Ficazza

July 17, 2021 by AOG Leave a Comment

Name: Ficazza or Sazinella or Salame di Tonno

Region: Sicily, particularly the Trapani region, in places such as the island of Favignana

History:

Sicily has a long history of tuna fishing… particularly on the west coast by the city of Trapani. The city of Trapani, originally founded by the Phoenicians, has a long history as a port town where fishing and trading played an important role in the daily life of its people.

Said of the city in 1154 by Idrisi, an Arab geographer and traveler, Trapani was… “a city of ancient origins, situated on the sea and surrounded on each side….here fish is in abundance and more than needed; they fish large tuna with great nets and a high-quality coral: and a salt-pan is adjacent to the city’s port.”

Given the relative abundance of both tuna and salt, it’s no wonder that one of the results was the creation of a salame made with tuna… a perfect way to make sure nothing went to waste, and to preserve the haul over time.

How it’s made:

The meat:

Ficazza is traditionally made with the parts of the tuna that are less desirable, those that are not sold to customers to eat. Importantly, it is made with parts of the tuna that in dialect are referred to as “busunagghia”. They come from the parts of the tuna around the central bone, and tend to be dark red/brown due to their contact with blood. These give the distinctive color to the ficazza. In addition, other less desirable parts are used, including fatty parts from around the belly and internal organs that are not sold for other products.

The spices:

Only sea salt and black pepper are used in making this salame.

Processing:

The tuna is ground fine, and then mixed with only sea salt and black pepper. The mixture is stuffed into a pig intestine casing. The salame is then pressed using specific wood boards made for the process.

The ficazza undergoes a double salting, first during the mixing stage, and second during the pressing stage. After pressing, they are air dried for 20-40 days. Traditionally this was done using natural ventilation, the combination of relatively humid sea air and the strong winds of Trapani providing exactly what was needed to dry cure this unique salame.

After the ventilation stage, the ficazza is ready to be sold. These days, they are stored under vacuum and kept refrigerated to extend their shelf life.

Timing:

The ficazza is traditionally processed in the months of May and June, in accordance with the traditional tuna season in Trapani. For example, the tuna fishing nets were usually placed in April, allowing the fishing to start in May and go on until the end of June.

How it’s eaten:

Ficazza can be eaten a number of ways. It can be enjoyed thinly sliced, topped with olive oil and lemon, with bread on the side. It can also be used in pasta dishes, for example making carbonara di mare, using the ficazza to replace the guanciale.

How I learnt about it:

After a long weekend away in Trapani, I finally had the chance to try the real thing! After learning about it through my research and working on my own modern DIY version, I was excited to see the place where the traditional ficazza was born.

Seeing Trapani with my own eyes really highlighted how important the terroir was for this product to come to be. From the waters around the island of Favignana, (previously) replete with tuna…

To the salt flats of Trapani and Marsala, where sea salt was ingeniously extracted from sea water by early Phoenicians…

Not to mention, the winds of Trapani, which made the city an ideal port for the seafaring traders in the first place.

The DIY:

My version of ficazza is a modern adaptation of the traditional one. I don’t spend my days fishing for tuna, nor do I live in a place like Trapani where the fish market is a short walk away, and therefore I don’t have access to the parts of the tuna, such as the busunagghia, which give the ficazza its traditional color and flavor. While this is certainly on my to-do list, for now, I make my modern version of ficazza.

The meat:

To make the ficazza, because I know it will be dry cured and never cooked, I make sure to buy high quality sushi-grade tuna.

Planning:

While the traditional ficazza only uses sea salt and black pepper, for my version I added a few more things, listed in the table below. To make it more traditional, you would leave out everything except the sea salt and black pepper.

In addition to the tuna, I used pork fat for this as well for the fat content. This is not traditional, so you can skip this if you want. Once you have the weight of your tuna and pork fat, you can enter it into the interactive spreadsheet below, just fill the weight of your meat in the appropriate white cells in the spreadsheet and hit enter. If you don’t use pork fat, just insert “0” into the appropriate cell. There is no need to make any other changes to the spreadsheet.

Mix all the spices together.

*Please use common sense. Make sure the spreadsheet is working properly for you and double check any calculations that don’t seem right.

Grinding and mixing:

I par-froze the tuna and hand diced it.

I took half the tuna that was hand diced and ground it on a coarse grind in my grinder.

