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Pork Sausages (Chop fat and lean of pork)
345. Chop fat and lean of pork together; season it with sage, pepper, and salt, and add two or three berries of allspice; (or, chop pork meat, rather more lean than fat, flavour with pepper, salt and cayenne, and a little lemon-peel if approved; six ounces of bread crumbs to about two pounds of meat to be chopped with the meat ;) 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; the sausages must be pricked with a fork before they are dressed or they will burst, unless they are very carefully fried. (See Frying, page 54.)
A working butcher's formula rather than a measured recipe: two variants are offered, one a plain meat sausage, one extended with breadcrumbs. Quantities of seasoning are left to the cook, so the notes below give usable proportions and flag the points where modern practice differs.
- Fat and leanAim for roughly 25-30 per cent fat by weight; pork shoulder alone is close to that ratio. The second variant's "rather more lean than fat" will read as dry unless the breadcrumbs are properly hydrated with stock or water.
- Seasoning ratesNo amounts are given. For 2 lb (900 g) of meat, start with 2 teaspoons fine salt, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage or 1 teaspoon dried, and a pinch of cayenne. Fry a teaspoon of the mixture and taste before filling casings.
- Allspice berriesWhole berries chopped in with the meat give occasional hard fragments. Grind them first: two or three berries amount to only a pinch, roughly an eighth of a teaspoon of ground allspice or less.
- Hogs' entrailsNatural hog casings, sold salted by butchers and online suppliers. Soak in cold water for at least half an hour and flush the interiors under a running tap; the "made extremely clean" of the original is largely done for you now. "Half fill" is sound advice, since overstuffed casings split as the meat swells.
- Six ounces of breadcrumbsAbout 3 cups of fresh soft crumbs, or roughly 170 g, to 2 lb of meat. That is a high proportion by modern taste and closer to a British "banger" than to a butcher's pure-meat sausage; halve it if you want a meatier result.
- PrickingCurrent practice is the opposite: leave the skins whole and cook gently so the fat renders without bursting. Pricking is only insurance against a hot pan, and it lets juice and fat escape.
- CookingFry over medium-low heat for 12-15 minutes, turning. Fresh pork sausage should reach 160F at the centre.
- The salamanderA long-handled iron plate heated red and held over food to brown the surface. A domestic grill or broiler on its highest setting does the same to the mashed potato bed.
- Yield and keepingTwo pounds of meat gives roughly a dozen sausages of ordinary size, serving four to six. Uncased seasoned meat should be kept refrigerated and used within two days, not merely "in a very small pan closely covered".