Naem moo - Thai Fermented Sausage

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Butterbean
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Naem moo - Thai Fermented Sausage

Post by Butterbean » Fri Nov 16, 2018 17:53

I ran across this sausage several years ago and found it uniquely delicious with a very interesting flavor and texture but had a hard time finding a recipe written in English till recently a member was kind enough to post a link on the after I mentioned it in a post.

I recently broke down a pig and had plenty of pork skin and the weather was still warm so the banana trees were still green and the garden still had plenty of chilies so I figured it I'd make some naem moo while I could. Am glad I did because this turned out better than what I had tasted before.

Apart from cleaning skins, the sausage is very simple to make. Here is the recipe I used. If you like garlic this is a winner, if not, you might want to back the garlic back some.

● 1kg pork meat (lean), minced
● 350gr pork skin
● 25 cloves garlic
● 2 1/2 tablespoons sea salt (I also added the appropriate amount of Cure 1 just in case the sea salt I had didn't have ample nitrates in it - better safe than sorry. I simply backed the sea salt off to compensate for the addition of cure 1)
● 1/2 tablespoon sugar
● 1 teaspoon monosodium glutamate
● 1 cup cooked sticky rice (glutinous rice)
● 40 bird`s eye chilies

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Procedure:

Clean skins of any and all fat. Once cleaned, place skins in boiling water for about 35-45 minutes till the skins are translucent and just will tear when poked with your finger.

Once boiled, chill them and clean off any remaining fat the chill again and/or freeze then slice the skins thinly into strings.

Once sliced, take lean pork and slice off any fat it may have then grind with a course plate.

Combine all ingredients except for chilies and mix well till tacky.

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Once mixed, roll into sausage shaped meat balls and place whole chilies on top of mince and either roll in banana leaves and tie. (If you don't have banana leaves you can use plastic wrap)




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Once wrapped, leave sausages out at room temperature for 3-5 days


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Finished sausage - 3 days later. Obviously had a strong fermentation as the sausages are tart. This would definitely be a garlic sausage but I don't know if on the next batch I might add some cayenne pepper to the mix as I think a little extra heat would be a bad thing. Or maybe use a hotter chili pepper. Nonetheless, it is very good as is.

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Something a little different.
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Post by redzed » Sat Nov 17, 2018 04:19

Looks fantastic BB! And although you say it's easy to make, it appears a bit labour intensive. And 25 cloves of garlic! :shock: :lol: But sure would like a bite of that!
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Post by Butterbean » Sat Nov 17, 2018 19:19

Processing the skin was intensive but other than that it was pretty simple. It does have a lot of garlic in it. Much more than what I've eaten before but I gave some to some people today and most told me not to back down on the garlic when I make it again. The one who didn't agree just looked at the sausage and refused to taste it saying it looked too strange to be safe to eat. It is garlicky though. :mrgreen:


Made some sushi today and used this as a filler. Best sushi I've had in years albeit I have eaten sushi in years either. :lol:
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Re: Naem moo - Thai Fermented Sausage

Post by Albertaed » Wed Jan 20, 2021 00:49

Interesting! Did you ever try it with cayenne?
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Re: Naem moo - Thai Fermented Sausage

Post by Scogar » Wed Jan 20, 2021 01:55

I love me some Thai food, but that should be packing some heat with 40 birds eye chilis - surprised it wasn't. I have a SuperHMart (Korean grocer) and Buford Farmer's Market (lots of various ethnicities) so green banana leaves are cinch...it's the pork skin I'll have some trouble sourcing.
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Re: Naem moo - Thai Fermented Sausage

Post by Butterbean » Wed Jan 20, 2021 15:13

Scogar, check the pork picnics at the grocer. Often they have skin-on picnics or butts. You don't need much skin to make this so a picnic would be more than enough. It does have some heat but not bad since you only place about two chilis per sausage. I think this whole process is interesting and the flavor is great but I'm really intrigued by the texture and have considered using skins in other things just to play around with.

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Re: Naem moo - Thai Fermented Sausage

Post by Scogar » Wed Jan 20, 2021 15:40

Butterbean I used skins in my liverwurst last year. I didn't boil them that long, just to soften a bit or grinding and of course they didn't grind enough so I have a poor texture. So ultimately I went about it the wrong way...I should have known this as I do use skin (mostly from the occasional pastured pork purchase) for collagen in broths or in pork pies where things are cooked for a long time. Next time I'll follow your directions on translucency because I do like the silkiness skin provides. I see this skin in the Naem moo as acting like a binder similar to straw in concrete since the directions lead me to believe you have thin julienned pieces, but boiled sufficiently to be soft.

So I'm very interested in this and agree that two peppers per piece is easily doable. As an aside I just grew wild tepin chiles this year and harvested a great deal. All of the green ones I pickled and have about a pint jar. Eating them out of the jar is near impossible and can really only be done one or two at a time with a bit of cream cheese. However, I found that adding 15 to 25 in a burrito changes the whole heat level. The pop of the pepper and the local heat it provides is both texturally and tastewise delicious and a short enough heat duration that one can handle many in a burrito but very few alone. I know birdseye chiles are similar as I always make a container of prik nam pla for my homemade (or takeout) Thai food.
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Re: Naem moo - Thai Fermented Sausage

Post by Butterbean » Wed Jan 20, 2021 16:15

I like heat too and dabble with peppers and pepper sauces. In this, the peppers are simply laid on top of the mince so you have the choice of whether to eat them alone or with the sausage but they do add a bit of heat to the sausage if removed but not much. I really like the flavor profile and the texture of these things and imagine you would like them as well. I can purchase them locally at a Korean market but they sell for about $3.00 each. This is where I first came across them but had a devil of a time trying to find the recipe till someone on the board shared an English version with me. That was a happy day for sure. :D
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Re: Naem moo - Thai Fermented Sausage

Post by woklikeaman » Wed Jan 20, 2021 19:18

I also love many things that are 'rice cured.' The same technique can be used for many things, pork ribs or just 1/2in thick slices of lean pork that are-those are both generally deep fried after fermentation- fish, greens, you name it! There is also a method of using powdered dry rice as a sugar source for lactic fermentation. I have some fermented eggplant, mushrooms, nettles at the restaurant that I think turned out great. Thanks for introducing the recipe here!
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