I left the other half just hand diced and not ground. If you wanted a more traditional product, you would use the fine grind for all of it.

Because I wanted to make mine as similar to other salami as possible, I decided to use hand diced pork fat to stud the ground tuna meat. Again, if you want to make it as traditional as possible, you would skip this step and only use tuna.

Next, I mixed the hand diced tuna, the ground tuna, and the pork fat with the spices.

The next step is to mix the ground meat and spices well, creating a tacky paste. Make sure to keep everything as cold as possible.

Casing:

For this, I decided to try two ways to dry cure the ficazza. The first was the more traditional way, in a beef middle casing. The second, in an UMAI bag, which would let me dry cure it in a regular fridge at 4C.

Drying:

(Curing Chamber Method: 13C/55F, 65-70-% RH, 1-3 months)

(UMAI Method: 4C/40F, 50-65% RH, 1-3 months)

I cured my Ficazza in two ways, in the curing chamber and also in the regular fridge, since I was worried about curing fish at the relatively higher temperatures of the curing chamber.

To cure it in the curing chamber, I placed it among the other meats I was curing at the time. I learned that the conditions of a traditional curing chamber should be fine for this product. If you have a fan in your chamber, you can turn it on for this process if you’d like, but it’s not 100% necessary.

Because I wasn’t sure this would be the case, I also decided to dry cure some using the UMAI method. These special vacuum bags let out moisture, while still protecting the meat from oxidation. I don’t love them for everything, but they do tend to work if you use them correctly. Using this method, I cured the ficazza on a rack (for air flow around the meat) in a vegetable drawer (to increase humidity) in the regular fridge, opening the drawer occasionally for ventilation.

However, in the end, I found that the ficazza cured in the curing chamber had more flavor than that cured in the regular fridge using the UMAI method. I would venture the guess that the curing chamber allows for flavor development that isn’t there in the regular fridge, while the dry curing process still keeps any spoilage or overly fishy flavor at bay.

Tasting

Overall, this was one of my favorite things I’ve made. A unique cured product, with a delicate flavor profile. Not at all overwhelming fishy or salty, just a well-balanced and complex product.

There are pros and cons to each method. I still plan to make the traditional Ficazza one of these days (which is an important example of how charcuterie can be utilized to make sure nothing goes to waste), but this more modern one uses the basis of tradition for inspiration, while relying on modern methods to experiment. By using less salt, by playing with flavors, we can create something unique from the ancient traditions.

References:

1- https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/favignana-tuna-bottarga/ 2- https://www.selectsicilyvillas.com/places-in-sicily/trapani 3- https://blog.giallozafferano.it/toniaincucina/tradizione-tonnara-di-nino-castiglione/ 4- https://www.agrodolce.it/2020/02/10/ficazza-di-tonno/ 5-https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzonaglia 6- https://www.braciamiancora.com/ficazza-di-trapani-e-salumi-mare-siciliani/

Appenzeller Mostbröckli

April 8, 2021 by AOG Leave a Comment

Name: Mostbröckli

Region: Appenzell

History: Mostbröckli is a smoked and dry cured meat product made from beef in the Appenzeller region of Switzerland. Historically, the Appenzeller farmers were very active in the dairy industry, which accounts for the use for beef to make this product as opposed to the more expensive (at the time) pork. It is thought that it name comes from the fact that it is either cured with or enjoyed with “most”, fermented apple wine commonly called cider in English, Suure Moscht in Swiss German, or Apfelwein in high German.

It is one of three famous beef cured products in Switzerland. The other two are Bündnerfleisch from Graubünden and Viande séchée (also known as Trockenfleisch in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland) du Valais. However, Mostbröckli is the only one of the three that is smoked. And while Bündnerfleisch is characteristically always pressed into a rectangular shape, as is Viande séchée, Mostbröckli can be netted and shaped but does not need to be. This is due to regional differences where these cured meat products were developed. Graubünden and Valais both are mountainous regions and air-drying can naturally be carried out in the alpine air from 800-1300 meters above sea level. Appenzell is a more humid low-lying valley, where the traditional drying relied upon smoking in order to preserve meat. The process for drying Mostbröckli takes on average 5 weeks, while for Viande séchée it takes 5-16 weeks, and for Bündnerfleisch it takes 12-24 weeks…of course all dependent on size and environmental conditions. So now that we have a bit of an understanding of the geographic conditions that shaped the process of curing, drying, and smoking Mostbröckli in Switzerland, how is it made?

