Gelatine.— Gelatine and glue are derived from a number of animal substances, such as skins, tendons, bones, intestines, horn piths, fish bones, scales, swimming bladders, etc. When any of the above are, after suitable preparation, boiled with water, a solution results which sets into a jelly and gelatine solution are thoroughly mixed together by agitation, and the solution is then raised to the boiling point, when the albumen coagulates and imprisons the impurities and the jelly may be filtered clear.
German or Luncheon Sausage — sometimes called also Breakfast Sausage or Bologna Sausage.—The sausage made under any of the names given is a purely British product, and does not exist in any other countries, except America. In Germany or Italy (Bologna), they do not know it.
The best recipe,
of this sausage is
follows:—
18 lbs. beef.
12 lbs. salt trimmings.
12 lbs. back fat.
14 lbs. farinaceous material.
10 lbs. water.
8 ozs. dry antiseptic.
The back fat should be cut separately into squares about half-an-inch in size and added to the mixture in the machine when it is nearly finished, so that little squares of fat will appear in the sausage. The farinaceous material should be of the very best flour, corn flour, and farina.
The seasoning should be made up as follows :—
5½ ozs. white pepper.
3 ozs. saltpetre.
1 ozs. mace.
1 ozs. nutmeg.
2 ozs. Ginger.
½ ozs. Cinnamon.
1 ozs. sugar.
This quantity to be used for each block. The colour may be added to the shade required. But it
must be quite certain that the colour is purely vegetable and harmless. The colour of the mixture should be nicely meaty in appearance, and uniformity should be aimed at, so that all the produce of this sausage should be alike in appearance. It is best to add the colour in solution, and the quantity must be left to the judgment of the operator. The mixture is filled into clean and sweet ox-bungs by means of the ordinary sausage filler, fitted with a wide nozzle for the purpose. They are tied so as to allow of a little expansion of the materials in cooking. Tie strings to both ends of the sausage so as to form a loop by which to lift them. Now plunge them into water heated to 180º Fahr., and boil at that temperature for an hour. Drop the temperature then to 170º Fahr., and keep it at that for two hours. The sausages are then cooked and may be taken out and placed in the smoke stove until they become a brownish tinge. Some makers hang German sausages in cold smoke hole over night and smoke six hours next day. Colour is said to be perfect and skin hard. They are then taken out, cooled, and after rubbing with a cloth containing some olive oil, they can be sent out. The colour may be improved by dipping the sausages in brown dye before smoking. The smoke flavour may also be intensified by adding some smoke pmvder to the mixture when being chopped. This addition is preferred by many.
Recently much attention has been given to the fact that a green mould appears on these sausages after keeping them for a few days. This, however, can be prevented by the use of an antiseptic varnish. The cooking is very often done in a Douglas's ham cooker. By this method it is a very cleanly operation. The sausages should be laid on the racks and when the door has been put on, turn on the steam until the temperature is steady at 180° Fahr, at which temperature keep it for an hour. After one hour reduce the temperature to 170" Fahr., and keep it at that for two hours. The sausages will then be cooked. The lowering of the temperature prevents bursting of the skins, and waste in weight.
German Sausage—sometimes called Bologna or Breakfast Sausage.—The ordinary German sausage, as made in this country, is maunfactured in a variety of ways, according to the locality, and as meat is easy to get or not. It is, therefore, difficult to lay down any general rule in the matter of the meats to be chosen. Where hams and salt pork or salt meat are the principal items to be used, it is necessary that the maker should make allowance for the salt present. In all cases some judgment is necessary in substituting anything else for beef, veal, or pork. These are the only items in the recipe which call for any variation, and that variation will depend on the meats which are available. If the sausage maker chooses to follow this recipe entirely he will produce a splendid sausage, but must not expect if he departs from it to any great extent to meet with much success.
Recipe for German Sausages.
16 lbs. beef.
8 lbs. veal or pork.
8 lbs. back fat.
5 lbs. flour.
5 lbs. sausage meal.
2 ozs dry antiseptic (food preservative).
11 ozs. salt.
3 ozs. saltpetre.
4 ozs. white pepper.
1 ozs. ground coriander seed.
