Merguez, a la française

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redzed
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Merguez, a la française

Post by redzed » Sat Jun 18, 2016 19:45

Merguez, à la française

Originating in North Africa, merguez has become one of the most popular sausages in France for summer barbecues. It is heavily spiced and traditionally made with lamb or mutton, or beef. The French also add pork to their versions, as do others if there are no religious restrictions. I made a little more than 5kg of merguez sausage and relied on the recipe from The Professional Charcuterie Series, Vo. 1. The book is an English translation of a work prepared for professional charcuttiers in France and published by the Confederation Nationale des Charcuttiers-Traiteurs. So my merguez resembles the sausage sold in many shops across France. I used mutton, beef and pork (venison would also have worked well), and for the listed ingredient "mild chili powder" I ground up some Mexican ancho peppers. More than likely that differs from the mild chili used by the French. The mutton really came through even though it was only 25% of the meat block and the sausage is loaded with spices. It`s a sausage that probably not everyone will like and when I make it again I will lessen the amount of the mild chili powder and cumin and slightly bump up the heat. The sausage will be be tasted and tested at an upcoming gathering alongside German brats and Polish smoked kiełbasa, so we shall see how it holds up.
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For anyone interested in crafting merguez, also take a look at earlier recipes featured on our forum by el Ducko: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... ht=merguez and: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?p=18586#18586

Recipe for 1kg of meat

Beef, ground chuck with about 15% fat, 500g
Mutton trimmings, 20% fat, 250g
Pork trimmings, 20% fat

Salt, 18g
Black pepper, 2.5g
Hot chili powder, 4g
Mild chili powder, 25g (no, this is not a typo) :mrgreen:
Garlic, fresh, 6g
Cumin, ground, 5g
Anise seed, 5g
Sweet paprika, 2g
olive oil, 15ml

Cube meat and refrigerate so that it gets cold again. Weigh and prepare the salt and spices and blend together in ice cold water, using a blender or whisk in a bowl. Combine all the different meats together and grind once through a 4-6mm. plate. I used a 4.5mm. Mix the spices well with the meat, making precautions not to warm the mixture so not to break the fat, which would result in a dry tasting sausage. Stuff into 18-20mm sheep casings. Section into 12-15cm (5-6 inches) links. Smaller sausages 5cm (2 inches) can also be made and grilled on skewers.

Store the sausages in fridge, covered with plastic over night. Freeze anything that you will not be consuming in a day or two.

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Last edited by redzed on Sun Jun 19, 2016 07:56, edited 2 times in total.
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Butterbean
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Post by Butterbean » Sun Jun 19, 2016 03:33

That looks good. Merguez is one of my favorites. Never used mutton only lamb. Mutton is a bit strong for my tastes.
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