The Sausage King of Chicago?
Uh yeah, that’s me.

(sausage l to r): Bratwurst, Thai Duck (x2), Tandoori Chicken, Goat Merguez

Maybe it’s because I associate Chicago with meat, so whenever someone says sausage, I get giggly and think of Abe Froman, the fictional sausage king in the movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.   The title character tells the maitre’d of a fancy restaurant that he is Abe Froman, in order to sneak his way to a table reserved by Chicago’s sausage king.  Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 80′s that I find this funny, but ask the kids today, and they’ll tell you the real sausage king in town is Hot Doug’s.

Hot Doug’s looks like any other hot dog place, situated on a random north side corner of Chicago.  But take a closer look at the menu of at least 20 sausage items and you realize it is as advertised, ‘The Encased Meats Emporium and Sausage Superstore.’  Anything from the traditional Chicago red hot to venison and cherry to truffle duck sausage is available here.  Then there’s the fries cooked in duck fat…but that’s another story.  Having been to Hot Doug’s and tried a few of their encased meats, the bar has been set pretty high for my foray into sausage making.

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My first sausage was a Thai Duck sausage.   I used the same spices for a meatball and loved how fragrant it was while cooking and it tasted great.  But it was a little dry.  I used ground goat for the meatball, so this time I thought I’d use a richer meat, duck.

Thai Duck Sausage

Notes on Sausage Stuffing 101:

Duck Breast and Pork Fat Pieces

1.  To insure that it wouldn’t be dry, I used duck breast + pork fat.  I used a pound of duck breast I got from the farmer’s market and included the skin.

2.  The spices I used for this duck sausage are almost identical to those used for Thai Red Curry, except that I used my homemade Sriracha instead of dried chili peppers.

3.  Next time I make this (and there will be a next time), I will probably use duck legs and thighs for the meat, sans the skin and if I have red curry readily available, I’ll use a tablespoon or two per pound of that, rather than blend all the spices by hand.  I felt fresh Thai basil was key to this sausage, since it provided the fragrance for this sausage as it cooked.

4.  I used sheep casings for this sausage and found it difficult to work with.  It kept tearing and it  only fit the breakfast sausage size stuffer.

5.  The first few inches of the sausage looked perfect and when cooked, maintained it’s ground meat consistency but then became mushy in texture.  I wasn’t sure whether the mushy texture was due to the rice I used or that I needed to keep the ground meat as cold as possible.  The stuffer seemed to go rather slowly, so it was difficult to keep the duck cold.  In later sausage tries, I figured out to place the ground meat in the freezer for about 45 minutes before stuffing, so it would be almost frozen when it gets stuffed.

6.  I served these as a wrap, just to keep things light.  Bibb lettuce, pickled asparagus and carrots and a sriracha mayo (sriracha, mayo, lime, condensed milk)

Thai duck sausage wraps

Goat Merguez w/Manchego

Goat Merguez with Manchego

I had such merguez envy over the last Charcutepalooza challenge, that I had to try my own.  I’ve never had merguez or harissa and thought this could be a good opportunity to try it.  I prefer goat to lamb, and as luck would have it, the Jimenez Farms at the market had fresh goat shoulder.  From past eating and cooking experience, this meat has little to no fat, so I was also able to get some pork back fat from them for this sausage.

I wasn’t sure how to tell a ‘good’ harissa from a not so good one, so I tried to make my own using garlic, cumin, coriander and roasted red bell pepper and red jalapeno pepper.  I didn’t want the harissa to be too spicy, so I removed most of the seeds from the jalapenos.  I also threw in some mint.  The peppers added a smokiness to the sauce, and the mint seemed to lighten it up.  Then I added some tomato paste for a bit of tartness and to get a more paste-like texture.

