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Country Sausages
Arrange in a small double broiler twelve small country sausages, prick each sausage with a fork once in the centre and broil on a brisk fire for five minutes on each side. Dress on a hot dish and serve.
A three-line method that assumes equipment and vocabulary from a coal-fired kitchen. The substance is sound; the terms need translating.
- "Double broiler"Not a double boiler. This is a hinged wire broiler — two grids that clamp the sausages between them so the whole batch can be flipped at once over live coals. A grill basket does the same job, or simply lay the links on a rack under a preheated broiler and turn them with tongs.
- "A brisk fire"Hot, direct heat: a bed of coals burned down to glowing, or an electric broiler element preheated 10 minutes with the pan about 4 inches below it. Not so hot that the fat flares before the centre cooks.
- Country sausagesFresh, uncured, coarsely ground pork links, typically seasoned with sage, black pepper and sometimes a little cayenne — sold today as breakfast sausage. Nothing smoked or cured, and not a dry sausage. The recipe gives no weight; "small" presumably means finger-sized links, on the order of an ounce or so each.
- The prickingA common period instruction, meant to keep casings from bursting over a fierce fire. Many modern cooks skip it, on the grounds that the punctures let rendered fat and juice escape and encourage flare-ups. Moderating the heat slightly does the same work without draining the sausage.
- Doneness beats the clockFive minutes a side suits small links over real coals; larger or colder sausages will need longer. Fresh pork sausage should reach 160F at the centre — check one with an instant-read thermometer rather than trusting the ten-minute total.
- "Dress on a hot dish"Period phrasing for arranging them on a warmed platter. Warm the plates; sausage fat congeals fast and turns the surface greasy and dull on a cold dish.
- YieldTwelve small links serve three to four at breakfast, or two as a main course with potatoes and a fried apple or two.
"Country sausages" is a distinctly American item: fresh pork sausage, sage-heavy, made on the farm at hog-killing time in cold weather and eaten quickly because it was never cured for keeping. Before mechanical refrigeration was general, the distinction between country sausage and the smoked or dried sausages of Europe was practical rather than stylistic: one the product of butchering season, the other a preservation method. The recipe is brief, offering little beyond how long to hold the sausages over the fire.