How it’s made:

The meat:

These days, Mostbröckli is made with beef (although it was traditionally also made from horse and dog meat) from one of the following cuts:

Runder Mocken
Eckstück
Vorschlag
Nierstück
Huft

I personally like to use the same cut I would use for bresaola, the eye round cut, which is easy enough to find from butchers in the US.

The spices:

Mandatory Spices: Sea salt, sugar, black pepper, bay leaf, juniper, and garlic.

Additives: Nitrates and anti-oxidants (to prevent against oxidation of fat, especially in projects with beef, there is the traditional industry use of ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate. For personal projects, I haven’t found them to be much use.)

Optional Spices: Other spices such as allspice can be added as long as they do not overpower the mandatory ones.

Optimal Liquids: Wine or “most”.

Optional Additions: MSG, potassium sorbate, and whole muscle starter cultures such as Lactobacillus species, food-grade Staphylococcus species, or Micrococcus species.

The Processing:

Similar to bresaola, because this is beef and beef fat tends to oxidize faster than pork fat, the raw meat is stripped of fat and tendons. (This is done traditionally in the industry for beef products, but I’ve done some very nice projects with fatty cuts of beef with no issues, so we’ll do it here for traditions sake, but know that it’s not as hard and fast rule as some would lead you to believe.)

The meat is rubbed with the spices mentioned above and allowed to dry cure. They can either be cured in a traditional excess cured way, or using equilibrium curing under vacuum. Depending on the size and the method, the curing process can take anywhere 1-5 weeks. I will do this step using equilibrium curing under vacuum.

After curing, the meat can be hung in a cold place for 1-4 days. If using a preservative such as potassium sorbate to prevent unfavorable mold development, it can be added here. I will personally skip this step when making it at home.

The meat then hung in a smokehouse set up, where it is smoked over the time period of 1-3 weeks. In this stage, the temperature can reach up to 40C, which is higher than most other cold smoked products. This accelerates the weight loss for this particular type of cured meat product. The final weight loss should be between 30-45%, and will take 1-3 weeks. Various woods are allowed to be used to generate the smoke for this process.

Timing: Like most cured meat projects, it is traditionally cured throughout the wintertime after the fall harvest.

How it’s eaten: Appenzeller Mostbröckli should be enjoyed thinly sliced, served with a piece of dark bread, such as a Bürli. Given its name, it can be enjoyed with a nice Suure Moscht. Ideally suited for a summer apéro along the river with friends.

How I learnt about it: Traveling around Switzerland, I’ve run into Mostbröckli, Bündnerfleisch, and Trockenfleisch and wondered what set them apart. I made sure to buy all three to bring to a summer apéro with friends to determine the differences between them and pick my favorite.

(Un)fortunately, we ended up rafting down the Limmat river, and our apéro ended up being a picnic along the bank of the river until the sun set, with enough Swiss beer that while I know I had a favorite, for the life of me I can’t remember which it was. All it means is I need to re-try them all again soon!

The DIY: I haven’t made this one yet, but it is high on my list of next projects. Because of that, I’ve made a curing sheet recipe that is attached here. Just be aware, this is currently an untested recipe.

Curing:

Weigh your eye round of beef or whichever cut you have decided to use. You can use the following interactive spreadsheets to calculate the cure you will need for your own project; just fill in the weight of your meat in the appropriate white cell in the spreadsheet and hit enter. There is no need to make any other changes to the spreadsheet.

*Note: Please use common sense. Make sure the spreadsheet is working properly for you and double check any calculations that don’t seem right.

Mix the meat together with the spices, vacuum seal it together, and allow it to cure at 4C for 2-3 weeks.

Casing:

After this time, rinse off the cure. If you would like, rinse the meat in “most” aka cider for 30 minutes or so, to give it some extra flavor. You could continue this overnight if you wanted a stronger flavor from the cider.

I prefer to case my cured meat products, because I feel that it promotes more even drying and results in a better end product. This is optional, but if you would like to, now is the time to case the meat in a beef bung, tie it up, and hang it in a curing chamber at around 12C, 75% RH for 4 days.

Smoking and Drying:

If you have a smoke house, after 4 days move it to the smokehouse to be smoked and dry cured altogether in the more traditional manner. In this way, it should be ready at ~30-45% weight loss in about 1-3 weeks. Make sure that temperatures don’t exceed 40C.

