Yesterday I made up a new sausage recipe. After tasting them I’m going to tweak the recipe for next time, so here is my ‘next time’ recipe.
2kg pork shoulder and 4 duck breasts with skin, minced.
6 tbsp duck fat
1 head garlic confit, chopped (slow cooked in oil at 100-120C for about an hour)
1 tbsp fennel seeds, lightly toasted and ground
6-8 star anise, ground finely
Zest of 2 oranges
Juice of 1 orange
4 tbsp beetroot powder or 1 large beetroot, roasted and blitzed in a food processor.
4 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp cracked black pepper
1 cup pistachios, chopped finely (optional)
I found beetroot powder at Gaganis food warehouse in Adelaide and it is amazing stuff.
You could certainly increase the proportion of duck but that also puts up the cost considerably. The prototype had only two duck breasts.
Tonight I’m serving them up with a sweet potato-carrot-honey mash, sauted leeks, and parsnip slivers baked with cherry tomatoes and some yoghurt on the side.
Sausages look spectacular. Having attempted the recipe I am wondering how you stabilise the RED colour from the beetroot for the sausages to maintain colour longer than overnight?
That’s a good question. My memory is that they did ‘fade’ a bit. I’ll have to make them again and see. A higher proportion of duck would make them look more red. Beetroot maintains its colour pretty well (whereas the powder has less colour). I don’t have an answer at the moment, but you have me wondering. Thansk for asking…
You would need to use cure #1at a rate of 2.5g per kg to help preserve colour after cooking. You can also add a bunch of smoked paprika as well. also can sneak in a touch of annatto powder but definitely use cure #1. when using cure you leave overnight in the fridge before cooking and this also helps the colour retention.