{"id":38711,"date":"2020-09-16T16:10:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T20:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=38711"},"modified":"2022-12-19T09:06:08","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T14:06:08","slug":"meat-and-cheese-sausage-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/meat-and-cheese-sausage-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Meat and Cheese: Sausage Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/span>ausages might be a cookout essential, especially in states like Wisconsin with a long history of German immigration. But for many people, the term \u201csausage\u201d brings to mind highly processed store-bought products loaded with additives, and meat with murky origins.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what butcher and cooking instructor Meredith Leigh wants to change. \u201cIn our culture, sausage has become this byproduct food,\u201d she says.\u201cBut it\u2019s this really beautiful, thrifty food that\u2019s been just sort of bastardized by the food processing industry.\u201d For Leigh, author of The Ethical Meat Handbook<\/em><\/a> (New Society Publishers, 2015), sausages offer freedom. \u201cFor me, sausage has become a great way to use leftovers,\u201d she says. While a sausage can simply consist of meat, fat, salt, and pepper, Leigh will throw in just about anything. \u201cIt\u2019s this way of making your cooking more flexible. If I have a leftover sauce or dressing in my meal, it can become the flavor base for a sausage\u2014the sky is the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s part of the reason you can find varieties of sausage the world over, with distinct traditions, styles, and preferences springing up in cultures across the globe. But despite a level of universality, Leigh says that we\u2019ve become disconnected from our food, where it comes from, how it\u2019s made, and who made it. That\u2019s part of the reason she encourages and teaches people to make sausage at home, ideally grinding their own meat. \u201cA lot of sausages you\u2019re going to buy have a lot of unnecessary additives to make them more shippable, give them a certain color, or more shelf stable, etc.,\u201d Leigh says. \u201cThe goal for me is to deal with these things at the home scale and with pure ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n

So yes, you can buy a six-pack of obscurely sourced sausages at the nearest chain grocery, cook them up and throw them in a pasta or salad, and call it a day. But know that there are alternatives, from links made by your local butcher or farm store and the ethically sourced, vegetable-laden links by Seemore Meats & Veggies<\/a> to signing up for a class with Leigh to learn how to craft your own.<\/p>\n

The best part about sausages is that their adaptability invites ingenuity, allowing for a diverse enough range of flavors to never grow boring. But because they\u2019re driven by ground meat, sausage can also be one of the most ethical ways to consume it. Butcher Erika Nakamura<\/a> argues that ground meat is \u201cthe most sustainable\u201d form of meat. \u201cWhen you go shopping for chops or steaks, it\u2019s very specific,\u201d says Nakamura, co-founder of the small-batch sausage company, J&E SmallGoods<\/a>. \u201cThere are certain cuts that are much more coveted than others, and then there\u2019s the trim, or things that fall to the wayside. Many times, that becomes waste.\u201d When you make sausage, you\u2019re able to save parts of the animal that would otherwise be tossed. \u201cThat really is the spirit of sausage,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s part of the reason so many people have a warped image of sausage in their minds. It\u2019s like the mystery meat we recoiled from in our school cafeteria\u2019s meatloaf, and hey, you know it\u2019s encased in animal intestine, right? But when we make the effort to understand where the ingredients come from, to build a greater appreciation for the hands that brought it to our plates, to seek out farmers and butchers who we can trust instead of relying on vertically-integrated middlemen and corporate overlords … well then maybe we can convince our cringing friends to give sausage its due.<\/p>\n

\n

1. BEET SAUSAGE + FETA<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fourth-generation butcher Cara Nicoletti wants people to eat less meat. Her new company, Seemore Meats & Veggies<\/a>, produces four kinds of sausages that are up to 35 percent vegetables. One of them, La DolceBeet-A<\/a>, is a pork-based link modeled after sweet finocchiona, a dry Italian sausage that relies on fennel. There\u2019s a grain bowl recipe with crumbled feta on the package, but Nicoletti pictures grilled slices of the bright red links on a cheese board with everything from Brie to a strong hard cheese. Start with feta, a light and salty cheese with a low fat content, to balance out the sausage\u2019s heft and boldness.<\/p>\n

2. BEEFY LOVEAGE SAUSAGE + SARVECCHIO<\/h2>\n

In her online and in-person butchery classes and through her books, Meredith Leigh teaches people how to make sausages at home. One of her recipes uses beef with lacto-fermented lovage stems and red wine. She suggests pairing the homemade sausage with SarVecchio, a nutty and semi-sweet parmesan-style cheese from Wisconsin. \u201c[It\u2019s] something that\u2019s really sharp and dry that\u2019s not going to overwhelm you, but that\u2019s going to cut through the intensity of the sausage,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

3. LAMB MERGUEZ + GRILLED HALLOUMI<\/h2>\n

Smoky and spicy, merguez is popular in parts of North Africa and the Middle East. At J&E SmallGoods, which she co-owns with her wife, Jocelyn Guest, Erika Nakamura makes it with ground lamb, fresh parsley, and oregano, along with Manzanilla dry sherry. She pairs the sausage with halloumi, a soft cheese that hails from Greece and Cyprus with a high melting point. \u201cHalloumi\u2014especially once its grilled or pan-fried\u2014has a golden brown, delicious edge,\u201d she says. \u201cUnlike other hot cheeses, you\u2019re not losing the integrity of the cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many, the term \u201csausage\u201d brings to mind highly processed store-bought products loaded with additives, and meat with murky origins. But that’s all changing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[1233,25847,25834,25837,870,2984,25832,25838,25849,25848,25829,25830,4136,21598,25833,25836,25831,25835],"coauthors":[24869],"class_list":["post-38711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-pairings","tag-brie","tag-cara-nicoletti","tag-cooking-with-sausage","tag-erika-nakamura","tag-feta","tag-halloumi","tag-healthy-sausage","tag-je-smallgoods","tag-jocelyn-guest","tag-la-dolcebeet-a","tag-meredith-leigh","tag-plant-based-sausage","tag-sarvecchio","tag-sausage","tag-sausage-with-cheese","tag-seemore-meats-veggies","tag-sustainable-sausage","tag-the-ethical-meat-handbook"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeat 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