Otherwise, we will do stepwise smoking. In this method, move the meat from your dry curing set up as frequently as possible to your cold smoking set up. This will be highly dependent on your set up and time availability. For example, you might move it to your cold smoking every set up every weekend to cold smoke it for 8 hours, and then return it to your dry curing chamber after the cold smoking is complete for another week. In this way, you can infuse the meat with smoke while still maintaining it at the safe temperature and humidity conditions it needs to lose weight over time. With this method it may take longer to meet the target weight loss of 30-45%. It won’t be the traditional method, but with some flexibility and by keeping an eye on it, you can approximate it pretty well at home.

Tasting:

After it has reached its target weight, you can clean off any mold with more “most” or cider. Make sure to slice it thin, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Meat curing is a hobby that comes with inherent risks. We can all do things to limit this risk by educating ourselves about the process and the utilizing the safest known methods to create our products. This website is for educational purposes only, and all experimentation should be done at each individuals own risk.

References:

https://www.aop-igp.ch/fileadmin/Dokumente/Pflichtenhefter/Appenzeller_Mostbr%C3%B6ckli_Pflichtenheft.pdf

https://www.patrimoineculinaire.ch/Produkt/Bundnerfleisch-GGAIGP-Pulpa/342

https://www.aop-igp.ch/appenzeller-mostbroeckli/

https://www.patrimoineculinaire.ch/Produit/Viande-sechee-du-Valais-IGP/120

Saucisse d’Ajoie

March 27, 2020 by AOG Leave a Comment

Name: Saucisse d’Ajoie IGP

Region: The district of Porrentruy

History:

The saucisse d’Ajoie is a particularly famous smoked pork saucisse spiced with garlic and cumin seeds. The IGP protected saucisse comes only from the Porrentruy district in the Jura, while others made in the Jura but not in the Porrentruy area are often referred to as “household” or “cumin” saucisse. It is uncertain how long this particular saucisse has been made this way; claims go back to the 15^th century, but the first evidence comes from written recipes and accounts in the 19^th century.

Today, the saucisse d’Ajoie is eaten year round, but particularly on St. Martin’s Day. The St. Martin’s festival is thrown every year around November 11^th, and in Porrentruy, this festival is dedicated to the pig. A popular variety of the saucisse d’Ajoie, the thinner croquante d’Ajoie, is toasted and served on bread.

Grilled croquante d’Ajoie, served on bread.

How it’s made:

Meat: The saucisse d’Ajoie is made using 66% lean pork and 33% fatty pork, such as pork belly or collar. Optional: There is also an allowance to use up to 10% ground beef if desired.

Spices: Salt (1.6-2.0%), whole cumin, ground white pepper, garlic, and nitrates. Optional: Nutmeg and red wine, as long as they don’t dominate the flavor of the saucisse.

Processing: The meat is allowed to be pre-salted before it is ground if it is desired. The meat is ground on a medium grind (5-8mm), traditionally done with a bowl cutter on slow speed. The seasonings are added, and then the mixture is kneaded so that the grain is still visible. The mixture is stuffed into hog casings with a diameter of 32-36 mm. If the coquante version is being made, they are stuffed into sheep casings with a diameter of 20-22 mm.

If the meat has not been pre-salted, it is allowed to hang for 2 hours after stuffing. After this point, the saucisse is smoked with soft wood with maximum temperature of 40 C for at least 24 hours.

The final product should have a pleasant smell of light smoke and be golden brown in outward appearance. Once cut into, it should be a pinkish red, homogenous, with a well-defined 5-8 mm grain.

Traditionally, when these saucisse were made they were kept in the family attic. They were eaten over time, so the first batches were cooked and eaten fresh; when they got down to the later batches, they had been dried over time, and so were eaten raw. The dried version is not included in the IGP protection, but is still being done by those who uphold the tradition and can be found in markets.

On the left, dried saucisse d’Ajoie. On the right, fresh saucisse d’Ajoie.

Timing: The saucisse d’Ajoie is enjoyed year round, but particularly on St. Martin’s Day, around the 11^th of November.

How it’s eaten:

The saucisse d’Ajoie is traditionally cooked in water around 80C, simmering but not quite boiling. It is served with sauerkraut, root vegetables, or green beans. Grilling the saucisse has become very popular with families who have decided to have a picnic during the nice weather of summer and fall. In recognition of this fact, butchers have developed the croquante version, which is thinner and easier to grill.

