Dips for Christmas sausage


 

John Mason

TVWBB All-Star
I'll be making this sausage recipe this weekend and was thinking it would be nice to have a dip or two for it. Any suggestions, based on the ingredients, for a compatible dip or two?

Yuletide Cocktail Sausages

Ingredients

1500 grams Turkey Leg meat cubed (sinew and tendons removed)
500 grams Pork Belly cubed (skin removed)
60 grams phosphate * (optional)
50 grams dried cranberries (or Craisins)
35 grams Sea Salt
15 grams Sugar (or 25 grams Dextrose)
10 grams Dried Sage
10 grams ground dried Orange Zest (or finely chopped)
5 grams Ground White Pepper
2 grams ground Cloves
1 gram ground cinnamon
1 gram ground Nutmeg

200 grams sausage rusk
200 grams iced water

Sheeps Casings

Method

1. Chill the cubed meat for 30 minutes in the freezer. Pass the meat through the mincer. I like to pass it once through an 8mm screen and then through a 4.5 screen. Put the minced meat into a large mixing bowl.

2.Sprinkle the dry ingredients (including the rusk) evenly over the meat. Mix well for 2 minutes and then add the redcurrant jelly and the iced water and mix well for a further 4 or 5 minutes. If the mixture feels stiff, then add more water little by little until the mix becomes pliable.Leave to stand for 15 minutes. At this stage you can fry a little patty and adjust the seasoning to your taste if required.

3. Stuff into sheeps casings and link off at 2" increments. Leave to bloom overnight in the refrigerator before cooking.
 
Nice looking recipe.

A few questions: Currant jelly is mentioned in the method but does not appear in the ingredient list. If it's meant to be included, how much goes in? If the flavor one you'd describe as prominent? How are these sausages cooked? Is smoke involved?
 
Good eye Kevin. My editing wasn't very complete
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. I'm substituting dried cranberries for the red currant jelly. I've never made it, so it's a complete experiment.

I'm not too good at thinking recipe flavors and coming up with accompanying flavors/dishes.

All I can think of is an orange marmalade or honey mustard or maybe the orange marmalade with a little hint of mustard in it.

No smoke, just pan fried. Kind of a cocktail sausage, I think.
 
If the cranberries you get are whole, as is likely (they will also be sweetened most likely), I'd recommend running your knife over them a little to chop them into smaller pieces. Imo, a smaller cut to the crans will work better in the mix if using the smaller sheep casings. I'd also recommend reconstituting the berries a little. To do this you have a choice: You can use a little tepid water to just cover the berries, after chopping, which you've placed in a small bowl, and let them soak 30 min, draining and discarding the water after soaking; you can do the samem saving the soaking water, chilling it, and using it as part of the measure of ice water called for in the recipe; or you can soak the berries in cranberry juice to cover, again, for 30 min, then save the drained juice as part of the water measure called for in the recipe, chilling it well of course.

Here is how I figure out what I want to do for complementary sauces. You might find this helpful in this or in other similar circumstances. I tend to do this so quickly that it's pretty much a simultaneous endeavor but I'll try to break it down into discrete steps so, I hope, you get a good idea of what I mean.

The first thing I do is look for ingredients/flavors in the main recipe that I might want to pick up on, enhance, highlight in some way. The second thing I do is to think of ingredients/flavors that are not in the recipe but that would complement the overall flavor profile of the finished dish. The third thing I do is think of the texture(s) and visual aspects, i.e., how I'd like the item, in this case a sauce or sauces, to look texturally, how I might want it to look (or not look) color-wise, and what sort of mouthfeel I want to shoot for.


So, here's the flow and what immediately came to mind when I first read the recipe (note the similarities to what you thought of):

Ingredients/flavors in in recipe I might want to highlight (in no particular order):

orange; sage; 'fruit'; the savory flavors of the cooked meats and the caramelized exterior you'll create when cooking


Ingredients/flavors not in the recipe that I think complementary:

mustard; onion; caramelized onion; garlic; roasted garlic; shallot; thyme


Textures/visual:

This hard to describe in discrete terms as a discrete step. I just do it as I think of the above and play with combinations in my head.

So--three sauces came to mind (I am a sauce fan) that I think would work well based on the above:

A clear cranberry-based sauce made with reduced stock, shallot, thyme, sage, a touch of mustard, a little o.j. and clove, the solids strained out, consistency like syrup; a mustard-based sauce with a little cranberry, stock, caramelized onion, thyme, honey and a splash of o.j., a consistency of ketchup; and a sauce of roasted garlic with a splash of stock, a bit of cream, sour cream, sage essence, nutmeg, and a little cranberry-orange, consistency thick like dip.

I'd use homemade or canned low-salt chucken stock for the stock and Dijon for the musstard as its flavor has more depth and breadth than either straight yellow or brown.

If any or all are of interest and you wish some help with them let me know.
 
Thanks Kevin.

That gives me a lot to work with. The cranberry and the mustard I'm definitely interested in. I like garlic too, so that may need to be made as well. Any help with proportions on the ingredients would be much appreciated.

I'll be trying these ideas, as well as making the sausage this weekend. If I run into trouble, you may be getting a PM with more questions.

Your wealth of knowledge never ceases to amaze me.
 
Well, it keeps me chugging along.
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Since this is coming out of my head it's easier to write stream-of-thought and tell you what I think I'd do with whatever in whatever quantity as I go. I can give you the overall feel of things (I hope) and you can make adjustments as you wish from there.

I'm going to assume some overall quantities at the outset (since I don't know how many sausages you plan to serve) but feel free, of course, to double amounts if you feel it necessary. None of these sauces depend on exacting amounts of anything so adjust on the fly and taste as you go.