The merguez was beginning to seem similar to my Thai duck sausage (a chili paste base), so I wanted to change it up a little.  I remembered this food map I saw Alinea (and Next) chef, Grant Achatz use to create dishes:

Grant Achatz’ Flavor Bouncing

which is how I came to include a little manchego and malbec to my merguez.  And now, don’t you love how I just did a full circle from Ferris Bueller, the sausage king and Chez Quis (the fancy restaurant) to Hot Doug’s, Chef Grant Achatz and the best restaurant in North America, Alinea?

chorizo and goat merguez with radicchio and tahini dressing

The merguez turned out to be the most flavorful of the bunch.  I served it with wild arugula–the bitterness of the arugula tamed some of the spiciness of the merguez.  Surprisingly it was also my 8-year old’s favorite–he kept asking for more (as he drinks cup after cup of milk).

Tandoori Chicken Sausage

Tandoori Chicken Sausage

Since I had planned a BBQ for those friends who were willing to be my taste testers, I wanted to make a sausage that my non-pork eating friends could enjoy.   And since we’ve traveled from Thailand to Tunisia with the duck and the merguez, I decided to round out my spice usage by using South Asian spices with chicken.  My logic told me to try a tandoori spice mix since tandoori chicken is usually roasted in a hot clay oven.  BBQ = Hot Clay Oven. logic.  Or else I was craving some tikka masala.

At this point, I’ve learned that I need to keep the ground meat as cold as possible while stuffing, but still hadn’t reconciled the slow stuffer mush issue.  Then I got to talking to my friendly neighborhood butcher, Juan, who works at the local market where they sold casings and he told me he used a metal hand stuffer.  Of course…so simple and obvious.  Why don’t I just use this $10 old school funnel looking thing?  Well, I tried it and it isn’t as easy as it looks.  Must be some technique I don’t know about.  So it was back to the KitchenAid stuffer.  But it went a lot faster this time–I had the ground meat in the freezer for almost an hour and worked in small batches.

By now, a sausage princess in training; I finally realized that the linking doesn’t happen until after the sausage has been fully stuffed.  Pack it in and then twist to create links of your size preference.  And don’t think the all the phallic symbolism of working with a sausage stuffer hasn’t been lost on me.   And the scary part of all of this, is that I’ve discussed AND propositioned at least two guys to make sausage with me!   Just so you don’t think I ho for sausage, they were both charcuterie experts.  Not sure my point was made here…

I served the chicken tandoori sausage with radicchio leaves and a raita of yogurt, mint and cucumber.  These sausages looked great, but once grilled just didn’t have the texture I expect from a sausage.  Probably why I don’t eat chicken sausage–lesson learned.  For me, sausage just isn’t sausage without pork fat.

Bratwurst that would make Abe Froman proud

Chicago Style Bratwurst

Finally, what’s a story about Chicago’s Sausage King without Chicago’s sausage–the Bratwurst.  With all my sausage stuffing globe trotting, I had wandered away from the sausage that is synonymous with summer in Chicago.  Soaked in beer before grilling, the brat is a larger than life hotdog served with mustard and sauerkraut.  I had no clue what brats were made of, so I started with Ruhlman’s ‘Chartcuterie’.  His recipe called for eggs and cream.  I knew brats were rich, but I always figured it was from emulsified pork fat (here’s where you want that stuffer to mush everything together).

I don’t know if the eggs and cream are a Euro bratwurst, but that may explain why the last bratwurst I ever had was in a restaurant on the German/Swiss border.  Rare that I’ll ever admit that something was too rich for me, but this would be one of those times.  I decided to forgo the dairy with my meat and study the German spice mix at The Spice House, my go to spice store.  They are a Chicago institution and have managed to provide a variety of spice blends for as many ethnic flavors as there are neighborhoods in Chicago.

And I do believe I’ve come very close with this recipe. Texture was perfectly emulsified and firm when cooked.  And oh, my last tip for sausage is to poke the air bubbles out of a sausage link so they don’t blow up in your face while on the grill.  I served mine with the requisite mustard and pickled vegetables (not a sauerkraut fan, though).

Bratwurst, Chicago style with mustard