How I learnt about it:

The saucisse d’Ajoie in particular brings back really good memories for me, because my Dad came to visit me in Switzerland and we traveled to Porrentruy for the St. Martin’s Feast on my birthday.

This way to the Marché…first pig art spotting.

We had a blast catching up, walking through the market place, sampling all of cured meats and local foods, listening to the traditional music, looking t pig inspired art, and learning about local cooking methods.

Scenes from Porrentruy, more pig art sightings.

We shared a croquante d’Ajoie, saucisson sec and Tête de Moine, le gâteau aux patates, les marrons chauds, plenty of vin chaud, and had a fantastic time. It will be a birthday to remember for the ages.

The DIY

*Note: Please use common sense. Make sure the spreadsheet is working properly for you and double check any calculations that don’t seem right.

Sources:

https://www.aop-igp.ch/fileadmin/Dokumente/Pflichtenhefter/Saucisse_d_Ajoie_Cahier_des_charges.pdf

https://www.aop-igp.ch/fr/saucisse-dajoie-igp/

https://www.patrimoineculinaire.ch/Produit/Saucisse-dAjoie-IGP/21

http://www.boucherievallat.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15&Itemid=17

http://www.terroir-juraregion.ch/produits-du-terroir-jura-et-jura-bernois/aop-igp-fr/saucisse-d-ajoie-igp-fr

The Official St. Galler Bratwurst IGP

March 3, 2020 by AOG Leave a Comment

Name: St Galler Bratwurst aka St Galler Kalbsbratwurst aka OLMA Bratwurst

Region: St. Gallen/Appenzell

History:

First and foremost, the most vital thing to know about the St. Galler Bratwurst is that you do NOT eat it with mustard. Seriously, don’t. I did a lot of research about this one, and it appears as though this is one of the worst things that you could do to the heart of a person from St. Gallen. Seriously, google “bratwurst mit senf St. Gallen”, and you won’t be disappointed by gems such as this video. Requesting the St. Galler Bratwurst with mustard seems to be the eastern Switzerland version of asking for pineapple on pizza in Italy; there is no more sure fire way to offend your host and assure them you are a person of low culinary (and most likely therefore also moral) standards.

Whew. Now that we’ve gotten that important bit out of the way, we can focus on what makes the St. Galler Bratwurst so special. Growing up, my favorite of all the Bratwurst was always the veal-based weisswurst that we got from the local German butcher. When I started to explore the world of these white veal-based sausages, I began to realize that they were as unique as the regions they came from, and simply calling them all weisswurst would not do. I started to do some research into them, learning about the percentages of the main ingredients and the spices that were used. After some time doing this, I now feel prepared to make the controversial statement that the St. Galler Bratwurst is my favorite out of all of the ones that I have tried. Bold, I know. But seriously, try it.

The St. Galler Bratwurst is a white sausage that is usually made of both veal and pork, with the veal consisting of at least 50% of the meat proportion, and with the addition of skim cow’s milk accounting for around 1/3 of the entire mixture. Since whole fat milk is a luxury and has been traditionally used to make butter, the left over low fat milk was used for other purposes such as sausage making. Historically from the region of eastern Switzerland, there are written sources that talk about the St. Gallen Bratwurst that go back to the 14^th century; although interestingly, the original were made with pure pork and no veal was added. By the 15^th century, the St. Gallen Butcher’s Guild had laid out the requirements for making the Bratwurst that form the basis for what is still used today. These laid out the use of pork and veal (the young cattle being necessary for its tender meat), spices, the percentage of fat used, and the addition of fresh cow’s milk. If you are interested in reading it for yourself, the requirements are listed as follows:

“Die Satzung der St. Galler Metzgerzunft aus dem Jahr 1438 hält erste Grundsteine zu Rezept und Qualität der St. Galler Bratwurst fest: “Item die Bratwürst söllend sy machen von schwinignenn Braten, unnd darunter hacken gut Kalbelen und jung Ochsen mit Kalber Zenen. Unnd namlich under drü Pfund Bratten ain Pfund Speck tun unnd nit minder. Si sonnd och kain Nieren, Hertz noch Halsflaisch darzu nehmen.”

