Dean Torges
R.I.P. 11/4/2016
Here's an idea (more than a recipe) from my good friend Doug Young, exhibiting the true spirit of sausage-making. Copying it here as he sent it to me last year. Soon the Spring spawn will be upon us and it will be time to wade the shallows with a harpoon barb on the end of a fish arrow.
I sampled sausage from this same batch. Doug lives in Illinois and we hunted pigs in S. Carolina last October. He brought several packages with him. So, I cousel you to save dem fish this year for:
Carp Sausage
"Phase I of the Great Aquacultural Sausage Project (GASP) was a success. Aquatic species involved is the Common Carp. This is not a case of some extreme eat-everything-you-kill ethic. Carp are destructive foreign interlopers deserving of by-any-means eradication, and field fertilizer is a worthy enough end for them. Nope, this was purely a case of 'I gotta see if I can make carp not only edible, but tasty.' Now I’m not talking about the big 10+ pounders, which can be filleted and smoked into a very tasty treat, rivaling that of more reputable fish. I’m talking about the little 2-5 pounders that are not worth smoking because the huge number of tiny free-floating bones makes them a bother.
"So here’s what I did. Soaked 8 lbs of carp fillets in milk for 3 days, changing milk once. Drained and partially froze carp fillets, then ground through a 1/8” plate. Ground 2 lbs of pork fat through a 3/16” plate. Mixed pork and carp along with seasonings, in this case using an Italian Sausage recipe with the addition of minced garlic, a little more red pepper, 2/3 cup of red wine vinegar, and 2 T. brown sugar. Let mixture cure for 48 hrs, then stuffed into 32mm casings and smoked to finishing temp of 158 deg, ‘bout 8 hrs total.
"No detectable fish flavor. Uninformed victims declare it to be good smoked sausage, not suspecting it’s anything other than pork sausage. Color and appearance in cross-section are even porkish. Only “negative” I can find is the texture, which is more like the emulsified store-bought sausage than the coarse-ground sausage I am partial to. No fix for that, though, as the carp has to be ground fine to eliminate bones (red wine vinegar softens any pieces making it through), unless I up the pork content or add something else to give texture. My kids like it, and my bowfishing partner likes it so much he’s going to serve it to his 4th of July company. Good thing, he’s the one with the boat, and I wanna keep him interested in going. He’s a non-archer, happy to work the boat and watch me stick ‘em. Perfect arrangement, eh?
"Gonna try some other flavors as well. Carpwurst, carperoni, etc. I think it’d make a good carpouille sausage, too."
I sampled sausage from this same batch. Doug lives in Illinois and we hunted pigs in S. Carolina last October. He brought several packages with him. So, I cousel you to save dem fish this year for:
Carp Sausage
"Phase I of the Great Aquacultural Sausage Project (GASP) was a success. Aquatic species involved is the Common Carp. This is not a case of some extreme eat-everything-you-kill ethic. Carp are destructive foreign interlopers deserving of by-any-means eradication, and field fertilizer is a worthy enough end for them. Nope, this was purely a case of 'I gotta see if I can make carp not only edible, but tasty.' Now I’m not talking about the big 10+ pounders, which can be filleted and smoked into a very tasty treat, rivaling that of more reputable fish. I’m talking about the little 2-5 pounders that are not worth smoking because the huge number of tiny free-floating bones makes them a bother.
"So here’s what I did. Soaked 8 lbs of carp fillets in milk for 3 days, changing milk once. Drained and partially froze carp fillets, then ground through a 1/8” plate. Ground 2 lbs of pork fat through a 3/16” plate. Mixed pork and carp along with seasonings, in this case using an Italian Sausage recipe with the addition of minced garlic, a little more red pepper, 2/3 cup of red wine vinegar, and 2 T. brown sugar. Let mixture cure for 48 hrs, then stuffed into 32mm casings and smoked to finishing temp of 158 deg, ‘bout 8 hrs total.
"No detectable fish flavor. Uninformed victims declare it to be good smoked sausage, not suspecting it’s anything other than pork sausage. Color and appearance in cross-section are even porkish. Only “negative” I can find is the texture, which is more like the emulsified store-bought sausage than the coarse-ground sausage I am partial to. No fix for that, though, as the carp has to be ground fine to eliminate bones (red wine vinegar softens any pieces making it through), unless I up the pork content or add something else to give texture. My kids like it, and my bowfishing partner likes it so much he’s going to serve it to his 4th of July company. Good thing, he’s the one with the boat, and I wanna keep him interested in going. He’s a non-archer, happy to work the boat and watch me stick ‘em. Perfect arrangement, eh?
"Gonna try some other flavors as well. Carpwurst, carperoni, etc. I think it’d make a good carpouille sausage, too."
