Sausage Madness II

Phase 3, Week 5, Day 23

Ok, sorry for the crude post yesterday. In all seriousness, Sausage making and the preserving of meats is actually an art form called Charcuterie. Derived from Char meaning flesh and cuit meaning cooked, charcuterie is the process of salting, smoking, or curing meat. The ancient Romans actually regulated the trade of charcuterie and in 15th century France local guilds regulated tradesmen in the food production industry. The guilds that produced charcuterie were those of the charcutiers. The members of this guild produced a traditional range of cooked or salted and dried meats, which varied, sometimes distinctively, from region to region. The only "raw" meat the charcutiers were allowed to sell was unrendered lard. The charcutier prepared numerous items including pâtés, rillettes, sausages, bacon, trotters, and head cheese (brawn).


Charcuterie is a dying art form, in culinary circles you will still find die hard individuals who prefer to make their own sausage and dry their own meats. But these people are few and far between. Chef Bruce is one of these individuals, he had a great passion for explaining the heritage and methods of this art.


For production today we made:


Plate 1: Over easy egg, with hash browns, and sausage patties
Plate 2: Sausage links, Polenta, and Tomato Sauce.


Again today, no issues. It all fell into place and I finished the dishes very quickly. The longest part really being the fact we had to make the tomato sauce from scratch. I did have to remake my baby hash browns because I got distracted dorking with Jarod's egg and I burnt them. Oops!


Results:
Plate 1: Upside- "Aw, look at the cute little presentation you made." Downside- totally over salted the the hash browns. Dang it! 92%


Plate 2: Chef Tim said "I have no negative criticism of your dish." 92%. I would have thought with no negative criticism the score would have been higher. Go figure.....

A "little" breakfast

Sausage and polenta w/ sauteed peppers and onions