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Pork Sausages (Chop fat and lean of pork) (II)
483. Chop fat and lean of pork together; season it with sage, pepper, and salt, and add two or three berries of allspice; half-fill hogs' entrails that have been soaked and made extremely clean; or the meat may be kept in a very small pan closely covered, and rolled and dusted with a very little flour before it is fried; serve on mashed potatoes put in a form, plain, or browned with the salamander or before the fire; they must be pricked with a fork before they are dressed or they will burst, unless they are very carefully fried.
A plain fresh sausage with no cure and no rusk, so its whole character rests on the fat ratio and the sage. The original assumes you know the proportions; here they are.
- Fat to leanAim for one part back fat to two parts shoulder by weight. Below about 25 percent fat the sausages cook dry, and without rusk or breadcrumb there is nothing to hold moisture.
- Seasoning quantitiesFor 2 lb of chopped pork, roughly 2 teaspoons fine salt, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper and 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage (or a rounded teaspoon dried). The two or three allspice berries should be crushed or ground fine, not left whole.
- Chopping, not grindingHand-chopping gives a coarse, open texture. If using a grinder, work with meat and fat near freezing and use a coarse plate; warm pork smears and the fat renders out in the pan.
- CasingsHog casings today come packed in salt. Rinse, soak in cool water 30 minutes and flush the insides. 'Half-fill' presumably serves the same end the recipe's warning about bursting implies: a loosely packed casing can be twisted into links and is less likely to split.
- The skinless versionSausage meat 'kept in a very small pan closely covered' is simply bulk mince pressed down to exclude air. Keep it refrigerated and use within two days, or freeze. Shape and dust lightly with flour before frying, as the original directs.
- PrickingModern practice often argues against it when the pan is kept moderate, since holes let out juice and fat. The original makes pricking the default and allows it to be dispensed with only if the sausages are 'very carefully fried'.
- Cooking and temperatureFry gently for 12 to 15 minutes, turning, until the centre reaches 160F. Fresh uncured pork sausage gives no visual cue you can trust; use a thermometer.
- SalamanderA salamander was an iron plate heated red and held over food to brown the surface. Use the broiler on high for two or three minutes to glaze the piped or moulded mashed potato.
- Yield2 lb of prepared meat gives about a dozen links, serving four to six with the potato.
Sage-and-pepper pork sausage in a hog casing is a long-established English preparation, and this version uses nothing but meat, fat, salt, spice and gut, with no rusk or breadcrumb. The instruction to fill the casings only half full points to the same problem home cooks still meet, since a fresh sausage swells as the fat melts and a tightly stuffed skin splits. Serving them on a shaped mound of mashed potato browned before the fire suits a household with a salamander. The allspice, then often called Jamaica pepper, was cheap and common in British kitchens and turns up in sausage seasonings far more often than it does now.