My friend Phil is a sausage-virgin who's never handled intestine, and the whole process seemed a bit mysterious to him. So last night he came over to see how it's done, bringing along many beers as well as his nice camera to document the process.
We decided to make merguez, which is the spicy lamb and/or beef sausage of North African cuisine, where it's usually served with couscous. According to Wikipedia, the word "merguez" might have developed from the Berber word "amergaz," meaning "sausage," which is interesting because it suggests that once they invented this baby, they thought they had reached perfection and named it after the contraption itself.
As we all know, however, there is no such thing as a perfect sausage, even if the quest for it is what animates us to keep loading up the KitchenAid. But a well-made and properly spiced Merguez is still a singular pleasure, and should be in every sausage-maker's repertoire.
In order to make it truly our own, we avoided buying pre-mixed spices such as harissa, and instead went to town on the spice cabinet. Here's what we put in there:
- – 1 kg mixed lamb and beef
- – ground coriander
- – cayenne pepper
- – ground ginger
- – nutmeg
- – cinnamon
- – cloves
- – cumin
- – ground and smoked red pepper
- – fresh cilantro, chopped
- – salt and pepper
- – AND, just because it was right there, next to the mix, some apricot beer
The result were delicious, with Phil proclaiming that it was his ideal merguez. We couldn't really taste the beer, but the different spices were all prominent and nicely balanced. We ate them with couscous flavored with onions, carrots, tomatoes, parsly, cilantro, and lemon balm.
Below are some pictures, complete with close-ups of important steps.
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| Intestine. It's cheap. |
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| Meat and spices. |
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| Adding the beer. |
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| Action shot. |
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| It looks more ominous than it is. |
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| Finding the opening of the intestine. This is not the same as the asshole. |
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| Loading the intestine. |
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| 3 meters of it, all in one hand. |
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| Fun! |
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| Ready to stuff. |
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| The first little sausage. The knot should be tied after filling some intestine, in order to avoid too much air in there. |
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| Stuffing. |
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| In deep. |
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| Always make a lot. |
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| After stuffing it's time to twist, and then cut. |
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| Fry at medium heat. |
