Review: Nutmeg Brand Kielbasa

I don't remembrer liking kielbasa much when I was a kid. - I remember it being kind of aggressively greasy and harshly spiced. And it always seemed "tough," somehow like, sure, it's a sausage but it's not like breakfast sausage or Italian sausage, it's kind of like pepperoni because it's kind of hard and more difficult to cut.

That's because my mother, who barely had two nickels to rub together, usually bought an already-inexpensive national brand made even more inexpensive with coupons. It was cheap and shitty and tasted it.

It wasn't until I got older that I discovered how good kielbasa could be, and that was thanks to the big variety of locally-made brands I discovered starting when I was in my teens and continuing even now.

Like Nutmeg Brand, for example. I had never tried Nutmeg before, which is distributed by Manchester Packing Company/Bogner Meats. (Once upon a time, it was made by them, too, but these days most of Bogner's meat processing is done under contract by Hummel Brothers in New Haven using Bogner's recipes.) I'd left Nutmeg alone because it was so pale looking that I thought it was a fresh kielbasa as opposed to a smoked kielbasa, which I prefer.

Anyway, on a recent visit to Bogner, Maryanne and I were looking for something relatively quick we could make for supper, and she suggested a kielbasa. "I dunno," I said, "These look like fresh kielbasas. I thought we both prefered them smoked."

"When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to get both kinds," Maryanne told me. "Especially at Easter, because they used to like fresh kielbasa for cutting up into our borscht, and smoked to eat on our plate. They were both good. Go ahead and get one."

So we did.

Surprise! Nutmeg Kielbasa is smoked! Just not, apparently, as heavily or for as long a time as most of the other commercial kielbasas we've had in the past. There is smoke enough to give the sausage a decent and hearty flavor.  The meat is finely ground without any of the coarser chunks I often find in other locally-made brands, and there seems to be a pleasant-enough level of fat used in the blend (by that I mean that the kielbasa isn't excessively greasy, but on the other hand the meat isn't dry or crumbly either. They've done a good job.)

Served with potato salad and greens, it made for a very pleasant late-summer dinner, and it holds up well to my long-standing local favorite, Janik.

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Pekarski's Sausage, South Deerfield MA

Lynnafred and I were headed north on US 5 in Western Massachusetts on other business when we spotted a small hand-lettered sign at the junction of US 5 and MA 116, promising us a visit to a smokehouse if only we would take a short 2-mile side quest.

That was too tempting to resist, so off we went.

Sure enough, we soon found Pekarski's Sausage, a small company that makes good, honest sausage and smoked meats in small batches by hand.

I can't even begin to list all the products they had available, but I can give you an idea of what they had in the twin display cases running the length of the store...along with a few reviews, since we bought a bunch of stuff to try out.

In photo of the meat case on the left, you can plainly see their kielbasa. It's awesome. The spice blend and smoke is absolutely perfect. Many commercial kielbasas are either runny with grease, or so dry that they crumble. Kudos to Pekarski's, because they have the most ideal ratio of fat to meat I have ever tasted in a kielbasa. 

In the background, just barely identifiable, are Daisy Hams.  If you're from New England, you might be familiar with them - in the 1970's, they were very cheap and common in the supermarkets here. They used to be a boneless pork shoulder, rolled tightly, cured and smoked, and they were sold in tight little plastic-wrapped cylinders that needed only to be boiled with some spuds, carrots, and cabbage for a traditional New England Boiled Dinner. As time has passed, Daisy Hams have gotten a lot more expensive, and a lot crappier. The last time I bought one in the supermarket, it seemed to be a conglomeration of meat scraps and chunks of random pork fat, and it wasn't very good.  Not so here at Pekarski's. Their Daisy Hams are rolled and smoked in a mesh sleeve, and it is totally obvious that they're making them the old-fashioned way, out of boneless pork shoulder. We didn't buy one on this trip, but we plan to pick one up next time.

Pekarski's slab bacon is excellent - much better than the usual supermarket bacon, and easily the equal to my own homemade dry-aged bacon. We bought a pound of it and had the butcher slice it at nice and thick. Next time I think we should get two pounds.

On the other side of the case were various sausages and links.

Their breakfast sausage is, to use a wicked overused term, amazing. The links are roughly twice the size of ordinary breakfast sausage links - about the same size as a hot dog. They fry up wonderfully - moist and delicious and not at all greasy. The spice blend is excellent; I was able to identify sage, thyme, and maybe a bit of coriander and some pepper. Really top-notch.

Lynnafred couldn't resist picking up some chorizo, which turned out to be far and away the best tasting chorizo EVAR. Plans are in the works to use Pekarski's chorizo in a batch of arroz con gandules.

Also available the day we were there: Back bacon (aka Canadian bacon), bratwurst, unsmoked (fresh) kielbasa, fresh pork ribs, smoked pork ribs, smoked pork chops, whole smoked chickens, and whole smoked Cornish game hens. And probably more stuff that I either didn't notice in my wide-eyed wonderment or have forgotten about.

I spoke to the butcher when we were there, curious to find out where they are sourcing their pork. I sometimes have trouble finding good quality pork belly when I make my bacon, and was wondering if they had a local source. They told me that most of their pork comes from farms in New Hampshire. Cool - keeping it regional.

