Buy Italian Salsiccia or make it Yourself?
Which is better - buy Italian salsiccia or make it yourself? Why not both? It works with our recipes from all over the world. Since we were on one Pleasure trip through Hesse Fits hessian sausage sommelier Having learned how to make the bratwurst ourselves, we also do it at home. Not everyone has time to make their own bratwurst. Therefore you can buy your Italian sausage specialties. However, if you want to know what's inside, then it's worth taking the time to make it yourself. Hans Schmid from Jägerhof Maar in Lauterbach in Hesse shared with us his salsiccia recipe for the fennel bratwurst. This Italian bratwurst is an Italian sausage specialty that often appears in the country's recipes.
Italian Bratwurst has been known since Ancient Times
There are legends surrounding the origin of Salsiccia. It is said that Queen Teodolinda from Lombardy invented the Salsiccia recipe. She is said to have given it to the residents of Monza. Other Italian regions also write the origin of Salsiccia on their flag: Veneto, Campania and Basilicata. However, the origin can be clearly traced from historical sources. Cicero and Martial describe the “Lucanica”. This is what they call a sausage specialty that Lucanian slaves introduced to Rome. Apicius mentions the Salsiccia recipe in his treatise By Re Co Maquinaria. Marcus Terentius Varro also writes in his De Re Rustica "She is called Lucanica because the soldiers knew her from the Lucanians".
A century and a half later, Martial the poet recounts how Lucanian slaves were very popular with noble families in Rome because they "know how to prepare pork, which is kept in the same intestine as the animal".
The way of preparing the Salsiccia originates in the Basilicata in southern Italy. However, the spices can be traced to Roman influences. The Romans contributed to the spread of sausage preparation in their sphere of influence in the western world. This is how the regional variations of Salsiccia came about.
Pork Sausage
Salsiccia is an Italian sausage made from pork. The Lucanians of antiquity already knew how to process pork. However, the diversity of Italian sausages only emerged from the fourteenth century onwards. At that time, butchers from Norcia in Umbria specialized in the processing of pork. Guilds emerged that gave new impetus to meat products.
The butchers from Umbria offered their services in the winter months. They left their cities from late autumn to spring and traveled through the countryside during the butcher season. In winter, the pig was slaughtered, which provided meat for the family for the rest of the year. This tradition continued in Italy until the 1950s.
Salsiccia Recipe
With this Salsiccia recipe you can make bratwursts yourself.
You will need these tools if you want to make salsiccia yourself:
- an Mortar *
- an Meat grinder *
- If your meat grinder doesn't have one, you need a Sausage filler *
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Ingredients
- Two kilos of pork shoulder
- a kilo of pork belly with fat (the fat is important, otherwise the sausage is too dry)
- six meters pig intestine * (Size 28/30)
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You can also make your own Italian sausage specialty using these ingredients:
- Two heaping tablespoons of salt
- a tablespoon of pepper
- half a tablespoon of fennel seeds
- 120 ml of dry white wine
- two gloves of garlic
Make your own salsiccia
Finely chop the garlic and let it steep in the white wine for at least 24 hours.
Finely grind the fennel seeds in a mortar. Soak the pig intestine at least ten minutes before use, so that it becomes flexible.
Cut the meat into five centimeter cubes, salt and mix well.
Rotate the meat through the meat grinder. It is best to use a 5 millimeter disc for this. Then you add the spices and the wine and knead the whole thing well.
Then you pull the pork casing over the filler spout of the sausage filler. Then you fill the meat mass with the sausage filler in the pig intestines. Make sure that the intestines don't get too full, because afterwards you have to separate the sausages into portions.
You do this by squeezing the pork casing the length of the sausage and pushing the meat filling to one side. You take these places and twist them. This seals the sausage. This is how you deal with the flesh in the intestines.
The sausages then have to rest in the fridge for three to four hours so that they "set". During this process, the salt releases a muscle protein from the meat that holds the mass together like glue. Only then can you roast the sausages on the grill for three to four minutes. What you should pay attention to, we have described here. You can also freeze your sausages and later grilling.
In Italy, dishes are cooked with salsiccia
Salsiccia tastes good from Grill. You can even do them on campfire prepare. However, the Italian bratwurst is not only eaten grilled. They are used for dishes. You can put them on pizza, Pasta prepare with salsiccia, make a ragout out of it. Goes well with a salsiccia from the grill Chimichurri sauce from Argentina or a Peperonata vegetable. The Italian sausage specialty is very versatile.
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Source for buying Italian Salsiccia or making it yourself?: Local research. However, our opinions remain our own.
Text: © Copyright Monika Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline
Photos: © Copyright Monika Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline and as stated in the captions
Video: © Copyright Petar Fuchs and TravelWorldOnline