggest dilemmas at breakfast is whether to get sausage or bacon. Problem. Solved. I added a little maple syrup, and it was a resounding success. The later part of the evening somehow devolved into tests of strength, with James coming out as the arm wrestling champion. Greeks.
Someone suggested that we should also have a "Cootie Couch" party. I'd never heard the term, but I guess it's the female equivalent to the sausage party. When the question was asked what we would serve, Katey W. immediately said "Tacos." I suggested clams.
The casings, ordered from the good old internet, soak in preparation of being stuffed with meat. Many, many double entendres were spoken and giggled over.
The "meat flower" as coined by (I think) Jen K. (Not to be confused with the Fleur de MeatHer friend Kate prepares to harvest said flower.
The meat grinder, for all its charm, is really just for show. Last year, it was our sole source of meat-grinding power, and it's terribly inefficient. It's a very old, cast iron jobby, and it doesn't so much grind me as just smoosh it and pulverize it into smaller pieces, tearing the flesh as it goes along. And then it just pours out the holes, resulting in the aforementioned meat flower, with a lot of meat remaining inside. So this year we employed a food processor, in order to better mix the ground meat with the various seasonings and other ingredients, which included cranberries, walnuts, wine-soaked bread, and even foie gras. Above is the resulting "meat wave" after processing the meat.
The casings came in one, giant strand, I think over 90 feet long. So it was necessary to tie it off in sections and then stuff the meat. To this end, we employed a mechanism that was meant to be used for putting icing on a cake. It basically is a big plastic syringe. Honestly, watching the meat come out of the plunger and going into the casing... I don't actually know what it looks like, but I can't imagine that it looks much different than if you were watching someone take a poop into a condom.
See what I mean.
Yeah, and then we ate it.
The finished product. These were the first three made- One bacon sausage and two with ground pork, brie, and cranberries. I was actually shocked at how well they came out. They not only didn't look like plastic-encased turds, but they also looked delicious.
Hot meat injection
More pictures courtesy Patricia.
The aforementioned octopus. Though daring, it was the evening's only flat-out failure. It was really pretty bad.
Somehow, Indian leg wrestling occurred.
posted by Greg at 12:26 AM
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