Seriously, Pekarski's is a hidden gem of the Pioneer Valley, and even though it's a good forty-five minute drive from my house to get there, the trip is worth it (and besides, if you get off the highway and take MA 116 all the way there, the back-country drive is gorgeous.) The prices are slightly higher than what you'd pay for mass-market stuff in the supermarket, but the vast improvement in quality and freshness more than makes up for that.

There is plenty to do in the area if you want to make a day trip of it. You can wander around in the Yankee Candle store, smelling Man Candles and more until the overwhelming scents give you a headache. There's Historic Deerfield, where you can wander around in the village and take tours of the cool old Colonial-era houses.  And if you're into bugs flying all around you and landing on you and crawling up your arms and whatnot, you can also visit the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory and Gardens, which is a big damn glass building filled with flowers and butterflies which delight in invading your personal space (yeah, I know - they're butterflies, so what's the big deal? Well, butterflies are still BUGS, dammit, and I don't want dozens of them on my SKIN, thank you. I'd go again if they'd only let me in with that can of Yard Guard I brought.)

Pekarski's Sausage

293 Conway Road (MA 116)

South Deerfield, MA 01373

413.665.4537

No credit or debit cards accepted - cash or check only.

Tennessee Pride Fully Cooked Sausage Patties

I have only one rule about buying sausage at the store: Don't ever buy fully-cooked frozen sausage, because it is never any good.

And yet, when I saw these Tennessee Pride fully cooked sausage patties at ALDI the other day, I bought them against my better instinct. After all, Tennessee Pride is a solid brand - I've had other products put out by them before, and was never disappointed.

But those products were never fully cooked and frozen.

I opened the package to find the eight patties had been put into sets of two, each set enclosed in a plastic pouch. It seems that these were portioned to microwave two at a time and be served with a couple of biscuits. Sure enough, the package instructions were all about microwaving.  But I was feeding the family breakfast aqnd wasn't interested in an individual serving to heat-and-eat. I unwrapped the lot of them and put them in a frying pan over low heat to warm up, and served them alongside eggs and homefried potatoes

I really like the flavor of Tennessee Pride sausage. The spices are well balanced, and the result is really delicious. But the spongy texture, too wet and too chewy, put all of us off. It's the same reason I won't ever buy Banquet Brown 'n' Serve sausage - nothing against the flavor, everything against the mouthfeel.

I don't think I'd buy them again unless they were wicked cheap.

Grote & Weigel Rides Again

The first Grote & Weigel products since the company was saved from the brink of bankruptcy are hitting the shelves. I was out shopping this morning when I noticed that Grote & Weigel Easter Kielbasa is back on shelves just in time for the holiday.

Here's hoping that natural casing franks are next!

Hormel Bacon & Pork Sausage

When I found these Hormel Bacon & Pork Sausages at Price/Rite for 99 cents, I had to try them out.  I could tell from the picture on the box that they probably wouldn't be very good - casingless sausage generally is pretty nasty stuff - but after all, I was only gambling a buck.

Since my expectations were pretty low, I wasn't too disappointed when I opened the box and found a block of bulk sausage meat that had been die cut to form "links."  Except they're not links, Hormel. If they're not packed in casing and linked together, they're not links.  Believe it or not, the picture here actually makes the sausage look better than it did in real life. They were lumpy and loosely formed, and the surface was white with congealed fat.

They were some ugly-looking meat sticks after frying. Several of them broke apart as they cooked because the meat was packed too loosely to hold together. And, of course, there was all that fat.

The flavor was...unique. Vaguely porky, a faint whiff of smokiness from the bacon, and an overwhelmingly cloying flavor of fake maple flavoring. I took a bite of one and that was all I could take. Luckily, the dogs thought the sausage was awesome and that 99-cent box of cheap meat gave me a day's worth of treats for Zim and Iris.

There is nothing worse than fake maple flavoring. I hate the way it tastes, but I hate the way it smells even more. It reeks like boiled-over automotive antifreeze, and it lingers forever. The stink of it hung in the house for days. Fortunately, feeding the "links" to the dogs made them fart, which covered the smell. 

Janik Juniors, and Kiebasa With Kraut

Janik Sausage Company, my hometown kiebasa makers, have introduced an awesome new product, Janik Juniors Kielbasa Dogs.  They're the same delicious kielbasa I've been eating since I was a kid, except in fat foot-long form.

The first time I saw them, it was at Arnold's Meats in East Longmeadow; I bought a package and couldn't wait to get them home to try out.  I was not disappointed. The meat and spice blends were the same as the full-sized kielbasa that is famous around here, and the natural casing gave the dogs an excellent snap. The only difference between the Juniors and their regular kielbasa (other than size) was that the Juniors have a slightly finer grind to the filling.

I've bought them a couple of times since that first trial, and have not yet been disappointed. They're great on the grill, and they're just as great made in a skillet with kraut.

I probably don't have to explain how to do this to anyone, but just in case you've never experienced the joys of kielbasa and kraut, here's how I do it:

Heat up a skillet.

Put in the kielbasa dogs and keep the heat on medium high.  Turn the dogs frequently as you brown them. You might want to poke a hole or two in them with a fork, so they can leak out some of the fat into the pan. If you're lucky, your kielbasa will whistle at you as steam jets out of the holes.

