How To Stuff Sausage: Boudin Blanc

God forgive me for this video. It will either get passed around the Internet as a valuable guide to making sausage or used in 7th grade sex education classes. Even if I do rot in hell, it was a lot of fun to make. Very Satisfying.

Stuffing sausage is a little like crafting. It takes time, some specific knowledge, and is more fun to do with at least one other person. I made the traditional French sausage, Boudin Blanc, but added foie gras and black truffles. Tse, my blogging friend from Chez Tse, made two different types of Italian sausage: sundried tomato & basil, and traditional pork. All of our sausage turned out delicious.

We bought natural sheep casings, or intestines, from our butcher. He loves me because I make my own saucisse. I'm telling you, if you really want to know the quickest way to a man's heart, make him sausage. He also offered us his favorite recipes and a few kisses behind the meat counter. What a ham! Sheep casings are smaller than hog or cow. Make sure to buy the size that best suits the recipe or style of sausage.

If you stick to the basic measurements, experimenting with sausage and flavors can be a lot of fun. For 1 kilo of ground meat add 20 grams salt and 4 grams ground pepper. I used ground veal in my boudin blanc so I had to add some ground fat back or pure pork fat to my mixture so it would taste juicy and survive the cooking procedure. Tse did not add any fat to her ground pork shoulder.

I recommend letting the sausages refrigerate for at least 4 hours and overnight if possible, before cooking so that all the flavors blend. We poached our sausages in barely simmering cooking liquid before browning in olive oil. Fresh sausage tends to be delicate, and I find that poaching them first insures they won't explode over high heat. Make sure to prick them several times before poaching.

Happy sausage stuffing!

Technorati Tags: how to make sausage, how to stuff sausage

Boudin Blanc

Ingredients
500 g pork leg, shoulder, or loin (veal or chicken can be substituted)
100 pork fatback
15g potato starch
1/2 onion, finely diced cooked and cooled (not browned)
4 egg whites
80 ml whipping cream
200 ml milk cooked with an onion and the peel of 1 orange (for flavor)
bay leaf and thyme
pinch nutmeg
10g salt
2g white pepper
2 meter sausage casing
kitchen string
optional: 1 black truffle minced, 100g foie gras chopped

Cooking liquid:
500 ml milk
2 litres water
30 ml orange flower water

Instructions
1. Sweat onions with just a little butter over low heat (don't brown). Add a pinch of salt & sugar.
2. For aromatic milk simmer low (60˚C maximum) with orange peel, bay leaf, thyme, and sliced onion.
3. Mix ground meat with onions, pepper, salt, potato starch.
4. In a cuisinart or blender put meat mixture and blend in egg whites, milk, and then cream till just mixed. Don't turn cream into butter.
5. Start cooking liquid simmering. BUT NOT BOILING!!!
6. Load up your pastry bag with meat filing and pastry tip and scrunch casing over the tip then tie off the end of the casing. Gently squeeze. Make sure not to overfill so you can tie off links with cooking string. Once finished poke a few holes in casing with toothpick, especially if there's any air bubbles.
7. Poach in cooking liquid for 20 minutes. Put in ice bath to cool. Then fry up in some olive oil until golden brown.

Comments

[Pille]

That was hilarious. You're two naughty girls (sorry, sausage-makers!)

[OUI CHEF]

Hey Amy, votre recette de boudins et de saucisses à l'air très très bonne. En plus vous faites ça comme si vous faisiez ça tout les jours. c'est vraiment superbe.
Continues comme ça et tu viendras une grande chefs.

[Berry]

Interestingly, Thomas Keller does a "Boudin Blanc de Saint Pierre" at the French Laundry (Napa, California) that also has black truffles in it.

Sounds quite tasty!

[Ms. Glaze]

Pille – I love your blog! i'm glad you found this post humourous and not too offensive.
Chef – Very funny. You're a better sausage stuffer than me by far. Way more practice. But at least Tse and I don't use a machine. Hmmmmm?
Berry – By St. Pierre, I'm assuming you mean the fish? I know at Guy Savoy we often serve St. Pierre covered with black truffle slices when they are season, but never as fish sausage. I bet Keller's Boudin is really good – what isn't at the French Laundry? During winter at Guy Savoy we do a sausage with foie gras and truffles which is where I got the idea, the stuffing is different though.

