Saucisse de Lyon

[chris-s]

I've just had a great lunch featuring poached Lyon sausage on a bed of lentils (Hélène Darroze at the Connaught, London).

So now I'd like to make some Lyon sausage AKA Saucisse de Lyon. This is a fresh sausage for cooking, not the Jesus de Lyon salami style product. Sometimes it has pistachio nuts in it.

I can't find a recipe: can anyone help? I've tried all the usual sources including sausagemaking.org & Len Poli's site plus internet searches.

I believe the sausage contains pork, wine & seasoning but beyond that I have no idea. The one I ate was about 50mm dia so I'd need some large casings: suggestions please.

Thanks.

[Chris Hennes]

Did it look like the one in the photo on this page? I'm having a hard time tracking it down under that name, what keeps coming up is a cured sausage.

[RobertCollins]

Jane Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery

I have a 2007 copy. there are two recipes one in all pork on pg 136 and another with beef added on pg. 142. Hope this helps.

edit to answer Chris, Grigson says to hang it with good air flow and "If you are too impatient and try to eat the sausages too soon they will taste horrible; so leave them for six months."

I think that is cured.

Edited February 5, 2011 by RobertCollins (log)

[nickrey]

It is included in the quirky "Book of Sausages" by Antony and Araminta Hippisley-Coxe.

The ingredients that they list are:

Leg of Pork

Pork Back Fat

Salt

Saltpetre

White Peppercorns

Ground White Pepper

Quatre Epices

Garlic

Hog casings

The sausages are strung so as to straighten out the natural curve of the casing and dried in a cool, airy place for 3-6 months.

I realise that you said it was a fresh sausage so perhaps the makers omitted the saltpetre/sodium nitrate and refrigerated it to dry it slightly while the ingredients melded.

The authors tend to list ingredients and give quirky, vague directions (or no directions at all) but at least they had the recipe.

ps. As for most sausages, the recipe is not set in stone so it is likely that there would be significant degrees of variation between individual producers, such as adding pistachio nuts.

[Kerry Beal]

An online search using fresh lyon sausage seems to indicate that the fresh version is called cervalas - link here to article. Perhaps searching that name will yield a recipe.

[chris-s]

Kerry,

I'd already looked up cervelas, under "cervelas recipe", which only gave dishes prepared with the sausage but your posting prompted me to look again under "cervelas ingredients".

What I've found so far is: Cervelas de lyon

The elegant French cervelas is thought to have originated in Florence and originally included brains (cervelle), the source of its name. Made from lean pork shoulder mixed with belly and bacon, it is seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar. It may also include port, Madeira, or Cognac and truffles, pistachios, or morels. It is uncooked and must be kept refrigerated 1 to 2 days and simmered for 30 to 40 minutes per pound, or until it bubbles when pricked. It is closely related to German cervelat.

from Quirk Books: www.quirkbooks.com and found on Chow.com

Now I've simply got to figure out the proportions: can't see truffles appearing in the final recipe somehow

[janeer]

In her authoritative book French Provincial Cooking, Elizabeth David discusses the differences among the sausages of Lyon and suggests some English substitutes as very close in nature. She does not, unfortunately, give a recipe for the sausage itself (although several for using it). In my penguin paperback 1970, discussion is on p. 49 and 262 on. It may be helpful.

[Paul Stanley]

Anne Willan in French Regional Cooking gives a recipe. I haven't tried it. But it seems to be a pretty "standard" sort of pork sausage: 750g lean pork meat (shoulder, eg), 250g back fat, 12g salt, seasoned generously with white pepper and parsimoniously with nutmeg, and enriched with a couple of tablespoons of cognac or port, and 30g peeled pistachios. Optional extra is 30g truffles. The meat is ground fine, and she specifies a "large" sausage casing, but without being more specific.

My recollection was that lyonnais sausage tends to be a bit garlicky too, but there's none in her recipe. I also have a recollection that I've seen them (when cooked in brioche) still pink, which suggests that one might need to replace a bit of the salt with pink salt if one cared about the colour and knew what one was doing; it's not surprising that should be missing from a recipe firmly aimed at the home cook.

Edited February 6, 2011 by Paul Stanley (log)

[chris-s]

Hi Chris,

No, that looks a bit like a cured sausage, although there could be a colour cast on the photo.

The one I had was pure pork & quite crumbly in texture - a coarse grind - lightly salted but with a hint of sweetness.

Possibly there's a reciope in Hélène Darroze's "Personne ne me volera ce que j'ai dansé" book but at GBP54 (roughly USD100)I don't want to find out the hard way that there isn't.

I'm coming round to the view that I can create something edible using the hints on various websites I've visited but, being lazy, I'd still quite like a definitive recipe.

[chris-s]

@ #8

Paul,

that recipe will probably do fine, although I'd grind the pork more coarsely, to match what I ate and because I like a coarse grind.

The port would give the hint of sweetness and the seasoning sounds about right. A little cure would keep the pinkness and I'll get some Ox runners for casings.

Thanks

Edited February 6, 2011 by chris-s (log)

[HKDave]

There's a recipe in "The Professional Charcuterie Series". These are the recipes taught to French charcuterie students. Paraphrased:

Cervelas de Lyon Truffe

For 5kg:

2.5kg lean pork shoulder, cubed

1.5kg pork breast, trimmed, cubed

1kg fatback, cubed

90g curing salt (this is European curing salt, not US - see note below)

10g sugar

5g quatre epices

50ml Maderia

(150g truffles)

(Pistachios)

Marinade meat and fat with salt+spices overnight. Grind 8mm (1/4"). 40-60mm beef or pork casing. They say dry for 24-48hr at 20C (room temp) after stuffing; personally I dry sausage in the fridge. They suggest a tricky way of stuffing such that the truffles are visible through the skin; I prefer this sausage without truffles.

Note re curing salt:

90g of Euro curing salt contains 0.54g of sodium nitrite. If you are using US #1 curing salt, the conversion would be to use 8.5g of #1 cure (=0.53g of sodium nitrite) plus 82g plain salt instead of the Euro curing salt in the recipe. Lyonaisse sausage should appear rosy; hence the drying time to make the skin as transparent as possible and the use of cure.

Edited February 7, 2011 by heidih
Correct meat quantities (log)

[chris-s]

Thanks Dave - that's exactly what I need