After browning the kielbasa dogs to your satisfaction, dump in the sauerkraut of your choice. Give it a quick couple of stirs and then turn the heat down to medium low. Let the kraut sizzle in the pan with the dogs as you stir the whole thing around a couple of times. The juice from the sauerkraut will deglaze the kielbasa bits from the skillet, and everything will taste even more excellent than you will be imagining from the aroma.

When the sauerkraut is sufficiently heated, tip the lot onto a serving platter and lift it to the table.

Done.

There is one other thing I'd like to mention about the Janik Juniors. I have yet to find a package with all of the sausages of uniform size. I think this is because they are filling them with a continuous length of casing, and there is some kind of taper to it by its nature. I would like to see the company develop a little more consistency with the sizing, but I expect that will come with practice and experience.  For the moment, though, I am really happy to see one of my favorite local food producers introducing a new product to the market.  Janik makes an excellent kielbasa, and I hope the new Juniors coax more people to give it a try.

Kielbasa from Strum's Deli & Meats, Holyoke

Strum's Deli and Meats is a little hole-in-the-wall butcher shop on Westfield Road in Holyoke.  Lynnafred and I visited it last week when, after months of having driven by the place and saying "Hey we oughta stop in there sometime," sometime finally arrived.

It's a decent store, much bigger on the inside than it looks from the small storefront. They've got quite a variety of cuts available, and they do some sausage making as well.  I'll write more about the store in coming weeks - I want to go there again and sample some of the other stuff they offer - but today I'm going to tell you about their kielbasa.

Strum's kielbasa is very good. The spice blend is traditional and not too salty, and the smoke is well-balanced and not overpowering. The pork they use is high-quality without gristly bits being evident. It's a bit less fatty than I'm used to, which makes for a dryer sausage, but being a little leaner didn't detract from the flavor or enjoyability of the kielbasa - and it made it somewhat easier to grill without huge uncontrollable flareups.

Seriously, if the only kielbasa you've ever had is the crap packaged by Hillshire Farm, you owe it to yourself to find a good, small-label kielbasa, and preferably one that's made practically in your backyard (like Strum's if you live in Holyoke, or Janik if you live a little south of there in Enfield.) You'll be blown away by how awesome the local stuff is, and you'll wonder why you put up with that mass-marketed garbage for so long.

Strum's Deli & Meats

502 Westfield Road

Holyoke, MA 01040-1633
(413) 532-8020

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

The Stop & Shop in my town is one of the most sausage-friendly stores in the area.  They always carry natural hog casings, and they're really good about carrying inexpensive cuts of pork for grinding up batches of homemade sausage.  And they're the only store in town that routinely sells pork fat, an essential ingredient for good sausage. (You can talk about lean sausage all you want, but I guarantee that you wouldn't like the stuff if it were less than 20% fat.  It's a fact of life.)

Last weekend, I scored a nice batch of Stop & Shop's pork fat that was slightly more meat than fat; since the ratio looked so good, I decided to just grind it as is and make some breakfast sausage from it.   I broke out my ol' faithful meat grinder - a massive Porkert No. 10 - and threw both the grinder and the pork trimmings into the freezer to condition them for processing.  Partially freezing the pork makes it grind much easier and better, and putting the huge, heavy grinder into the freezer gives me about half an hour or more of thoroughly chilled equipment for perfect grinding.

After mixing in the spices and letting the flavors blend for a few hours in the fridge, I stuffed the sausage meat into the casings, twisted them off into links, and set them back into the fridge overnight.  We fried them up the next day.  They were awesome.

Breakfast Sausage

Makes 2 pounds of sausage

2 pounds of fatty ground pork - 20% minimum, 30% is better

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

3/4 teaspoon rubbed sage

1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

3/4 teaspoon of dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon MSG

Mix the ground meat with the remaining ingredients and allow to rest, refrigerated, for a couple of hours for the flavors to blend.  Stuff into casings for sausage links, or just form into patties and fry.

Notes:  

• Use less ground black pepper for a milder sausage.
• I used Turkish Aleppo pepper instead of the crushed red pepper flakes. You could also sub hot Hungarian paprika or cayenne pepper if you wish
• Skip the MSG if you want.  I've tried it both ways, and I definitely prefer the MSG version.

These really should be stuffed into a small-diameter natural sheep casing, but all I had was the wider-diameter hog casings.  So they came out the same diameter as Italian sausage.  They were still delicious, though.

Sizzle, sizzle.

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ConAgra Discontinues Penrose Sausage In Jars

Back in October 2009, I wrote a short review of Penrose Hot Sausage, a pickled sausage product made by ConAgra.  I didn't like them very much, but several readers disagreed with me and left comments about how much they enjoyed them.

One of the comments mentioned that the sausages had been discontinued, and I decided to do some Googling.  The first thing that I noticed was that every online source that I found listed all sizes of Penrose Hot Sausage as "sold out."  When I looked up the product at ConAgra's website, I found that it was no longer listed in the drop-down menu of Penrose items offered by the company.

