Moose sausage typically doesn’t get me excited. It’s generally made by local meat shops with pre-fabbed 5-gallon-bucketed mixes of ‘cure’ and ‘seasoning’, jacked up with pork to tame the flavor and add fat, resulting in a sausage that tastes like non-game something-or-other akin to a factory produced sausage item from a box store. Not always bad, just rarely that good and never great. Wow that’s a tad harsh. Truth hurts. [I actually feel for the butchers, as I would not want to defrost, de-hair, and trim out the often multiple bullet wounds from game animals shot by others. They probably don’t want to either.]
I’ve made fresh game sausages with equally weak results. No boxed seasoning, perhaps, but still not something I’d be excited to tie into regularly. But that tide has changed. A while back I put up a batch of pork saucisson sec, and made a batch with this year’s calf moose to give it a go. Test run. Success. And to continue with my quasi-snotty french names for these products, I’ll be calling these ‘saucisson sec d’orignal‘.
This morning I finished a couple pieces of this and my brési with a hit of smoke. I’ll give them a few days to mellow out the fresh smoking before tying into them again. Smoke, like many things, is better with age. I may make the next batch a tad leaner, but other than that, very pleased. How to make it? Chacuterie‘s recipe for saucisson sec, substitute moose for pork shoulder. These took a month to cure at 4C and 65-70% humidity, and could stand to be a bit drier still.
[the photo is the saucisson atop brési atop guanciale – Christmas is a time to taste charcuterie, apparently. sweet]
8 Comments on “Saucisson Sec d’Orignal”
Straight up moose shoulder for pork shoulder? Isn’t the moose extremely lean? Or is it just that there’s not fat cap, and the meat itself is still marbled?
It pains me that we’ve botched craft food for so long that plain English words like “dry moose sausage” are now unappealing, and that we have to resort to the French.
Allan – Yep. Went with the usual amount of back fat, and that’s it for fat. You’ve seen moose shoulder. 100% lean.
I know. Dry cured moose sausage it is. I find it funny that I’m using french terms, as everyone else seems to be using Italian – and I’m using french for the very reason that it bothers me that people call them Italian names. ;)
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Kevin, have you heard about Charcuapalooza? A friend in NYC has started it and its getting some major news play. http://www.mrswheelbarrow.com/2010/12/charcutepalooza-lets-make-meat/
PS Congrats on the Food Blog Awards finalist spots. Well deserved.
Cheryl – I have heard of it! Cool project. I’ll definitely keep an eye on it and will opt in on the items I’m familiar with if I can.
And thanks re: the CFBA finalist spots – I had no idea!!! Congrats to you too!
I totally hear you on the game sausages, i usually decline tasting because the spices (powders) whatever they put in there leaves me with a lingering acidic aftertaste. I find myself tasting it for hours. Yuck.
Daniel – always great to hear from you! Glad you have my back on the standard game sausage ‘ick’. It doesn’t have to be that way.
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