The return of the Sausage Jockey

To my army of four loyal followers: I’m sorry for letting you down with my radio silence over the last few months! Thanks for sticking with me through the long, hot, lonely summer – I promise your steadfastness will be rewarded with a load of pig-related bullshit and gratuitous ‘pork-porn’ photos over the coming season....THE SAUSAGE JOCKEY IS BACK!

My excuse: Back in May, as a relative newbie to this charcuterie lark, I had been busy scheming and dreaming about upcoming projects and a pork-filled summer, only to be faced with the cold, hard (or more accurately warm, soft) reality that the ambient temperature had crept too high for my primitive outdoor air-drying method to remain safe, and I must down-tools for the ‘warmer’ months.

So it turns out the worst thing about that shitty, cold, wet summer we’ve just had is that it wasn’t nearly shitty, cold or wet enough to air-dry sausage on my balcony!

But anyway, chilly autumn is upon us and it’s time to grasp the sausage.

My latest plan comes straight out of Yorkshire: to avoid having to buy loved ones costly Christmas presents by giving them, instead, an interesting array of festive home-made charcuterie.

After much thought I’ve hit on an experimental seasonal sausage selection of:

·         Mulled wine-spiced saucisson

·         Goose salami

·         Venison chorizo

“Why are you talking about Christmas in October?” I hear you cry. Well, I want to get some test batches in before I unleash on ‘the public’. On Monday I kicked things off with the mulled wine saucisson.

The basis of my recipe was April’s wildly successful saucisson sec, but minus the prominent garlic. The starting point was 1.5kg of finest organic pork shoulder from Hennessey's butcher on Northcote Road. For the mulled wine effect I added a liberal dusting of allspice, cinnamon, clove, ginger and nutmeg, as well as a teaspoonful of orange zest and a good glug of a jammy, full-bodied red wine (Australian Shiraz, since you didn’t ask...).

Sausage-making was challenging, to be honest, as I was unable to recruit a helper (thanks Rach!) so had to dextrously grind and curl simultaneously (apologies if I’m making anyone horny). But ultimately I got the job done and I now have eight little friends relaxing in the laund-o-meat. T-minus 2 weeks till tasting time....watch this space for the verdict...



That's an attractive piece of meat. The sausage looks good too.