Finally, I called ConAgra's Penrose consumer help line at 1.800.382.4994 and spoke to a pleasant young lady who identified herself as "Bree."  She confirmed to me that Penrose has discontinued all product in jars, and that the only Penrose items currently being packaged are in snack-sized shrinkwrap.  She said the decision was made by ConAgra about 6 months ago, which is why it has become increasingly difficult for fans of the sausage to get their fix.

If you're a fan of Penrose Hot Sausage and you miss your favorite snack, it certainly wouldn't hurt for you to call ConAgra and politely ask them to bring it back.  They might not listen, of course, but it never hurts to try.

In the meantime, may I recommend you try Long Lake Pickled Foods' Hot Pickled Polish Sausage?  For fans of Penrose, it might not be the same, but you might find you like it on its own merits.
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Grote & Weigel Kielbasa

In the area where I live, there is no shortage of excellent kielbasa (a variety of smoked Polish sausage.)  There's practically no reason to buy lowest-common-denominator junk like Hillshire Farm sausage around here because several local companies make a superior product.

One of those companies is Grote & Weigel of Bloomfield CT, a town a few miles south of me which was once mostly farmland but has now been pretty much swallowed up into the suburbs of Hartford.  Grote & Weigel is most famous locally for their exceptionally fine hot dogs.  I've had their little kielbasa links, which they call "kellies," and they were pretty good, but I'd never had a big "ring" kielbasa from them.

The first thing I noticed about Grote & Weigel's kielbasa is the color.  Other locally-made kielbasas are darker in color, some almost mahogany in color, thanks to long, slow smoking that gives the sausage part of tis distinctive character.  Grote & Weigel's is paler and more frankfurter-like in color. It also has a "smoother" texture - they obviously use a smaller gauge grinding plate when processing their meats for the sausage.  Although these differences make for a different flavor than some of the more traditionally styled kielbasa I buy, the end result is very good.  The kielbasa is nice and juicy, with a good  but mild balance of garlic and seasonings.  And although Grote and Weigel uses no MSG and less salt than just about any other commercial maker, there is no sacrifice in taste or quality.

In a sort of wishful anticipation of Springtime, I made a batch of potato salad to go with the sausage, and put brown mustard and fresh horseradish on the table as well.  It was a fine supper for a mild late-winter night.

Link:

Grote & Weigel's website.

La Primera Farmer Sausage

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up one of these big salami-like things at the local wholesale/retail meat market.  A quick look at the label made me think it was some kind of summer sausage, though with more pork in the mix than usual.  But it was a good price and the fie print said it was made by John Morrell & Co (though La Primera brand doesn't appear on the Morrell website.)

Commonly found around here in Hispanic markets, I've heard La Primera referred to as "Puerto Rican salami."  While I can't speak to the accuracy of that, I can tell you that the flavor is unique:  similar in some ways to a summer sausage and in other ways to Genoa salami, it is distinctly different from either of them.

La Primera is mildly fermented and is loaded with whole peppercorns.  We've enjoyed it with cheese, fruit, and crackers, and sliced thinly for sandwiches.  It's great stuff, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again.

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Al Fresco All Natural Country Style Chicken Sausage

I'm usually not a big fan of chicken sausage. They're too often dry and the seasonings are weird, and they just don't taste a lot like I expect sausage to taste.

Lynnafred, however, really enjoys chicken sausage. And when I found a great deal on a variety of Al Fresco brand chicken sausage (distributed by Kayem Foods in Chelsea MA) I bought one of each kind available and figured we'd try them out.

This particular variety are labeled as "Country Style with a hint of sage and thyme Breakfast Chicken Sausage." They've got no artificial ingredients and they're fully cooked, so they need only be gently heated before enjoying (we heated them up in a bit of simmering water in a skillet, but we could just as easily have used the microwave.)

I am somewhat surprised to say that I liked them. The flavor was spot on for breakfast sausage, and having the sage and thyme in there was a nice touch. You'll never mistake them for real pork breakfast sausage, but if you're looking for an all-natural lower-fat alternative breakfast meat, you can do a lot worse than these.

Link:

Al Fresco All Natural website. Go there for a store locator; they'll also give you a $1.00 off coupon to try out their product.

Farmland Sausage Links: A Dollar Store Breakfast Treat

Dollar Tree recently had a selection of Farmland brand sausage links in 8-ounce packages. Buying them seemed a good idea at the time - the price worked out to just two dollars a pound, and Farmland isn't a bad brand - their deli ham is decent, and there's nothing wrong with their bacon.

I first started having misgivings, though, when I opened up the packages and found that they were "skinless" sausages, not links. Links should be in casings, twisted into individual sausages and linked together. That's why they're called "links," Farmland, get it? No, these were extruded cylinders of bumpy stuff bearing a strong resemblance to those nasty "brown and serve" things they sell in the supermarket.

Although leery of them by now, I fried them up anyway.

Original were fairly standard-tasting, with typical spice and herb aromas and flavors. The texture was bad, though: spongy and soft and oozy.

Pork and Bacon had an amazing bacon flavor and such an intense bacon aroma as it was cooking that the whole house smelled delicious as I made breakfast. They were the best of the three, though still somewhat hampered by the off-putting texture.

Hot and Zesty smelled wonderful as we cooked them, but unfortunately the spiciness was provided by cayenne pepper, which added a rough and scratchy heat without enhancing the flavor of the sausage in any way. That meant two strikes against this flavor because of that texture issue again.

