Sausage

[mike_the_wino]

A co-worker happens to have the same last name as a sausage company back East, Cichocki (pronounced sigh-hockey). As such, he ordered a ham from them and reported back that it was pretty tasty. So I go and check out the website. To my joy and amazement.....Buffalo Wing Sausage. The shipping is killing me....$45 bucks on a $40 dollar order for a grand total of damn near $90 bucks all in.

Expect an update soon after the grilling!*

Anyone else have a favorite sausage purveyor?

*as I was typing this I got an email that they are out of the Chicken Italian Sausage because they are focusing on the Buffalo Wing Sausage. I take this is a positive sign and therefore anxiously await it's sausagey goodness to arrive...all 4 lbs of it.

[Bugged]

... $40 dollar order ...

...all 4 lbs of it.

That must be some damn good sausage for $10/lb!

Mmmm, sausage. No guts, no glory.

[mike_the_wino]

Well, that also includes some horseradish, and 2 dozen pirogis....so the unit price drops.

[Michael Emrys]

That must be some damn good sausage for $10/lb!

Counting S&H that's more like $22.25/lb. It had better be better than sex.

Michael

[REVS]

For the small price of an air-fare to Sydney, plus $15 more for the short taxi ride to my local area, you can choose snags from all sorts of ethnic butchers at wonderfully cheap prices: for starters, choose from Greek, Cypriot, Portuguese, Italian, Macedonian, Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese. Most of these ethnic butchers do several types, too.

My favourite is the Vietnamese thin one, a sweet pork sausage flavoured with coriander (cilantro to you), for about $8.99 a kilogram.

However, the Thai sausages, which are little spheres a bit smaller than a pool ball, larger than a golf ball, are very good at knocking your socks off if you're into that spicy chilli kind of thing.

Then again, if you want the whole bus to reek of garlic as you travel to work the next day, you'll just have to get the Turkish country-style sausages sold in the suburb next door to mine, also priced somewhere around $10 a kilo. (You can achieve the same effect with the local Turkish Pide (pizza) place's "Sausage Pide" – a foot-long pide with a topping of ultra-garlicky sausage mixed in with egg.)

I truly believe I live in sausage heaven! I know the air-fare getting here makes it a bit expensive at first, but with the cheap sausage prices you'll be in front within a decade.

[Michael Emrys]

Yeah, but ten years in Sydney would be like being dragged over sharp gravel.

Michael

[mike_the_wino]

RVES,

That list sounds like a damn good reason to go to Sydney! But I am thinking a pure 'sausage run' may not pencil out. Perhaps bundled with a vacation......hhhhhmmmmmmmm.

coriander (cilantro to you)

Um, if we are picking nits.....cilantro to you, IS cilantro to me. Cilantro is the fresh leaves of the herb and coriander is the seed of said herb.

[REVS]

Mike the wino

Re the cilantro, not here it aint. No-one here calls the herb, or any part of it, cilantro. Oddly enough, we call coriander's leaves "coriander leaves" and we call coriander's seeds "coriander seeds". We're like that here. And by the way, you missed the best bits. The stems are terrific in cooking, and the roots have the strongest flavour. You use it all.

[mike_the_wino]

hhhhmmm, interesting. Have to try the roots in something. Got some going in the garden this year. I have used the some of the stem when cooking but I normally use the fresh bits as a finishing touch on tacos and such. In this way the stems are less desirable because you get woodsy bits in your teeth.

To be honest, here in California there is 'cilantro' year round in the fresh cut display but the only 'coriander' I had seen was in the spice section.

I did wiki after my response and was suprised by how wide spread this herb is used around the globe. Learn something new every day.

[REVS]

The roots are usually mashed up in a food processor or mortar and pestle when making curry pastes, which you then proceed to cook in oil before adding the meat and/or vegies.

The stems are just finely chopped and added to the pot in many various ways, but they do need some cooking.

The leaves can be used uncooked as a garnish, or cooked as well. One of my favourite Indian cookbooks includes a lemon coriander chicken recipe which calls for 3 cups of coriander leaves, using it more as a vegetable rather than a herb, adding the coriander leaves towards the end of cooking rather than at the beginning.

The people who use the roots a lot in their cuisine are the Thais. Here's a recipe for a Thai green curry paste, which uses coriander roots.

8 small green chillies

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander, including roots and stems

1/4 cup chopped lemon grass (or the chopped peel of 1 lemon)

1 tablespoon chopped galangal (or use ginger)

2 teaspoons ground coriander seeds

1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon dried shrimp paste (trasi, careful, it stinks)

2 tablespoons peanut (groundnut) oil

Method: put in blender, blend.

[mike_the_wino]

Although I love Thai, green curry and I don't really co-exist well. Actually I am okay with green curry, it's others who suffer greatly after my ingestion of green curry.

[REVS]

Turkish garlic sausage is my killer weapon

[Michael Emrys]

I have come to almost hate cilantro. I say "almost" since I am not convinced that, used sensibly, it cannot be of some benefit. The problem that has arisen in the last decade or two is of piles of the stuff being added to dishes where that taste does not truly belong. Mexican restaurants have been particular offenders IMO. Also, a lot of commercially available salsas as well as some other Mexican products add far too much of the stuff in. A tiny pinch so that you get just a hint of it now and then is all that is needed. The best spices for Mexican foods remain, as always, chili, cominos (cumin), and just a little oregano.

On the subject of oregano, that's another flavoring that often gets overused. It is so strong that you only need a little. Sometimes in eating an "Italian" product it seems that the oregano must have been put in with a shovel. They could cut the oregano down to one-third or less and put in some sweet basil instead.

Michael

[Bigduke6]

Here here. The masses have become convinced the presence of cilanthro means the food is "authentic", a dangerous situation for any cuisine.

On oregano, the Italians already have the solution: fresh, not dried. Night and day, once you eat fresh dried sucks.

Except for sausage I guess. Sausage (well, as I tried it within pork meatballs) with fresh oregano in it is to die for, but it doesn't keep so well I suspect.

[REVS]

Depends on which dried oregano you're talking about. Greek delicatessens sell dried wild oregano, usually labelled as "origan" and it is amazingly aromatic, mainly because half of it is dried flowers, not dried leaves. It's the real deal in all sorts of Greek dishes and marinades for barbecued meats. Fresh oregano, which I grow at home, has a much milder flavour compared to the wild dried Greek stuff, but it's still a great herb for all sorts of other cuisines.

[GWDWD]

I love sausage (in a totally manly way).

My favorite is Carle's Bratwurst. But I like it all--hot Italian, smoked, chorizo, kielbasa, etc. It's not something I eat very often, though I enjoy it thoroughly.

[Spanish Bombs]

Can't let this topic pass without mentioning the encased meat superstore in Chicago:

HotDougs.com

Its usually about an hour drive to get there for me, often an hour long wait outside, and always worth it. I try to beat the crowd by getting there at opening (10:30 AM is not too early for sausage!). The "Today's Specials" link has great stuff every day, and the regular menu is outstanding also - gotta love the Thuringer!