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Game Sausages
Take the remains of game, cut off the meat, remove carefully the skin and sinew, mince the flesh and pound it in a mortar, with six ounces of lean ham, and six ounces of butter to every pound of meat. Season rather highly with salt, pepper, and powdered mace. Put the mixture into skins and fry in hot butter or lard for three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 1s. per pound, exclusive of the cold game. Sufficient, one pound for two or three persons.
A Victorian way of using up the last of a roast pheasant, hare or grouse. The proportions are the useful part; the frying time is not.
- The hinge: don't fry for 45 minutesThe game here is already cooked leftovers, and the ham is cured, though it may be raw cured ham rather than cooked, so the centre still needs to reach a safe temperature. Beyond that there is little to cook through but the butter-rich forcemeat. Three-quarters of an hour in hot fat will render the butter out and leave dry, crumbling sausage; 10 to 15 minutes over moderate heat, turning, is enough to brown the casing and bring the centre to 160F/71C.
- The ratioSix ounces lean ham and six ounces butter per pound of game meat. That is a very high fat proportion by modern sausage standards, and it is deliberate: cooked game is dry and lean, and the butter is what makes the mixture bind and slice. If it feels excessive, drop the butter to four ounces rather than substituting oil.
- Mortar and food processorPounding in a mortar produces a fine, smooth paste rather than a coarse grind. A food processor gets there in short pulses; work the meat and ham first, then add the butter cold and in pieces so the mixture does not warm and split.
- Skin and sinewThe instruction to remove these carefully matters more with game than with domestic poultry. Sinew will not break down in a mortar and shows up as tough threads through the whole batch.
- "Skins"Natural hog casings, sold salted; rinse and soak in warm water for half an hour before filling. If you have no casings or stuffing horn, roll the mixture into flattened cakes and fry them the same way, or wrap them in caul fat.
- MaceThe dried outer covering (aril) of nutmeg, close to it in flavour. Buy it ground in small quantities as it fades fast. A quarter teaspoon per pound is a reasonable reading of "season rather highly."
- Yield and costOne pound for two or three people, as stated. The "1s. per pound" is the price of the added ham, butter and spice only, the game being free leftovers — the whole point of the recipe.
Recipes of this kind sit at the centre of the Victorian kitchen economy: a large roast bird or hare was expensive and was expected to yield two or three further meals, and a dictionary like Cassell's carries many entries built on the remains of a previous dish. Game in particular came into the house in quantity and in season — shot on an estate, sent as a gift, or bought from a poulterer in the autumn and winter months — so the household faced a glut followed by nothing, and cooks developed a repertoire of potted meats, croquettes, rissoles and sausages to stretch it. Pounding cooked meat to a paste with butter and a cured pork product is the same technique that produces potted game and game forcemeat; the only difference here is that the paste is pushed into a casing instead of a jar. The heavy hand with mace and pepper reflects both the strong flavour of hung game and the fact that leftovers were being disguised as something new.