In the time since I first tried these sausages, Farmland seems to have discontinued the Pork and Bacon flavor, and introduced several others (Honey & Maple, Cider House, and Lower Sodium) which I haven't had an opportunity to try. I think they have a great concept here, and for the most part the flavors are spot on (well, except for the misplaced heat in the Hot & Zesty) but the mouthfeel and sponginess of the final product just puts me off of them. I have no idea why they should be like that, since there aren't any fillers or junk listed on the ingredients list, but despite the evident quality of the ingredients, I can't recommend them.

You might want to look for them in the supermarket anyway, though, because of the box art. Check out this closeup of one of the boxes and tell me what those sausages look like. Especially the ones I've pointed out with arrows.

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Want a Little Pork With That Fat?

Seems to me I remember Gwaltney as being a fairly decent brand when it came to pig products. So when I happened upon Gwaltney bulk sausage at what I thought was a good price, I picked up a chub to see if it was still any good.

Well, it isn't. Good sausage should be at least 20% fat for the flavor and moisture, but it was pretty obvious from looking at the slices that Gwaltney has far more than that - it appears to be at least 60%. The slices fry up soft and spongy and release a LOT of grease - the one-pound chub I fried gave me a couple tablespoons shy of a cup of fat.

Although the flavor wasn't too bad - mildly spicy, a pleasant mix of sage and pepper and not overly salty - the overall cheapness of the stuff is going to keep me from buying it again unless it's on really deep discount.

Link:

Gwaltney's website.

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ALDI Deutsche Küche Meats

Mixed reviews (though mostly positive) for various selections in ALDI's Deutsche Küche line of meats:


Deutsche Küche Black Forest Brand Smoked Turkey Breast - Quite a deal at just $8.99, this turned out to be a three-pound boneless smoked turkey breast ready to heat and eat, or to slice thinly for sandwiches. Extremely high quality, solid meat with none of the nasty trapped air bubbles we sometimes find in cheap cold cuts, and less added water/broth/whatever than many expensive deli cuts. Lynnafred loves smoked turkey wraps and sandwiches so buying it at this price was a no-brainer. It was easy to cut off perfect, thin slices using a carving knife; I cut about a pound of slices at a time and kept them in a tub in the fridge, ready to use, and the turkey was delicious cut into cubes to toss into salads. A big hit. I'd buy this again in a heartbeat. Product of USA.



Deutsche Küche Black Forest Brand Smoked Ham - Again, $8.99 for a three-pound smoked ham; same high quality as the turkey, great flavor, perfect to heat and eat or carve cold for sandwiches. Just like with the turkey, I used a sharp carving knife to slice off a pound or so at a time for sandwiches and such. This ham was so much better than the pre-sliced deli meats we've found at supermarkets lately that it was hard to believe that the price worked out to only about three bucks a pound. I'd buy this one again as well. Unfortunately, ALDI carries this and the turkey breast only occasionally as "special purchases," so we just take advantage of the deals when they're available. Product of USA.


Deutsche Küche Nuremberg Bratwurst are small, breakfast-sausage-sized links of delicious white bratwurst. Highly seasoned with sage and coriander with hints of mace, these sausages were absolutely delicious. Another "special purchase." I was glad that I took a gamble on them and bought four packages; we were able to enjoy them at breakfast several times. Imported from Germany.

Okay, those were the good items (excellent items, actually.) But I promised a mixed review, so now we're going to consider the two less than successful items.

Deutsche Küche Smoked Bratwurst and Deutsche Küche Knockwurst are both American products; they're the same kind of oversized natural-casing cheap weiner product that every supermarket carries in various brands. There is absolutely nothing special about these. To me, they both taste exactly the same - like cheap-ass, byproduct-filled hot dogs - and have little, if anything, to recommend them. I'd love to go to a real German butcher sometime and get actual, real knockwurst and bratwurst, just to experience the real thing, which I'm sure is miles ahead of this tripe.

Totally not worth the price.

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Taylor Pork Roll

I was in the ShopRite supermarket in Manchester CT over the weekend, and look what I found! Taylor Pork Rolls! This is a rare treat up here in Northern Connecticut, though ShopRite (headquartered in Elizabeth NJ) would certainly be the place to look for one.

You see, pork roll is a New Jersey specialty, and one that's not found so much of a following outside the NJ/NYC/Philly area. That's a shame, because it's pretty damned awesome. Especially the John Taylor brand. Taylor invented the pork roll in the 1880's. He was a Trenton NJ wholesale grocer who got into the pork and beef packing business and founded Taylor Provision Co. Several other companies make pork roll nowadays but my favorite is the original Taylor Pork Roll - still made after 120-some-odd years by Taylor Provision in Trenton.

It's hard to describe pork roll. It's a kind of chopped and cured pork product, stuffed into cylindrical cotton bags for easy slicing; beyond that it gets difficult. Although the texture somewhat resembles SPAM, pork roll is firmer and less fatty. Pork roll's lactic acid cure makes it taste something like an unseasoned Genoa salami (but much less intense because salami's long curing time makes it much firmer than pork roll.)

