The gypsy sausage question intrigued me so I did lot of research on the subject. Several members of the Polish forum also did a bit of digging. It turns out that what is called "gypsy sausage" differs considerably from each commercial producer in Europe and in North America. I suspect that the sausage Darwin feasted on might have been a style of Csabai. The nearly black casing seems to be the variant that makes it a "gypsy sausage". I am still working on finding out how to achieve that black finish on the casing. It is unlikely that it's from using conifers in smoking (such as in traditional black forest ham), since any significant amount of smoke from that type wood produces a bitter flavour. My 90 year old father who was a butcher and still makes sausage (last week I helped him make 120lbs of sausage), unfortunately was not familiar with that process. Maxell posted that it is usually achieved by painting the casings between smoking sessions with blood or a specific mixture. I would bet that it is the latter, and I will find that out soon. The black forest ham you see at the supermarket is probably made with using such a colourant since commercial products are usually smoked very lightly so that they lose as little weight as possible.
I found this picture of a product described as "
Kiełbasa cygańska (keeyehw-BAH-sah tsih-GAIHN-skah) or gypsy sausage is a dark, deeply smoked sausage made with seasoned pork, salt, pepper and garlic that is best eaten at room temperature as an appetizer.
Below are four recipes for gypsy sausage, none of which duplicate Darwin's sample, but nevertheless sound interesting and something I will try in the future.
Gypsy Sausage #1
Gypsy Sausage No 1.
This sausage,
Zigeuner Brühdauerwurst was submitted by Polish forum member Jagra and came from a German sausage forum and from the website operated by the large sausage making supply firm Wiberg. I translated it frm German with the help of Google. Unfortunately the preparatory instructions are brief since they were aimed at commercial producers. Smoking temps are also on the high side.
Recipe for 1 kg
250g Class 2 beef
400g Class 4 pork
300g Class 3 pork
50g ice water
20 g Nitritpökelsalz (use 2g Cure #1, and 18g salt)
2g mincing seasonings (This is a commercial product but can be replaced with ground mustard seeds)
2.5g black pepper
1g nutmeg
0.7g coriander
2g mustard
0.5g caraway
1 clove of garlic
5.0g sweet paprika
3-5g chili powder
Grind pork and beef through a 6mm plate. Add water, salt, cure and spices. Stuff into casings (size not specified) Dry in smokehouse at 60-65C (140-149F). Smoke at 65-70C (149-158F), finishing at 78C (172F)until IT reaches 70-72C (158-161F). Cool at 13-15C (55-59F) and 75-80 relative humidity.
The finished sausage will look like this:
Gypsy Sausage #2
This sausage called in Slovak Čabajská klobása (Csabai kolbász) was suggested by Pacan Wojciech, Polish forum member. He translated the recipe from Slovak to Polish and I then translated it to English. Wojciech worked in Slovakia at one time and there this Csabai was commonly known as a Gypsy Sausage. The sausage was made from large, heavy pigs, weighing over 150kg.
Recipe for 1kg
700g pork shoulder
300g oversized pork belly
18g salt
2g Cure 1
20g ground sweet paprika
5g ground hot paprika
4g crushed garlic
3g grams of whole cumin
Grind the meat and bacon through a medium plate (10mm) The paprika is to be of the lighter colour variety. Neither pepper or all spice are added. All the ingredients are mixed and stuffed into thinner hog casings. Allow the sausage to set/dry until the next day. Smoke for 8hours with a fruit wood such as sour cherry, peach, apricot, but the best is wood from and old hollow willow. The sausage improves after 4-5 days in the fridge or even freezer.
Gypsy Sausage #3
This recipe submitted by Gregtom, also from the Polish WD forum who translated it from German to Polish and I translated it into English. It probably is not what Darwin is looking for, but I thought it was interesting, especially since it is marketed in Germany by a producer named Klaus. It's an emulsified high fat content product but has a nice spice combo, so it should be tasty. Note that the sausage is poached only and not smoked. However, I see no reason why it can't be cold smoked for a few hours after cooling.
300g Class 1 pork (lean without sinew)
200g Side pork/belly
500g Side pork/belly (cube this portion into 1.5cm pieces and add to the emulsified meat)
20g Salt
2g Cure #1
2g Brown sugar
4g Sweet paprika
2g Cayenne powder
2g Smoked paprika
1g Coriander
1g nutmeg
1g Granulated garlic (or fresh according to taste)
1g Celery salt (celery flavor)
2g Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
4g Mincing spice mixture (This is a commercial product but can be replaced with ground mustard)
250g crushed ice
Cure the cubed bacon with the salt and cure # 1 with a small addition of the granulated garlic overnight. Grind the rest of the meat and spices through the smallest plate twice. Add crushed ice and blend/emulsify and cool in the fridge. After it has cooled down, mix vigorously with the cubed bacon. Stuff firmly into artificial 50 - 75mm casings. Poach at 80C (176F), for one minute for each millimeter of the diameter of the casing, plus 10 minutes (for safety purposes). After poaching cool the chubs immediately in ice water and hang them to dry.
This sausage made by Klaus looks like this:
Gypsy Sausage #4
This is the
Salami cygańskie (Gypsy Salami) that El Ducko posted above. I just tweaked the google translation, changed the cure to NA standards and proportions for 1kg of meat. For us calling it a salami is a bit of a misnomer. From what is described in the recipe, the ingredients, the beef and the narrow gauge casings point to what we know as pepperoni. The sausage is dry cured or cold smoked, and to avoid failure a starter culture such as Bactoferm LHP should be used.
● 750g beef,
● 250g side pork/belly
● 18g salt
● 2g cure #1
● 8g ground pepper (white and black),
● 4g sugar,
● 3g ground paprika,
● 1 garlic clove,
● 34/36mm hog casings
Trim off fat and sinew in the beef. (makes this Class 1 meat) Grind the beef and pork finely with a 4mm plate. Add spices, sugar and finely chopped garlic. Then mix everything very well. Stuff into thin pork casings, tying off individual sausages of 50cm (20 inches).
Roll the saugage on the cutting board. Hang finished sausage in a cool place to mature or cold smoke for about 6 days. Gypsy Salami tastes great in sandwiches, or heated.
Below is a picture of the Gypsy Salami produced in Poland by the firm Haga: