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powder with dried chipotle powder or, if you prefer chipotles in adobo sauce, simply add a few minced chipotles. This is an excellent sausage to use in a standard rice pilaf: Sauté minced onion, add the rice, then add the stock, bring to a simmer, and drop in the sausages. Cover the pan and pop it into a 350-degree-F./175-degree-C. oven for about twenty minutes. The rice absorbs the juices and seasonings from the sausage—no better way to cook it.

31⁄2 pounds/1.5 kilograms boneless lean pork shoulder butt, diced

1 1⁄2 ounces/40 grams kosher salt (3 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon/6 grams pink salt

1 teaspoon/3 grams ground white pepper

2 tablespoons/16 grams ground cumin

3 tablespoons/24 grams ancho chile powder (or other pure chile powder)

1⁄2 cup/70 grams nonfat dry milk powder

1 1⁄2 pounds/675 grams pork back fat, diced into 1-inch pieces

1⁄4 cup/60 milliliters ice water

3⁄4 cup/100 grams thinly sliced scallions whites and half the green parts

10 feet/3 meters hog casings, soaked in tepid water for at least 30 minutes and rinsed

1. Combine the pork, salt, pink salt, white pepper, cumin, ancho powder, and milk powder. Grind through the large die into a bowl set in ice (see Note below). Grind the fat through the small die into another bowl set in ice.

2. Combine the pork mixture and fat in the mixer bowl. Mix with the paddle attachment on low speed while slowly adding the water. Add the scallions and mix on medium speed until the water is absorbed and the meat appears sticky about 2 minutes.

3. Sauté a bite-sized portion, taste, and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

4. Stuff the sausage into the hog casings, and twist into 8-inch/20-centimeter links.

5. Refrigerate uncovered overnight.

6. Cold-smoke the sausages (see page 77) for 2 to 4 hours, or until the desired color.

7. Hang the sausages in a cool, dry space (60 degrees F./15 degrees C. with 65 percent humidity is ideal) 3 to 5 days.

8. Refrigerate the sausages for up to 2 weeks or freeze until ready to use.

Yield: About 5 pounds/2.25 sausage; about fifteen 8-inch/20-centimeter links

[ NOTE: See pages 135–140 for a detailed description of the basic grinding, mixing, stuffing, and cooking techniques. ]

5

THE ARTIST AND THE SAUSAGE:

TECHNIQUES AND RECIPES FOR INDIVIDUALISTIC, IDIOSYNCRATIC, AND TEMPERMENTAL DRY-CURED MEATS

....

Dry-cured sausages and meats are the quintessence of the charcutier’s art and the most difficult to achieve because they rely so heavily on the ambient air and humidity. They can drive even professional charcutiers crazy. The recipes in this chapter are the most difficult in the book, but also the most exciting to attempt, and when you nail it, there may be no more satisfying accomplishment in the kitchen.

Tuscan Salami

Peperone

Soppressata

Coppa

Spanish Chorizo

Hungarian Salami

Saucisson Sec

Landjager

Salted Air-Dried Ham

Blackstrap Molasses Country Ham

Bresaola

Lardo and Cured Pork Belly

By far the most interesting and challenging sausage a craftsman can attempt is one that’s never cooked at all: a fresh sausage hung to dry and cure, then sliced thin and eaten as is. We know dried sausage as salami and soppressata, traditional offerings of the Italian salumeria, and as the saucisson sec hanging in the window of the French charcuterie.

Many of these sausages are fermented (not unlike pickles, or bread leavened by a sourdough starter) by beneficent bacteria feeding off the sugar, generating lactic acid, which protects the meat from spoilage as well as introduces a pleasingly tangy flavor. The dry-cure method also works for various meats—hams, loins and shoulder, jowl, and pure back fat from the pig, as well as cuts of beef and lamb, giving us prosciutto, coppa, guanciale, lardo, bresaola, and lamb prosciutto.

These dry-cured meats and sausages, almost always sliced thin, are dense and chewy, with a strong, dry-cured flavor and smooth, satiny fat. When we eat them, we’re most often eating pork that’s never gone above room temperature, let alone come close