The best way to cook it is just to slice it, (as thick or thin as you like it) right through the cotton casing, then peel the cotton off and fry it up. In Joisey they cut little 3/4-inch slits in from the edges to keep the slices from curling into little "cups" as it fries. I just stuck the slices under a bacon press to keep them flat and it seemed to work okay.

Serve your fried pork roll slices alongside eggs, toast, and home fried potatoes. The stuff is great - miles better than fried SPAM, which is not only greasier, but saltier and not as good-tasting.

For a classic "Jersey Breakfast," put slices of pork roll on a hard roll with egg and cheese. Delicious and satisfying.

Links:

I'd love to give Taylor Provisions a link here, but as far as I can tell, they don't have a website. The best I can do is send you over to Jersey Pork Roll, where you can check out Taylor Pork Roll and other NJ edibles. It's always best to see if you can find it locally first, though.

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Purnell's Old Folks Sausage

I was in the local Save-A-Lot supermarket the other day, browsing the frozen section, when I came across a brand and product I had never heard of before: Purnell's "Old Folks" Country Sausage & Biscuits. Each box has six twin-packs of little (about 2 inches or so in diameter) sausage-and-biscuit sandwiches, pre-cooked and ready to pop into the microwave for a quick breakfast or snack. I don't always have the time in the morning for a real breakfast, so the convenience of taking a package to work with me and nuking it on my coffee break was really appealing - and, I have to admit, the retro-style graphics on the package added to the attraction.

Save-A-Lot is referred to by parent company SuperValu as "the nation's leading extreme value, limited-assortment grocery chain." While most of the stuff I've bought there is of good quality, I've occasionally found a clunker so I wasn't sure what to expect when I tried the Sausage & Biscuits the next morning.

Let me tell you: Purnell's "Old Folks" Country Sausage is delicious.

The biscuits aren't bad; they're not very "biscuity," more like tiny little hamburger buns but made of denser bread. But the country sausage nestling within is just about perfect - the right amount of fat and an excellent blend of seasonings and spices that have a subtle but noticeable pepper kick. The combination of the biscuit and the sausage is extremely satisfying - the twin pack looks like a snack but it's closer to a meal. A pair of the little sandwiches served up with a scrambled egg makes for a breakfast that holds me over all morning until lunch.

I did some Googling to learn more about "Old Folks" sausage and found that F B Purnell Sausage Inc is headquartered in Simpsonville, KY. On their home turf they are pretty well-known, which is hardly surprising given the excellence of their product, and they make a full line of sausage products. Unfortunately, only a few of them are available up here in New England, mostly from Save-A-Lot which seems to limit their offerings to the Sausage & Biscuits and the 3-pound boxes of Medium Country Sausage Patties.

If you're able to find Purnell's country sausage near you, I highly recommend it. I'll be keeping my eye open for other items in their lineup as well - I'd love to sample their Italian sausage.

Links:

Purnell's website (home page)

Purnell's company history - Tells how F B Purnell Sr. got his start selling sausage in the 1930's, and also tells where the "Old Folks" brand name came from.

Making Scrapple, Step By Step

Sometimes it's easier to follow an unfamiliar recipe if you can see it done. Regardless of the scrapple recipe you choose to follow, the actual steps are pretty much the same.

Start with a few pounds of pork. I like a more traditional style scrapple, so for this batch I'll be using pork neck bones, pig's feet, pork heart, and pork liver. "Variety meats" like these are relatively inexpensive and a bit of "livery" flavor makes the scrapple taste better. If you prefer you can use other cuts - I often make scrapple with fresh hocks, for example - but try not to make them too lean. Like sausage, scrapple needs some fat to be at it's best.

Put the meats into a pressure cooker - bony bits at the bottom on the cooker's rack, and softer stuff (heart and liver) on top. Add 6 cups of water, seal the pressure cooker, and put it over medium heat.

When the jiggler on top starts dancing, start timing. For feet, neck bones, hocks, and tough muscles like the heart, I cook the meat under pressure for 45 minutes to 1 hour to make sure all the cartilage, skin, and tendons are rendered soft. If you're using a better cut of pork you can cut the cooking time appropriately. When the cooking time is over, turn off the heat under the pan and allow the pressure to fall naturally for an hour or so. Open the pressure cooker and discard the bones, but save any skin, fat, cartilage, tendons, etc. You might also find that the amount of liquid in the pan has been reduced by about half, leaving a rich pork broth. Strain the broth and add water sufficient to make 4 cups of liquid.

Place the cooked pork into a food processor with a cup or so of the broth and pulse it until it turns into a smooth puree. (If you don't have a food processor, you can use a meat grinder - fit it with the finest plate. You might have to run the meat through twice.)

Transfer the puree to a heavy stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat and stir in the broth. It will be kind of soupy looking. As the mixture starts to bubble, stir in your seasonings.

As the mixture simmers, add your cornmeal slowly, one cup at a time, stirring with a whisk as you make the additions to prevent it from forming lumps. At this point, if the mixture is too stiff you might want to drizzle in some water to loosen it up.

With all the cornmeal stirred in, cook slowly over medium low heat as the scrapple thickens. As the cornmeal cooks, the mixture will get progressively harder to stir. Take small tastes every now and then to be sure your seasonings are right and adjust them accordingly. As you taste, feel the texture of the cornmeal in your mouth. At first, the scrapple will feel "grainy" because the cornmeal is still uncooked and hard. As the it cooks, though, the texture will become softer and smoother. If the scrapple seems to be getting too thick without getting smooth, add a small amount of water and continue to cook, tasting again after a couple of minutes.

