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Sausage, Beef, to Make
The great advantage of home-made sausages over bought ones is that in the former case one knows what is in them. Get some fresh beef perfectly free from skin and gristle. Let the lean be nearly double the quantity of fat, but not quite. Put all through the mincing machine, and flavour with powdered sage-leaves--say, a tea-spoonful to every three pounds of beef--half that quantity of thyme, and some powdered allspice, nutmeg, and pepper and salt. The best fat for the sausages is good beef suet. Marjoram may be used in place of sage. Those who like sausages highly seasoned may increase the herbs and spices and vice versa. The skins should be cleansed with the most scrupulous care before filling. Beef sausages are always best fried. Prick the skins with a fork to prevent them bursting, and serve with mashed potatoes. Probable cost, 7d. per pound.
A plain fresh sausage with no cure and no filler, which means it behaves like ground meat and must be treated like ground meat. The seasoning is given as a ratio, so it scales cleanly.
- The fat ratio is the hingeLean "nearly double the quantity of fat, but not quite" works out to roughly 65:35 lean to fat, which is rich by modern standards. A 70:30 or 75:25 mix gives a sausage that still stays juicy without weeping fat into the pan.
- Beef suet behaves differentlySuet is hard kidney fat with a high melting point, and it holds its shape through mincing; the recipe simply calls it the best fat without saying why. Coarse beef fat trimmings from brisket or short rib are easier to source and mince better, though the sausage will be softer.
- Keep everything coldThe one step the text assumes rather than states. Meat and fat should go into the mincer near freezing and come out below about 12C, or the fat smears instead of staying in discrete pieces and the cooked sausage turns greasy and crumbly.
- Seasoning quantitiesA teaspoon of dried sage and half a teaspoon of thyme per 3 lb is light-handed. Salt is unspecified: use 1.5 to 2 percent of the total meat weight, so 20-27 g per 3 lb, which is the range at which the proteins bind and the sausage holds together.
- CasingsThe recipe expects the cook to clean the skins, which is why it insists on scrupulous care. Buy salted or brined hog casings, rinse them, and soak in cold water for half an hour, flushing water through the length of each one.
- Rest before fillingNot in the original, but worth doing. Mix the salt and spices through the minced meat, fry a teaspoon of it to check seasoning, then chill the mass an hour before stuffing so it firms and the salt draws out the tacky protein that binds the links.
- PrickingPricking the skins does help prevent bursting, as stated, but it also lets rendered fat and juice escape. Modern practice is to leave them whole and fry gently over medium heat, around 160C, turning often, since it is fierce heat that bursts a skin.
- DonenessBeef sausage is minced meat, so surface bacteria are distributed throughout. Cook to 71C at the centre, which for a standard-gauge link is roughly 12-15 minutes in the pan.
- YieldThree pounds of meat fills about 15 to 18 links in hog casing and serves six to eight with the mashed potatoes.
The first sentence is the whole point of the entry: "one knows what is in them." Cassell's was written in a period of sustained public anxiety about adulterated food, following the Sale of Food and Drugs Act of 1875 and the run of analyst reports and press campaigns that surrounded it, and the commercial sausage was a standing joke and a standing suspicion — bread, potato, offcuts, and worse were routinely alleged. At 7d. a pound it sat within the reach of a modest household. The sage-and-thyme seasoning, with allspice and nutmeg behind it, is a common English fresh-sausage register of the period; the recipe offers marjoram in place of sage without explanation. Note that nothing here is cured — no saltpetre, no smoke — so this is a sausage made in the morning and fried the same day.