Which Recipe is Better? (Small Batch Comparison Method)

[el Ducko]

How often has this happened to you? Spouse comes in and says, "How about making some of our favorite sausages for dinner next week, when the So-and-so`s come for dinner? You know- - that really good one?"

That`s right- - beats heck outa me which one she wants. It`s been this way for forty five years, now. But wait! Help is on the way. Here`s a way to compare your sausage efforts, two-by-two, to get a more-or-less objective opinion out of "she who must be obeyed," and do it without overflowing the freezer. (Well, not TOO badly.)

I call it "The Great Sausage Showdown." Make two kinds of sausage at a time, but make them in small 1/2 kilo amounts. That`s about the smallest batch size that you can make and still measure the spice weights accurately. It`s also about the smallest size you can load into a stuffer (twice) and get a small but decent number of links- - five to six per sausage type with our usual 32mm hog casing. Taste `em, then decide. (Ties are permitted.)

Use what meat is left over for whatever you make when stuff doesn`t come out even. For example, I size my batches so that there`s always a slight excess of ground pork butt when I make sausages. I keep a chorizo pre-mix spice ready, which I make in larger portions so that I can accurately weight out whatever small amount is needed and still have an accurate mix of spices.

• Here, I should mention in a side bar that there`s nothing more frustrating than sizing a small batch, only to find that you need a tenth of a gram of cloves or allspice or cumin and your scale will only begin to register at three tenths of a gram, plus or minus a tenth. Whatever batch size you`re contemplating making, you need ten times that amount to be accurate, so for repetitive batches of the same recipe, make up a larger spice quantity. ...which I do for my favorite chorizo fresh sausage recipe.

This time, I wanted to compare Krainerwurst with the recently-mentioned Debrezinerwurst. They are similar recipes, although one adds beef and the other does not, one adds paprika and the other does not, one uses bacon for the extra fat (which I used trimmings instead, rather than adjust the salt downward), one adds dried milk powder... Whatever. I like both sausages. ...but which tastes better?

Here`s a picture of the results, ground and mixed, rested overnight, then stuffed. Note the labels. It`s often hard to visually tell the difference between two blends.

After another rest overnight, they were smoked in my Masterbuilt at about 120 degF with smoke from my Amazin` smoke generator. I got called away on garage sale duty for three hours. Both recipes are supposed to be "lightly smoked," but turned out fine. They then were gradually heated, followed by finishing to 148 degF IMT in a 170 degree oven.

Here they are after their ice bath. Note that the heat-proof labels were formed by writing on aluminum foil with a ball point pen. The ink doesn`t stay, but you can easily read the indentation in the foil.

The leftover pork mince went into my favorite fresh chorizo recipe. I divided the resulting sausage material into 4-ounce portions, rolled each in a "snack-size" plastic bag, then vacuum packaged tow at a time and froze them. For breakfast, I break out a snack-size bag, cut it in half, and fry up 2 ounces, then scramble it with two eggs. With or without salsa and tortillas, it`s great.

So, how did the Debreziner versus Krainer contest turn out?

Not so fast! You need a historical comparison first. The way I see it, the history and traditions surrounding a sausage type are just as important as the taste. (...although Beloved Spouse may not see it that way. Discretion is advised.)

Here ya go, complements of our good friends the Wikipedians again.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debrecener
  A debrecener (Hungarian: debreceni kolbász, German: debreziner Wurst) is a pork sausage of uniform fine texture and reddish-orange colour, named after the Hungarian city of Debrecen. The sausages are heavily spiced with paprika and other seasonings like garlic, pepper and marjoram. They are usually unsmoked or lightly smoked, and sold in pairs joined at one end. Traditional cooking technique calls for the Debreceni to be transversely slashed at intervals and baked, broiled, or fried. The sausage tends to curl away from the slashes, creating a linked series of sausage coins.
  -----------------------------------------
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kranjska_klobasa
  Kranjska klobasa (Australian English: Kransky, German: Krainer Wurst, Italian dialect of Trieste: luganighe de Cragno) is a Slovenian sausage most similar to what is known as kielbasa or Polish sausage in North America.
  The noun klobasa refers to a small sausage generally served whole (in contrast to salama) in Slovene. The adjective kranjska derives from the region of Carniola (Kranjska in Slovenian, Krain in German), which used to be a province in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The earliest mention of the kranjska klobasa in German is found in Katarina Prato's renowned cookbook Süddeutsche Küche (South German Cooking, 1896, first edition 1858). The Slovenian term kranjska klobasa was first mentioned in the sixth edition of Slovenska kuharica (Slovene Cookbook) by Felicita Kalinšek in 1912.
  
  Kranjska klobasa contains at least 75-80% pork (aside from bacon), and at most 20% bacon. It may contain as much as 5% water, sea salt from Sečovlje salt pans, little garlic, saltpeter and black pepper. No other ingredients are permitted. The meat must be cut in small pieces 10 to 13 mm and bacon 8 to 10 mm. The filling is stuffed into pork intestine with a diameter of 32 to 36 mm. They are formed in pairs of 12 to 16 cm lengths and a weight of 180 to 220 grams. Pairs are linked together with a wooden skewer. The sausages are hot smoked and heat-cured at about 70 °C (158 °F)

Okay, okay. As to the taste test, it was a virtual tie. The Debrezinerwurst was slightly smoother and had a slightly sour taste, which must be due to the dried milk and the paprika. Both had about the same amount of pepper and garlic. By using pork trimmings instead of bacon, I kept the salt content under control at 1.6% or so. The amount of smoke from "generic blend" pellets was just right.

Beloved Spouse pronounced them both good. That was the most important part. I labeled both "Excellent" in my log, and will definitely make both again.

Now for that next showdown...

[Tasso]

Those look great, el Ducko. I did something like that with my first batch of sausage. It was Italian sausage, and I made half the batch sweet and half hot, about 2.5 pounds each. The only real differentiating factor in my sausage, however, was the cayenne and red pepper flakes in the hot version. It wasn't a comparison of two similar but unique sausages like you did.

[Chuckwagon]

Now for that next showdown...

Uhhhhh... Chuckwurst vs. Duckwurst ?

[ssorllih]

I have a friend who very allergic to hot peppers. Hospitalization type allergic. She is very fond of some of my sausage when I make it with no hot chili in it. But that sausage is a poor cousin to the complete recipe. The result is when I am expecting her and her family I make sausage special for the occasion.

[sambal badjak]

I did the same as Tasso when I made my italian sausage, except instead of cayenne I used dried madam janettes (surinam yellow chili's, somewhat similar to the scots bonnet).
Then I went one further and smoked half of the batch (obviously that had nitrites in the mix, the fresh sausage didn't)

[redzed]

Now for that next showdown...

Uhhhhh... Chuckwurst vs. Duckwurst ?

Yes! A real battle for the best of the wurst!