When the texture is soft and smooth and the scrapple is too thick to stir anymore, turn off the heat and spoon it into loaf pans or rectangular plastic containers to cool and set firm. Pack the scrapple tightly into the molds and knock the bottoms against the countertop to drive out air pockets. One recipe of scrapple usually makes several pounds, which can be more than you'll be able to eat before it goes bad, so using containers is a great idea - you can just snap lids on them and put them in the freezer for later.

Chill the scrapple in the molds overnight. When they're cold, they're ready! Unmold one and cut it into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Fry the slices brown on both sides in lard, bacon fat, or butter and enjoy for breakfast as a side dish with eggs or all by itself. Some people like to put maple syrup on their scrapple (especially if not having it with eggs.) Or you can serve it accompanied by figs.

Scrapple Recipes

You can find plenty of recipes for scrapple out on the web, but this is a collection of recipes that I've personally tested.

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Michael Loo's Scrapple

3 cups Pork organ meat or Trimmings, Cooked and ground
3 cups Water
2 cups Cornmeal
1 tablespoon Crushed hot red pepper
1 tablespoon Sage
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 tablespoon Salt --more or less
2 teaspoons Pepper

Bring the water to a boil. Add pork and simmer 5 min. Add cornmeal and stir until smooth. Add rest of ingredients (you may want to halve everything but the sage - but I like a very spicy scrapple) and cook over low heat (I used the oven, actually) until very thick, stirring once in awhile so it doesn't scorch. Turn out into a greased casserole and chill. When it's cold, slice into 1/3 to 1/2" slices and fry in a little oil or fat over low heat until crispy on both sides, turning once. I used rendered suet to fry it once, and it was GREAT! but the next time I decided to be a good boy and fried it on a Pam-sprayed skillet, and it was okay.

Notes:

• This is the recipe I use most often when I make scrapple. For the meat, I usually put two fresh pork hocks and some neck bones into a pressure cooker with the water to render the meat soft enough to finely chop using a food processor. I remove the bones but chop everything else (skin, gristle, everything) and I don't try to separate out any of the fat. If I can find some pork liver, I'll use that as well to round out the flavor.
  
• As much as I love sage, I find it can give an unpleasant bitterness if too heavy a hand is used with it; a full tablespoon of sage in this recipe is almost too much. The first time you try it, cut the sage to 2 teaspoons and see how you like the final result.
  
• This recipe was originally posted to the Fidonet National Cooking Echo in 1995 by Michael Loo. Since then, it's been ganked by many recipe sites, almost all of which have removed his name from both the title and the text of the recipe.

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Modern Day Scrapple

2 pounds ground lean pork
1 pound beef liver
1 cup buckwheat flour
3 cups yellow corn meal
4 tablespoons salt
4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sage
2 teaspoons ground mace
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground thyme
2 teaspoons whole sweet marjoram
3 quarts of water

In a large pot bring the water to a boil. Add beef liver and boil 10 minutes. Remove the liver and either run through a chopper or grab a knife and cut it in as small pieces as you can. Return chopped liver to the pot. Add the ground pork, a little at a time, and stir. Simmer for 20 minutes.

In a large bowl mix the buckwheat flour, corn meal, salt, and spices; add to meat and broth slowly, stirring constantly. Simmer gently for one hour, stirring frequently. Use lowest possible heat, as mixture scorches easily.

Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bounce the pans a couple of times so that the Scrapple settles, and let cool. Let the Scrapple set in the refrigerator overnight.

When you arise in the morning, remove the scrapple from the refrigerator and cut into to 3/8 inch slices.

To freeze, lay a sheet of waxed paper between slices, place in freezer bags.

To serve: Thaw slices and dust with flour. Fry in either bacon grease or lard until golden brown. Do not use a cooking spray. It will not taste right and ruin the scrapple.

Notes:

• The seasoning and general proportions for this recipe are pretty good, but simmering lean ground pork for 20 minutes isn't going to give you the finely-textured meat you'll need for a good, smooth texture to the scrapple. Instead, use fresh hocks, neck bones, or country-style ribs enough to make up two pounds of meat and cook them in the pressure cooker to render them from the bones. Then whirl the meat in a food processor or run it though a meat grinder after cooking to give it the smooth and paste-like consistency it should have.
• I haven't been able to trace the origins of this recipe; nearly identical versions appear at The Global Gourmet and About, and the recipe has been copied and pasted into many scrapple recipe threads on the Web.
  

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Chili Scrapple

1 lb meat
1 1/2 qt boiling water
1    onion
2 c  tomatoes
1 T  salt
1 T  Gebhardt's Chili Powder
2 c  corn meal
1 c  cold water

Either beef, veal or pork may be used in this recipe.   Boil the
meat in the water until tender (about 1 and 1/2 hours).  Remove meat
and run through meat grinder with the onions.  Measure meat stock
and add enough water to make five cups of liquid: combine with
ground meat, onions, tomatoes, seasonings and cornmeal moistened
with the cold water.  Simmer 15 minutes or until ingredients are
tender and mixture thick. Pour into greased bread pan to cool. Slice
about one-fourth inch thick, roll in flour and saute in hot fat
until golden brown in color.  Serve hot with chili sauce.

