Chefs go back to the grind as sausage keeps on sizzling

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 6, 1997 by Robin Lee Allen

Despite a reputation for clogging arteries and widening hips, sausage remains a beloved indulgence on menus nationwide.

In addition to delivering customers a comforting and savory bundle of meat, seafood or vegetables, the links provide a cost-effective accompaniment for entrees across dayparts.

"I love sausages," states Stan Frankenthaler, chef-owner of Salamander in Cambridge, Mass. "I think they are the perfect food. They are highly seasoned, fatty, garlicky, rich and all in one casing. "

While Frankenthaler's sausage repertoire includes pork with sage, pork with figs, veal with juniper berry, smoked salmon and lobster, one of his favorites is lamb sausage with orange and cumin. He begins with a lamb leg, from which he removes the sinew and connective tissue but no fat. The meat is diced and seasoned with orange, cumin, garlic, ginger and herbs and left to marinate for at least 24 hours.

Frankenthaler next grinds the meat at a high speed with an attachment to his mixer. The grinder also is chilled before use for a better grind.

"In making sausages you're creating an emulsion, and temperature is very important for that," he explains. "At a colder temperature you're getting a clean grind. "

Frankenthaler hand-packs the mixture in lamb casings with an old-fashioned sausage stuffer and then hangs the sausage in his walk-in refrigerator under a fan for three to four days.

"Texturally, it changes the sausage so it becomes half dried," he says. "So it has a smooth mouth feel and more intense flavorings."

The sausage is served as an appetizer with saffron potatoes and onion jam for $8.50 and as an entree with lamb loin chops for $24. Several of Frankenthaler's sausages soon will be available at his new Boston package and provisions store, Beehive.

"Not only is it a nice complement to the chop on the entree because it's more highly seasoned, but it allows you to serve a pricey cut of meat at a good price," he notes.

Similarly at Spruce in Chicago, roasted lamb chops are accompanied by house-smoked venison sausage with verjus sauce and sage-infuses quince coulis for a digestible $23.50.

If we run a more expensive piece of meat, like venison, with venison sausage. then it's more affordable for the customer and it helps us with the food costs," comments Joe Kubik, corporate chef at John Harvard's Brew House. a five-unit brewery based in Cambridge, Mass.

Along with less-usual links like venison and buffalo. John Harvard's also serves up about 120 pounds of its house-made chorizo, pepper-garlic, smoked herb and andouille sausages weekly. A mixed-sausage plate with three links sells for $8.45.

It's a natural with beer, and in a brewpub setting, it work with this kind of concept." Kubik says. "We serve it as an appetizer, on skewers and as an entree."

For this regular sausage offerings Kubik begins with pork butt because it has a high ratio of meat to fat. Seasonings vary according to the type of sausage he is making although each contains salt and pepper. His rule of thumb is 1 ounce of salt per 5 pounds of meat. He seasons the chorizo with vinegar, garlic, oregano, cayenne pepper and water. Andouille, which is finer ground, is seasoned with mace, cloves, allspice, marjoram, garlic, paprika and cayenne pepper.

Kubik uses 32- to 35-millimeter hog casings, into which he hand cranks the meat mixtures. Manual packing leads to a preferable and more tender texture, he notes.

"I don't just buy andouille from someone and say their level of heat is good," he comments. "I come up with a better product and pattern it to my customer. For instance, some of our restaurants have more spice in the chorizo than others."

Christophe Barbier, chef at Redeye Grill in New York, offers a Baja chicken with chorizo and chorizo-spiked mashed potatoes. The chicken is marinated in garlic, herbs and sweet spices and then sauteed with red onions, red pepper, jalapeno, chorizo and cilantro. Finely diced chorizo and scallions add punch to the mashed potatoes.

"It gives a kind of spicy paprika edge to the chicken and a light, smoky flavor to the mashed potato," he says. The dish sells for $15.95.

While sausages are often served in links, patties are equally appealing. Throughout December. Palace Cafe in New Orleans offered the traditional Creole dish of veal sausage patties with a mustard crust and caper cream sauce. Executive chef Robert Bruce first sautes shallots, garlic and green onion bottoms in brandy until the alcohol is burned off. In a separate cold bowl he grinds and mixes wild boar, venison and veal flavored with chopped fresh thyme and chopped fresh rosemary. The saute mixture then is added to the meat and seasoned with cracked white pepper and kosher salt.

He portions the mixture into 2-ounce patties, to be seared on one side and coated with equal parts of Creole mustard and Dijon mustard. The patties are put under a broiler for a few minutes until the mustard forms a crust. The crusted sausage is served with a caper emulsion made with duck stock, duck fat, olive oil, capers, onions and garlic