Ryan Farr - Sausage Making: The Definitive Guide with Recipes

CHAPTER 1
MEAT, SALT, FAT, AND TECHNIQUE p.

CHAPTER 2
COARSE SAUSAGE p.

CHAPTER 3
FIRM SAUSAGE p.

CHAPTER 4
SOFT SAUSAGE p.

CHAPTER 5
SMOOTH SAUSAGE p.

CHAPTER 6
COMBINATION SAUSAGE p.

CHAPTER 7
CONDIMENTS, BISCUITS, AND BUNS p.

To Cesalee: You make being an amazing mom and wife look so easy. I am humbled by you and at my best when we are together.

To Tanner and Scarlett: Watching you grow up is the greatest gift I could ever receive. I will always support you and your dreams, as you are supporting mine.

To my amazing family: Mom, Dad, Cathleen, Lauren, Chelsea, Caela, Carolyn, Hob, and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins, we share so many great memories that all start in the kitchen.

To all the hard-working, ass-kicking folks who have helped build 4505 Meats: Because of you, we are not only a meat company, we are a family. Special thanks to Dan, Kyle, Claire, Gerrardo, Thomas, Emma, Andrew, Jose, Kent, and Cole. Without you this book wouldnt have been possible. Thank you.

To Cole Mayfield: Your recipe-testing skills and ability to fix all broken things is a skill few possess. You are a great man, sir. Thank you. Kent Schoberle, not only can you butcher and teach whole animal butchery skillfully, your graphic contributions to this book and 4505 Meats have taken our game to the next level. Thank you, my friend.

To Jessica Battilana: We have created a book to be proud of. From the beginning vision to the very end you have been a delight to work with.

To Lorena Jones, Vanessa Dina, Doug Ogan, Elizabeth Smith, Steve Kim, Peter Perez, David Hawk, and the whole talented team at Chronicle Books: You are known for creating exquisite books and this one is an excellent example.

To Ed Anderson: Your ability to capture beauty in something like sausage making is a true talent.

To Carole Bidnick: Thank you for the continued guidance and all your hard work. You are a great friend and agent.

To Bruce Aidells: Thank you for continuing to mentor me in all things meaty and, unknowingly, in life, too. You are the undisputed Sausage King.

To my Denver friends who have supported me from day one: Some of my best memories are of grilling sausages and steaks in our backyards. It all started with you and I love you all.

To all the amazing customers who support us every day: Without you and your love for sausage, it would be a sad, sausageless world.

Of course this only scratches the surface of all the people who have supported me on my journey leading up to today. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

As a butcher and a chef, I am passionate about whole-animal utilization. That philosophy was the guiding principle behind my first book, Whole Beast Butchery, which teaches how to butcher an entire animal and how to best utilize and cook the resulting cuts.

So it only seemed fitting that my second book be devoted to sausage, which originated as a way for butchers to turn odds, ends, and non-prime cuts of meat into something incredibly satisfying and delicious. When I started my business, 4505 Meats, five years ago, the first product that we made were our chicharroneslight, crunchy pork rinds that immediately developed a cult following. The second product I brought to market was hot dogs. In the early days, my process for making the hot dogs was, frankly, a bit of a disaster. I was working in several rented kitchens, so Id butcher and grind the meat for the hot dogs in one kitchen, then drive the ground meat across town to a second kitchen, where there was a commercial-grade mixer, to mix the meat. Then Id drive the mixed meat across town again, back to the first kitchen, to stuff and smoke the dogs.

It was completely inefficient, and the problem only worsened as the hot dogs became more popular. What I would have given to have a book like this when I was first starting out! Well, that, and an extra 48 hours in every week.

Part of the reason that I started making hot dogs was because most of the commercially available dogs on the American market were not something I wanted to eat or feed my family. Made with subpar meat and flavored with liquid smoke, the average hot dog is a very sad sausage. I wanted to make a dog that was snappy and juicy, with a real smoky flavor, made from sustainably raised meat.

Sausages have gotten a bad reputation. Though historically they were made with care, once mass-produced factory sausages became the norm, the quality of commercially available links suffered. Questions about what exactly was inside that casing caused many to shy away from purchasing and eating them.

So I set out to make sausages that I was proud to serve, sausages that I would feed my children, sausages that contained ingredients that were both pronounceable and that came from farms that I knew and respected. Not only did I enjoy coming up with new varieties, but I also was happy to restore integrity to well-known sausages, like bratwurst .

With over a decade of experience in sausage, using my classical culinary training and good sourcing practices, I was able to create some really great sausage, finding more ways to utilize the whole animals that I was getting. I created master ratios for different textures of sausage: coarse, firm, soft, and smooth. With those ratios in hand, I started to riff on flavor combinations, inspired by fruits and vegetables Id find at the market, meat I had on hand, or time-honored pairings.