Posted in: http://www.slashfood.com/

From: "Mexican Cookery For American Homes"
By: Gebhardt, San Antonio, Texas, 1936

Notes:

• This recipe was sent to me by Jim Weller of Yellowknife, NWT, in March 2008. He hadn't tried it, but he knows my reputation for trying unusual foods and recipes and called it "weird but probably tasty."
• The ingredient list is a little bland, so when I make this scrapple, I add a tablespoon of freshly ground black pepper with the chili powder. The resulting seasoning is very savory, but not "spicy," and the taste reminds me of a sun-dried tomato flavored corn chip. Although it sets up a little wet, it fries nicely and develops a deliciously crispy shell.
  

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Tomorrow: Step by Step Photo Guide To Making Scrapple

In Praise of Scrapple

If you're not from the northeastern United States - especially Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, or southern New Jersey - there's a chance you've never heard of scrapple.

Scrapple is a pork product. Basically, it's a spicy polenta with pork added. Finely minced or shredded cooked pork is mixed in a mush with cornmeal and spices and cooked until thick, then cooled in a mold, sliced, and fried. Originally, it was made with "scraps" of pork and pork offal unsuitable for other purposes at hog butchering time - hence the name - but most recipes today call for readily available cuts of pork rather than odd bits.

To cook scrapple, the loaf is cut into slices about a quarter of an inch thick and fried until brown on both sides. Some people flour the slices lightly before frying, but I don't bother. I usually melt a little butter or bacon fat in the pan and put in the slices after the fat melts, frying them over medium heat until they are brown and crispy outside and creamy smooth on the inside. Another excellent way of preparing scrapple is to slice them a little thinner and then brown thoroughly on both sides until each slice of scrapple is like a crunchy cracker. This intensifies the porky flavor and the spices and offers a completely different taste sensation. It can also be deep-fried (I ordered scrapple for breakfast at a diner in southern New Jersey once, and that's how they cooked it. It was a massive 3/4-inch-thick slab of deep-fried porkmushy goodness, and although it was more magically delicious than a bowl of Lucky Charms I'd never cook it that way at home.)

Scrapple is a great breakfast food, as an accompaniment to eggs and home fries, or all by itself. Its savory deliciousness puts it in the same league as bacon or sausage, and it lends itself to pairing not only with mild foods like eggs but also to sweeter partners, like maple syrup (and figs!)

There are many commercially available scrapples on the market. I've tried several of them, but it's taken some effort to do; New England is on the outer periphery of scrapple territory and when I find it at all, it's generally Jones brand, in the freezer case next to the sausages. Here's a rundown of my impressions of the ones I've tried:

Hatfield Scrapple - Wetter than most others, slices of Hatfield in the skillet popped and launched cornmealy shrapnel into the kitchen. Saltier than others with a faint rancid taste. I've given Hatfield two tries and neither of them were very good. A scrapple of "last resort." Pity, too, because Hatfield bacon is pretty decent.

RAPA, Habbersett, and Jones Farm scrapple - These seem to be the Big Three of the scrapple industry, and they are all owned by Jones Farm. Despite what their websites and company spokesmen say about "distinctive old family recipes," there isn't a bit of difference in the taste of the standard scrapple products. I've had all three side by side in blind trials and they all tasted identical. And delicious, I might add. I grew up eating Jones Farm scrapple, and whenever I have some of the famous RAPA brand or the almost equally-famous Habbersett, it's like revisiting a favorite flavor.

RAPA Hot & Spicy Scrapple - It's made by RAPA so it tastes great, but unfortunately I have never detected a bit of "heat" in the stuff despite the jalapeño peppers listed in the ingredients. My wife, who doesn't like spicy food very much, reluctantly tried some and agreed that it was quite mild.

RAPA Scrapple with Bacon - Quite good, it reminds me strongly of the flavor I get when I cook plain scrapple in a bit of bacon fat. The smoky overtones of bacon just naturally go well with scrapple.

Parks Beef Scrapple - A very different product than the pork variety, Parks Beef Scrapple has a hearty beef flavor with notes of liver and, to a lesser extent, tripe (turns out that there is tripe in the mix.) The first thing I noticed about it was how the knife refused to glide through the way it does with the porky varieties - I actually had to cut through. More chunky and uneven in texture that the pork, I could see bits of gristle, tripe, and ominous dark-colored "meat" in there. It's good enough that I buy it when I can find it (which is not often, and not a surprise, since the supermarket where I occasionally find it never carries Parks regular pork scrapple.)

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Relevant links:

RAPA Scrapple - If you really need a scrapple fix, RAPA ships their stuff all over the country from November to February (cold weather is their "shipping season.") You can find details at their page.

Habbersett Scrapple - Click on "NEWS" on their homepage and you'll find a list of recipes which call for scrapple as an ingredient.

Jones Dairy Farm - Click through the "Products" link on their main page to find scrapple; try not to get distracted by all the delicious sausage products you'll find on the way.

Hatfield Quality Meats

TOMORROW: Make your own scrapple! Recipes, tips, techniques, and more.