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Lamb Sausage
A Lamb for all Seasons
Last summer I wrote about Locust Grove Farm and their raw sheep’s milk cheeses. That visit was the beginning of a longer association when the cheesemaker, Tim Clark, asked me to make some lamb sausage for him.
I did a lot of research looking for a recipe, but didn’t find what I had in mind. Most of the recipes were Middle-Eastern/Arabic and I found a handful of Scots and Irish recipes. But what I was thinking about was something Mediteraean involving garlic and herbs. So I set out to create my own recipe.
The sausage definitely evokes the taste of Spain, Provence, Italy, and Greece.
I made the first batch from some lamb Clark happened to have in his freezer. I ended up with two pounds of sausage that came close to what I wanted, but was still a tad off. I took notes and planned my next effort. Just before Thanksgiving Tim gave me another batch of lamb and I finally got around to making batch two the week before Christmas. It was much better, and this time I packed it into sausage casings. It definitely evokes the taste of Spain, Provence, Italy, and Greece but without being recognizably any single one of those cuisines.
Clark and his partner each got a third of the batch, and I kept the last third. I used some of the sausage to make cassoulet for Christmas dinner and I’ve got two links left that I’m thinking would be good in a pot of potato chowder.
Lamb Sausage
Makes 3 pounds.2.5 lb lamb
.5 lb pork fat
4 tbsp minced fresh rosemary
2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tbsp dried thyme
25 grams fresh garlic — minced
10 grams juniper berries — cracked and chopped
1 tsp Spanish hot paprika
2 tsp kosher salt
1 c red wine — reduced to 1/2 cCut lamb and pork fat into 1″ chunks. Toss with all remaining ingredients except wine and refrigerate for 12 hours. Spread on a tray and freeze for 1 hour until meat is partially, but not completely, frozen. Chill meat grinder and bowl for 1 hour in fridge.
Grind using a 1/8th inch die. Add reduced wine, and stir to mix. Stuff into medium pork casings.
Sausage is really easy to make, especially if you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Get the grinding and stuffing attachments.
Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | lamb sausage | sausage | lamb | charcuterie
8 Responses to “Lamb Sausage”
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Disclaimer: Most quantities in recipes are approximate. Adjust as needed according to your taste and experience. Unless otherwise specified, eggs are large and butter is unsalted.
mmMmMmMm. What do you think of adding some citrus zest, eh? To sausage? I had horrible luck with my Kitchen Aid’s attachments, it’s my nature. I gave up about 5 years ago on it and now there’s a vacant spot on the shelf where it once laid. Any idears for something else?Biggles
Rev,Lemon zest is a good idea.They still sell manual grinders and sausage pumps.
The first thing I notice about these oustanding looking sausages is that they seem to be packed in hog casings rather than sheep casings, which to me is a good thing. Sheep casings are the size of breakfast links, which has always put me off lamb sausage in the past.I got out my copy of Rytek Kutas’ “Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing,” figuring I would be able to point you to several worthy lamb sausage recipes. Do you know that although this definitive book contians hundreds of pork and beef sausage recipes, recipes for smoking turkey, making venison jerky and pickling herring, there is not a single recipe for lamb? I am disappointed…However, there is a recipe for a Polish sausage with lemon rind, so I’d say you are headed in the right direction. Sage, rosemary, garlic, onion, fennel seed, juniper berry, lemon–they all make sense to me.
Ed,Good eye! Yes, I used hog casings for just the reason you mention.Most lamb sausage recipes are Arabic in origin — food I love — but not what I wanted in this case.
looks almost like boerewors !!
Anon,Oh sure. Make me do a google search.{g}
Kevin — interested to know: why does your recipe (and seemingly all recipes) for lamb sausage call for pork fat and not lamb fat? Is lamb fat too hard to come by? Or does it not have a good flavor for sausage making?
My brother & I made this sausage a couple of weeks ago & it came out great. We’re both pretty new at sausage making (as the question above no doubt makes obvious :) and so were excited to find that it’s so easy & can have such tasty results.
Dave,
Lamb fat has a potent and gamy flavor, pork fat tastes better.