“Item die Bratwürst soellend sy machen von schwininenn Braten unnd darunder hacken guot kalbelen unnd jung Ochsen mit Kalber Zenen unnd das am minsten umm dry Pfening geschetzt sye, unnd namlich unnder acht Pfund Praten ain Pfund Speck tuon unnd nit minder. Sy soellend och kain Nieren, Hertz noch Halsflaisch darin hacken. Sy soellend och kain Flaisch dartzuo nemen, es sye denn vor geschetzt. Wenn sy aber zuo Ziten, so sy des bedörffend, Kalbeln oder Ochsen Flaisch mitt Kalber Zenen nit finden moegend, so sollend sy kain annder Flaisch dann by der obristen Schatzung dartzuo nemen, ze Buosß an 10 ß von yedem Mal.”

How it’s made:

Meat: The St. Gallen Bratwurst is made using pork and veal, but the percentages can get a bit confusing. An easy way to think about it is that it is a 1:1 mixture of veal and pork, which is then 70% of the total mixture, with milk accounting for the other 30%. To get into the details, when thinking about the entire mixture the percentages are as follows (with allowances for variation between 2-6%): Veal Meat= 37%, Pork meat = 10%, Pork fat =26%, and Milk=27%. Up to 10% Schwartenblock, is allowed to be added as well. (Schwartenblock, also called skin-block, is made from boiling skins, grinding them, and emulsifying them with ice. The mixture is then refrigerated and allowed to form a very rubbery block. This is frequently used in German sausages to give them more juiciness. To read more about this, take a look at Charcutier, Salumiere, and Wurstmeister by Francois Vecchio.)

Spices: Salt (1.5-2.0%), white pepper, and mace. Optional Spices: Lemon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, onion, leeks, celery, parsnips, and coriander.

Processing: The meat is ground and then added to a bowl chopper in order to make an emulsion. At home, this can be done with a food processor. The milk is generally frozen into milk-ice chips, and slowly added into meat mixture as it is in the bowl chopper, in order to create a stable emulsion. The addition of the milk in the frozen form helps to keep the temperature down, which is an important part of the process. The fat is also ground, and then added into the bowl chopper. The spice cure is typically added in at this stage. Creating the emulsion properly can be difficult, and once obtained, needs to be carefully maintained. For more information on this, I encourage reading about emulsions and the chemistry behind this process here.

The emulsified mixture is then put into a stuffer, and stuffed into pig intestines with a diameter of 26-42mm. The final weight varies between 100-300 grams, depending on which type of St. Galler Bratwurst is being made (ranging in size from small to large for the classic, the OLMA, and the Kinderfest versions).

The Bratwurst are cooked in water that is below boiling, around 70 C, until they reach an internal temperature of 68C. Then, they are put directly into cold water to stop to cooking process. They should be bright and white in appearance, tender and homogeneous, with a well-rounded and mildly aromatic flavor, and a pleasant firm bite. In order to eat them, they are best cooked slowly over a charcoal fire for 10-20 minutes at 120-150C, allowed to get golden brown and crispy, but not black. If a fire isn’t possible, they can be cooked in a pan, however in order to maintain the juiciness of the Bratwurst, they should not be pre-cut, which would allow the moisture to escape during the cooking process. Instead, the natural break of the casing along the hull of the sausage indicates that the person cooking the Bratwurst knows what they are doing.

Timing: Like most cured meat products, this one is made during the colder months, traditionally between September and April.

How it’s eaten:

The St. Galler Bratwurst is traditionally eaten after being grilled over a fire, and served with a traditional bread called a Burli. Again, never with mustard unless you are safely inside your own home and vow never to speak of it.

How I learnt about it:

I had the great opportunity to attend the OLMA festival this year in St. Gallen. It is the most well-known agricultural festival in Switzerland, with over 300,000 visitors every year. It has a pig race, a parade, and tons and tons of great local food. I was able to try the OLMA bratwurst here, while I have been able to enjoy the regular St Galler Kalbsbratwurst on a normal day in Switzerland. If you have the opportunity to make it to OLMA, I suggest you don’t miss it.

Video:

Watch a video of it being made by the experts here.

The DIY

Coming soon.

Sources:

Saucisse Aux Choux

October 10, 2019 by AOG 2 Comments

The Official Saucisse Aux Choux Vaudoise IGP

Name: Saucisse aux choux vaudoise

Region: Vaud

History: The origin story of the saucisse aux choux vaudoise has its roots in legend. It’s said that the saucisse owes its invention to the town of Orbe during the middle ages, around the year 879. The Emperor Charles the Fat was supposedly in town overstaying his welcome, and eating the town out of house and home. As meat became rare, an innovative townsperson had the brilliant idea to use cabbage to make their sausage in order to stretch the meat. Now, it could just be that this was a commonplace thing, to stretch meat with whatever was around, but who doesn’t like a compelling story? It became a regional specialty, made to this day, and protected under PGI identification.