For the cranberry element of these sauces get one can of clear, jelled cranberry sauce and one can of whole berry cranberry sauce. If you have homemade, low-salt chicken stock use it; if not, low-salt canned is fine. You'll need probably a bit less than two cans but I would get three.

For the garlic sauce (note that if you wish, you can roast the garlic while you get the other sauces made): Roast 4-5 heads of garlic with the sage.* When cool enough to handle, gently make a slice in the sides of each garlic head (carefully, as they'll easily crush since they're soft), then squeeze the garlic into a bowl, being careful not to allow the garlic skin to fall into the bowl as well.

While the garlic is roasting heat 1/4 c stock over high heat in a small pot. Bring to a boil and allow to reduce the stock by about half. Add a heaping quarter-cup of whole berry cran sauce, reduce the heat to med-low, and allow the sauce to melt, breaking up the sauce a bit to help it melt faster. When melted, add a splash of o.j. (about 1 T) and a pinch of ground nutmeg. Stir well, remove from the heat; reserve, if you you've done this before the garlic has finished roasting.

When you have the roasted garlic in the bowl, add the reserved cran mixture and fold in. Add 1 T heavy cream, 2 T sour cream and stir. Add salt and ground white pepper to taste. You can make this 1 day ahead. Store covered in the fridge. Bring toward or to room temp for serving. If too thick adjust with a little stock or o.j.


For the clear sauce: Peel and chop one shallot. In a medium sauce pot combine about 3 T stock with 1 T Dijon and whisk with a fork till smooth. Add 1.5 c more stock (or, if you opened a can for this, simply add the rest of the can). Stir in the chopped shallot, 1 t dry thyme, 1/4 t rubbed sage and 1 or 2 whole cloves. Bring the contents of the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-high and allow the mix to reduce by about 60%. Strain the contents of the pot into a small bowl, discarding the solids, wipe the pot out, then returned the strained liquid to the pot over medium heat. Add a bit more than 3/4 of the can of clear jelled cran sauce, breaking it up with a spoon, and allow to melt. Add about 1/4 t of ground ginger, 2 T o.j., and stir well. Bring just to a simmer when all the sauce is melted. Adjust salt and add a hint of ground white pepper. Pour into a bowl and cool slightly for serving; serve warm. Can be made 1 day a head. Store covered in the fridge. Re-warm on the stove or nuke at lower power.

For the mustard-based sauce: Mince one very small, peeled onion (or a piece of a larger one). Heat a medium saute pan over med-high heat and melt 2 T unsalted butter. Add the minced onion and saute, stirring occasionally, till the onion is translucent, about 4 min. Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking, stirring occasionally at first, more frequently as the onion browns, till the onion is golden brown throughout, about 10-15 min more. Add 3/4 of a can of stock all at once and deglaze, scraping the bottom of the pan with your spoon. Bring to boil then allow to reduce by half. Add 1/3 c Dijon mustard, 1 heaping T whole berry cran sauce plus 2 heaping T clear cran sauce, and 1 t dry thyme. Reduct the heat to medium and allow the cran sauces to melt, stirring frequently. Add 3 T o.j., 2 or 3 t honey and stir well. Add salt to taste plus a little ground black pepper. Adjust thickness by reducing a little more if you'd like it thicker, or adding stock and/or o.j. if you'd like it thinner.


* For roasting the garlic. Use 4 if large, 5 if not. The only time I cut the top third off the garlic heads befre roasting--as frequently called for--is when I plan to serve the garlic heads whole. For any other use I roast them whole as there is less waste and no exposure of cut garlic to potentially get over caramelized and bitter.

So--simply peel or wipe off any lose garlic skins from the whole heads and leave them whole. Drizzle the center of a large sheet of foil with about 1 T evoo. If you have fresh sage leaves, top the oil with 2 or three of them (if not, top the oil with 1 t rubbed sage), then place the garlic heads on the sage-oil mix, points up, and drizzle with another 1 T evoo or so. Top with a sage leaf or another 1/2 t rubbed sage. Bring the sides of the foil up and seal tightly around the garlic. Roast in a 350 oven till the garlic is completely soft (check at the 40 min mark; could go as long as a hour depending on the variety and size of the garlic heads and when they were picked).
 
John--

For some reason I decided to review the above and in doing so noticed an error which I've now corrected. The amount for the stock for the clear sauce was incorrect. It should be (and now is) 1.5 c or the rest of the can if you opened a can for this.
 
Well, Kevin I followed the instructions you gave me and the sauces came out terrific!

Here's a picture.

Presentation could have been better, but the flavor was great! I owe you one, Kevin. Thanks!
 
They look great and so do the sausages. I'm glad the sauces worked well. Did you make the sausages as written above? Any changes? Any suggested changes or just right as written?
 
I didn't use the phosphate.
I used the Craisins instead of the red currant jelly (as my bad editing gave clue to
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)
I used the Dextrose
and I didn't use rusk or anything to substitute for rusk. Just left it out.

Everyone liked them. I was expecting a little more cranberry flavor. It didn't come through. Although the cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg did.
 
Great. Good to know. You did like I would have. I might use some cranberry juice in place of some of the water (did you?) like I mentioned upthread because I'd suspect I'd want a little more cranberry flavor as you did. I might reduce it first as well.

I'll definitely be giving this recipe a shot when next I'm home. I'll post results. In Arkansas now but it will be Vegas for New Year's. Should be fun.
 
Didn't think to use cranberry juice. Next time I just might, and add a bit more cranberries. The cinnamon, clove, nutmeg was just right for my tastes. The cranberry was just missing.

Have a good one in Vegas!
 

 

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