Critic-Turned-Cook Tackles Sausage Making
Critic Turned Cook follows former Seattle Post-Intelligencer food critic Leslie Kelly on her journey away from the keyboard and into the kitchen. Take it away, Leslie!
Leslie Kelly meets her sausage maker
Oh man, I love the sausage at Shultzy's, the popular pub near the University of Washington where I've been working. Especially the andouille, which is made with a super-secret recipe that owner Don Shultze got from a mysterious Cajun woman who walked through his door years ago and asked him to make her a batch. "She never came back, but I still use her recipe," he said.
The sausage making process isn't so pretty though—the meat squeezed into casings that used to be known as intestines. Yeah. You've got to have the right touch when you're cranking the handle and adjusting the amount that's funneling through the tube, or you'll have sausages that are too skinny or too fat.
When the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" traveled to Seattle last year to film some episodes, they wanted to feature Shultzy's, especially the sausage-making end of the restaurant. But the owners weren't keen on letting the crew shoot what some might consider a less-than-appetizing process. The producers said they would pull the plug if they didn't agree to all-access; the Shultzes replied that that was fine, and they wouldn't be crying in their IPA about not being on the show. (In truth, I don't know why Shultzy's was even on the radar—it's not a diner, drive-in, or dive.)
After spending some time watching the sausage masters (Andy and Jordan) and taking a turn, I had a new appreciation for this ancient art. And the sausages are as beautiful as a well-marbled steak. They're really gorgeous when you sit down to eat one after a wild lunch rush where the tickets stack up because there's no more room on the grill.
Do you think it would turn some diners off if they saw how their food was made?
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5 Comments:
1) Why, yes, I like seeing sausage and the law being made.
B) Kudos to Shultzy's for telling FN to FO.
gb944 at 3:27PM on 06/25/09
Only the folks who still think that meat grows on styrofoam trays...
bruisedbuddha at 3:39PM on 06/25/09
Entirely possible. Those with weak stomachs or people that find raw meat offensive or nauseating (for one reason or another). On the other hand, with films like Food, Inc. lifting the curtain on the food industry secrets, more people may be interested in learning how their food was made.
I, for one, love learning that kind of stuff. But I also love to tinker in the kitchen and have no qualms about handling meat.
slmcdanold at 9:36PM on 06/25/09
Back in the days before freaked out teachers and litigious parents, I took a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts. There, they put us to work making pork sausage, which entailed soaking the casings in warm water until they were soft, and then inflating them with our mouths like little balloons before stuffing a sage-scented ground pork mixture in by hand.
To this day, I have no idea how the school wasn't sued by someone who kept kosher or who might have gotten sick. I still think it was the best field trip up until I took my own students to the Anheuser Busch brewery.
shoneyjoe at 4:19AM on 06/26/09
For Father's day my 8 and 10 year old children gave me a pig head and 4 trotters. We made head cheese, or Copa de testa, for the squimish. Farmers don't raise baby back ribs, they raise pigs. I try to teach my children and friends respect for the animal by using it all. Tonite we're having Tongue tacos, or Tacos de Lengua for the squimish. We try and make it fun in our house, God forbid my children figure out we're trying to teach them something.
NWcajun at 1:42PM on 06/26/09