How it’s made:

Meat: A 60% lean pork meat to 40% pork fat ratio. Boiled pork skin (~25%), blanched and pressed white cabbage(~5%). Optional: Pork liver (~5%).

Note: The meat is a combination of pork 1 and pork 2 with minimal membranes, sinews, or tendons. See Charcutier, Salumiere, Wurstmeister by Francois Vecchio to get a better understanding of the pork 1 and pork 2 breakdown.

Spices: Salt, black pepper. Optional Spices: Garlic, coriander, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and anise. Other optional components: White wine, sugar, nitrates, starter culture.

Processing: Lean pork mixed with fat and skin is used for this saucisse. The meat is ground using a 5 mm plate, while the boiled pork skin is ground through a 3 mm plate. The meat is mixed with the spices until it has achieved a good bind. Then, this mixture is stuffed into beef casings with a diameter of 38-40 mm or 40-42 mm, looped, with a length of ~ 30 cm. The ends can be tied off with either string or clips. Each sausage should weight around 300-400 g. It is then hung and cold smoked (18-28 C) for 24 hours, usually using a mix of local hardwood and conifer. The cold smoke gives the exterior a golden brown exterior, while the inside remains a nice reddish pink color.

Timing: Like most cured meat products, this one is made during the colder months, traditionally between September and April.

How it’s eaten:

After the meat has been smoked, it’s ready to be cooked and eaten. The saucisse is usually boiled for 35-40 minutes at ~ 75C, before being cut open and served on a bed of leeks and potatoes (called papet Vaudois). Some chefs prefer not to cook the sausage separately, but cook the sausages over low heat directly on the papet Vaudois. If you’ve made this sausage (or if you’ve bought it) and want to eat it in the traditional way, I suggest checking out this recipe by Helvetic Kitchen.

How I learnt about it:

This is arguably the least interesting for those out there who are reading this on order to create their own projects, but hopefully of some interest to those who (like me) are interested in traveling the world chasing cured meat. This wurst is an IGP product from the Vaud region of Switzerland, and in particular, its birthplace is said to be in the town of Orbe. Therefore, for a number of years now, the town of Orbe has held a three-day festival on the last weekend in September to celebrate this product. The festival is filled with local food, beer, music, and of course, a demonstration of the local butchers making the sausage itself!

This year, I took the time to travel to this festival, where I was able to see the sausage being made, communicate (in very broken French that was probably actually more Italian than French) with the butchers doing the demonstration about the process, and sample the sausage in the traditional manner.

The DIY Saucisse Aux Choux Vaudoise IGP

Now, it’s not really saucisse aux choux vaudoise unless it’s made in the region of Switzerland discussed above, in the manner discussed above, with Swiss ingredients. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t make it at home and call it whatever you want. Here, I’ll post the recipe how I would make it at home.

Disclaimer: Unlike all my other recipes, I haven’t actually made this one at home yet, so there won’t be any process pictures to follow. Hopefully, I will find the time to make it myself soon, and then will update this page.

Planning:

The following spreadsheet gives an approximation of the ratios to use for this saucisse, of course amounts and spices can be altered for taste.

Grinding and Mixing:

Grind the meat, fat, blanched and pressed cabbage, and liver through a 5 mm plate. Grind boiled pig skins through a 3 mm plate. Mix them together with the white wine and spices until you create a paste that sticks together with a nice consistency. Keep it cool while you do this.

Stuffing:

Take the mixture and stuff it into casings, preferably Beef Rounds (40/43 mm). You can usually find these already cut and tied. Make sure to stuff the mixture in a steady and compact manner. Tie off the ends.

Fermentation/Cold Smoking:

Once the saucisse is stuffed, tie the two ends together, and hang it in a place where you have a cold smoking set up. Preferably, cold smoke using hard wood for around 24 hours. Keep the temperature below 82 F. At this point, you’re almost ready to go.

Enjoying:

To enjoy this saucisse, boil it for 35-40 minutes at ~ 75C, cut open, and served on a bed of leeks and potatoes or use the recipe from Helvetic Kitchen mentioned above.