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Wednesday, November 06, 2002

Google Giggle: You know what it means already. Even the best search engines produce unintentionally hilarious results. 8:22:34 PM    comment []

Mushrooms, day 9 (okay, I peeked two days ago and nothing was happening then): A few splotches of "gray threadlike mold" have formed. Here's what my responsibilities are for days 10 thorugh 15: After 10-15 days open the box to inspect the growing surface. If a gray threadlike mold is spreading over the top of MOST of the soil, cut the plastic liner away from the growing surface flush with the edge of the box. At this stage mist the surface heavily. (If mold is NOT covering MOST of the surface, close up the cover and check again in 3-5 days.) 7:35:32 PM    comment []

There's a recipe for andouille that uses tripe, that might have been the basis for Elgin Sausage. Here are the ingredients (here is the whole recipe):   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method --------  ------------  --------------------------------    4      pounds        Pork    1      pound          Tripe or chitterlings    2                          Garlic cloves    3                          Bay leaves    2      large             Onions    1      tablespoon    Salt (not iodized)    1      tablespoon    Pepper    1      teaspoon      Cayenne pepper    1      teaspoon      Chili pepper      1/2  teaspoon      Ground mace      1/2  teaspoon      Ground cloves      1/2  teaspoon      Ground allspice    1      tablespoon    Minced thyme    1      tablespoon    Minced marjoram    1      tablespoon    Minced parsley For andouille this is a little light on the garlic, the 5 pound recipe I normally use calls for a half cup! It is very good, it snaps at ya' twice when you bite into it. Of course, it is not normally eaten straight up, but it is used to season gumbo - like an herb concentrate. The ultimate tripe sausage is andouillette. I don't plan to make that. Unless you are French, your reaction to it might be similar to these: "Ick" "It was the most horrible, most wretching thing I've eaten in my life!" "Only the French could honour a boiled tripe sausage with such a glorious name" "I couldn't deal with that." "two things that left an unmentionable taste in the mouth, politics and andouillette" "Definitely not a party pleaser" And that's just the first two Google pages (I haven't googled andouillette and Rayne yet). The most informative and enthusiastic site is called Tripe, Tripe, Glorious Tripe. There, I learned this:    Tripe is the name commonly given to the stomach tissue of ruminant animals. So, if it chews a cud, you can make tripe out of its stomach. Just don't ask anyone to eat it. This is what M. F. K. Fisher lamented in chapter 8 of With Bold Knife And Fork, "The Trouble With Tripe". That trouble was a supply/demand issue. Every recipe makes a sufficient quantity for a feast, but it difficult to find even one other person who wants to share it with you. If she were around today, she might freeze some andouillettes and nuke a little one whenever the urge hit. 5:21:08 PM    comment []

Just exactly, what is the secret of Elgin Hot Sausage? Meyers' Sausage Company says it's "not-so-secret"...it's "75 years of family pride and four generations of tradition." Makes you wonder how their sausage tasted before their family discovered pride. You can order jerky and baseball caps at their website, but not Elgin Sausage. Maybe the secret is the "Texas Caviar" (recipe here) on the side, black-eyed peas with jalapenos. Maybe it's the smoke, but Southside uses oak and Meyer uses mesquite. It is dangerous to ask, as Pableaux Johnson recounted in Salon a few years back. One place you won't find out is by checking the ingredients. The Southside Market and BBQ links say only...INGREDIENTS: Beef, Beef Tripe, Cereal (Corn, Wheat and Rye Flour), Water, Salt, Spices, Sodium Nitrite, Dextrose, Pork Casings. Having tasted one the other night, I'd guess the seasonings for "Hot" are not that unusual...cayenne or paprika. If there are any jalapenos in there they are minimal - and very finely ground. In fact, they even cut back on the hot stuff to "widen its appeal" in the 1970s. But look at that Beef Tripe...that is unusual...and the flours, especially the rye flour, but the corn flour too. Mainly, it is the tripe that catches my eye, it's the last thing your palate would expect in a Texas sausage, but they families making it did come from Germany. Time to check out old world sausages made with tripe (is there really any other kind than beef?). 5:41:03 AM    comment []