Greek White Sausage: Loukaniko Leukos
Feb 26th, 2008 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Charcuterie, Greek | Comments | 11 Comments |
I took the plunge last weekend and made my first-ever emulsified sausage, a style that has the same fine texture as a hot dog or a weisswurst. Only I made it with Greek flavorings because, well, because I can.
This sausage does not exist in Greece, so far as I know. Greeks stick with coarse, country-style links. I invented this one more or less on the fly, which is a beauty of sausage-making: Once you understand technique, flavor is whatever you come up with in your feverish little brain. In this case it was lemon zest, oregano, thyme, white pepper and lots of garlic. Oh yeah, and lots of pork fatback.
Let me state at the outset that these sausages are not low-fat. In fact, they are so rich I shortened the links so people could actually eat a whole one. I ate four. And boy, are they sure tasty! Light as air and smooth, smooth, smooth.
Emulsified sausages are a little tricky. I consulted several of my charcuterie books, and found that the basic ratio of meat-to-fat-to-liquid is 5-4-3. You then get everything really, really cold – colder even than for regular sausage – grind it fine, add a little dry milk to stabilize the emulsion and then essentially whip it like cream. Afterwards you poach the sausages at 165 degrees for 20 minutes and then eat them!
Or, you can (as I did) gently cook them over a flame to get that gorgeous browning that makes me such a sucker for a well-made sausage. I ate some just plain, and they were super delicate and fluffy, then I ate others with some mustard. Mustard made them taste more like “regular” sausages. Still good, but better plain. Go figure.
Those are some beautiful sausages! I haven’t ventured into the realm of emulsified sausages yet, but you are providing some great inspiration here…
Emulsified is later. This weekend is more dry cure. The hog middles are due tomorrow. Don’t quite know which ones it will be pepperone for certain and probably a couple of salami. The pork is already chunked and frozen in the proper weight put ups. Just need to buy the beef.
By the way, that is the first pimped KA I’ve seen, my 6 qt gear cover having gone the great charcuterist in the sky and nobody has the part in stock.
Thanks you two! I may do some pancetta this weekend, too.
Charcuteire, if you use the Ruhlman/Polcyn peperone recipe, know that it is SUPER lean. I have tried it twice and frankly, I don’t like it. I did it a third time with antelope and added a pound of pork fat – much better. Their recipe, IMHO, is too lean and dry. I know it’s supposed to be that way, but it hardened like iron and became difficult to cut.
And yes, my pimped-out Kitchen Aide is among my prized possessions, given to me as a Christmas gift by my girlfirend.
I’ve done the Ruhlman/Polcyn pepperone once already and both my wife and I liked it. However, I buy chuck in 20+ lb blocks, and I did include as much beef fat in my five pounds of beef as I could.
One tip I did pick up from Bob delGrasso is follow the instructions for Bactoferm on the Bactoferm, not in the printed recipe, it will save you a lot of money. However, you must be certain that the Bactoferm is evenly spread through out the sausage. Actually I used twice the Bactoferm recomended on the envelope which was still a fraction of the amount in the recipe.
Also any suggestions on how to store this stuff after it is cured? Right now I can just let it hang, but that might not work in the summer.
Once the salami are done, I let them hang in an old $50 fridge I bought for the purpose. I bought a regulator off the internet to set the temp at 55 degrees so it doesn’t get too cold.
If I want to halt the aging process, I vacuum-pack the salami and freeze them. Not ideal, but they don’t suffer too much.
Well I’m hoping that my dry cure box stayes below 60 year round. It is up against a north basement wall and I am far enough north it might work.
If that fails I’m planing on buying a FoodSaver this weekend.
Thanks
How about a little sausage and peppers on a crispy loaf? Great job, Hank
Dude. I thought Alton Brown had his mixer custom painted. Do they mfg them that way?!?!
And all this charcuterie talk has me stoked. Can’t wait to build a dry-cure cellar this fall!!!
No way, Kev, Holly had that Kitchen Aide pimped out at an auto detailing shop! It’s all custom, baby…
Hank, I’m making this this weekend with coho instead of pork, and adding a little fennel seed, then I’m going to smoke it for a bit. Should be good.
Thanks for the guidance with this recipe! I was pleased to land here with a Google (the Greek bloggers don’t seem to make their own sausage).
Hi, we are drying our sausage in the garage but with the cold weather down here (near detroit, Mich) they froze. this is the first time this has happened. do you reckon all this sausage (9 shoulder worth) will be ok. if not what should i do.
thanks in advance.