[SAS]

Here's a winning seafood sausage from a recent episode of Top Chef. Unfortunately, it was not Hung's dish.
http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/toprecipe/episode_2.php

[King Negrito]

My God this Video is amazing, I mean, i mean.... that's probably the funniest food making video i ever saw !!! Congratulations !!!! and thanks ...

[Ms. Glaze]

SAS – I downloaded that episode on ITunes! I dig fish sausage, but HUNG is soooooo much better than everyone. I've cooked with him. He taught me more in a week than some people have in years. The man is TALENTED!!!!

King – Bious! Still want to come to court. Sorry i couldn't make the last picnic. Your humble servent, Ms. Glaze

[Alpha Chen]

Great video! Just wanted to say that I found your outfit very amusing in light of this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/dining/27scoo.html

[Ms. Glaze]

Alpha Chen – Thanks for the link – I'm in style!!! I don't watch any of those women cook (don't have cable TV here), so I had no idea. I just wanted to wear something bright against the white backdrop. But now that I know what I can get away with...

[Gillian]

Amy you are beautiful, talented and absolutely hilarious. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can find humour in such things as sausage stuffing...

Im having trouble eating red meat these days, what would you suggest for vegetarian sausages?

[Mlle Smith]

This was so funny. What's that sausage squeezy aspirator-like thing called? Maybe I can purchase one.

Ohmigosh, I feel so empowered...you're going to turn me into a real cook!

[Stu "El Inglés" Harris]

Yesterday the pork loins were too expensive for me, so I used your mustard/rosemary recipe on much cheaper boneless chops. I also happened to have some raisins to hand so I threw a few in. It worked out very fine.

[susan]

hi ms. glaze, i just found your blog and i must say you are amazing! wow, love all the food. just curious but where did you goto school? i think i'm past considering going to cooking school or working in restaurant but i am always curious. :)

[susan]

oops, sorry for the obvious question. :) just finished reading all your lcb posts. i am so intrigued. the program looks great.

[Ms. Glaze]

Susan – Thanks for your comment! I studied at LCB in Paris. I went about pursuing the cooking profession backwards. After having cooked in restaurants in SF and London and having taught basic foods to hormonally challenged teens for five years, I decided to go back and get the actual cooking degree.

I dont regret it! It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad I knew what working in restaurants was all about beforehand. There are people who find out they hate cooking professionally after they've shilled out the big bucks for a fancy education. My suggestion is to think about how you will use the degree and do an internship at a restaurant to see if it's enjoyable. Email me directly if you need more info! Be happy to help out!!!

Gilles – Gros Bisous!!! Vegetarian sausage, huh? You know I'm very meat focused so I'll have to think about this one. Is fish acceptable? Sub the veal for firm white fish and grind it up. leave out the fatback. Mix with some chopped prawns for color and toss in some nice minced herbs like: cilantro and ground fresh ginger. Cook it gently. I still prefer meat casings to the synthetic, and that will cancel the vegetarian aspect to the dish. You can always roll the sausage up in celophane and poach it in water. Anyone else have any good suggestions!?!?

Stu – I'm glad it worked out for you! Like the addition of raisins.

Mlle. Smith – the squeezy aspirator thing is just called a "poche patisserie". It's a pastry bag in the States. If you can't find one, use a plastic bag and cut a hole in one the corners. You will need some kind of tip though...

[Mlle Smith]

Ms. Glaze, yesterday I went to Monoprix (for the first time) and I saw the fixings for sausage stuffing. The meat, itself.

Didn't see any intestines though. :0l Which, in my case, may have been a good thing. :0)

Thanks to this recipe, I can bypass their "stuffing" and make me own!

[annie]

Delightful video. It's really cool to see how real people cook!

[ME]

Mrs. Glaze, you are hilarious -- I loved this video!!

[Bob]

Are you aware of the REAL Id Act and its implications for all Americans, both at home and abroad? http://www.aaro.org/

[Jose]

I've been cooking in NYC and New Jersey for over 20 years. Now Exec chef in NJ hotel. Just wanted to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed the Boudin Blanc video. Fun, Entertaining, Amusing, Downright Funny and yet informative with precise instructions on Sausage making. Well Done.
Congratulations and continued success.

[Gregory]

Im in love with you (and your blog and videos)...wishing you luck on your top chef application...

greg...