1 ozs. ground nutmegs.
½ ozs. ground ginger.
1 ozs. cane sugar dissolved in water.
3 ozs. smoke powder.
¼ a teaspoonful Armenian bole (No. 1).*
Where smaller quantities are desired, simply reduce the recipe by dividing each of the quantities of ingredients by same figure, so as to maintain always the same proportion.
[*Armenian bole is an allowed food colorant - SI]
Method of Preparation.—Before placing meats to be used in machine, cut them all, excluding back fat, into pieces about two inches square, and mix together by hand, having previously dipped the hands in cold water. When mixed in this way put into machine and proceed to chop. Scald the flour previous to use and put it in next, then add the sausage meal, dry, very slowly, running it through the fingers. This will enable it to be thoroughly incorporated with the mixture, and allow it to suck up the fat. Add next all the other ingredients. The mixture, except where very wet frozen meat is used, will become very dry, and it is then necessary to add some water until the proper consistency is reached. When the mixture is thoroughly well mixed add the back fat, which should be either cut into small pieces by hand or cut through a fat cutting machine. Sometimes it will serve to cut it up into pieces of about two inches square and simply put it into machine at this stage, but it is much more desirable to have the fat cut into pieces of the proper size, and then added to mixture. The proper size is about half-an-inch square. After adding to mixture give machine a few turns so as to mix the back fat and other ingredients, then stop the machine, withdraw the mixture, and fill by means of sausage filler, with a big funnel, into ox-bungs—preferably the "cup" ends.
When the sausages are filled and properly tied, a piece of stout string should be tied round each end so as to form a loop to lift them by. Drop them into jacketed pan or copper, in which the water is not quite boiling (or about 180º F.), and allow them to simmer, not to boil, for two hours, then withdraw them. Should they be very large, however, they will require about three hours. Before taking them out of copper it is necessary to have the dye ready.
It is prepared thus :—
Take a barrel, or tin vessel, of about twenty gallons capacity, and into this put 4 ozs. of brown German dye; add to this 4 ozs. food preservative (dry antiseptic), and then put in about sixteen gallons of hot water and stir up. Every time this dye has to be used it must be heated, but it does not need to be boiled, and a very good plan for getting the proper heat is to lead a steam pipe, if such is available, into the barrel, and by this means heat the solution when required. It is not necessary to have all this quantity of solution so long as the proportion of 1 oz. dye and 1 oz.
preservative to four gallons of water is kept. A smaller quantity is easily heated on the fire, or by putting the vessel containing it on the side of copper while the German sausages are being cooked. It is also necessary to have a tub or barrel for cooling and fixing the dye. An ordinary butter keg of about 1 cwt. size will answer this purpose. Into this put 2 lbs. of alum and fill up with cold water to within six inches or so of the top. The solution should always be kept cold, as the colder the temperature the better is the fixing property, and in this way the dye will be prevented from going through the skin.
The Process of Dyeing the Skins —As soon as the sausages are withdrawn from the copper or jacketed pan, dip them into the warm solution of dye, and let them remain for two or three minutes. Remove them after that time, dip them into the fixing tub, and allow them to remain about the same time there. Remove the sausages, lay them on a rack with shelves made of wire netting, and allow them to cool. Or perhaps the better plan is to tie a cord round the ausage and suspend until cool and dry.
To Brighten the Skins. — When cold, it will be found advisable to rub the skins with a cloth on which a little salid oil has been poured ; this will brighten them, and they will then be ready for sale.
Note on Bungs.—Ox-bungs are to be bought either cured in salt or in the dried state. In the dried state they keep much longer than in salt. The salt is apt to make little holes through the skins after a time and so render them useless. In the dried state they ought to be kept in a dry place, so as to prevent their being attacked by maggots, and they should also be kept in a place where mice will not get at them, as they are very partial to nibbling them all round the edges.
German Sausage.—(Another Recipe).—
15 lbs. bull beef.
10 lbs. salt American pork.
12 lbs. back fat.
12 lbs. farina.
3 lbs. sausage meal.
8 lbs. water.
4 ozs. white pepper (No. 2 super).
1 ozs. ground ginger.
2 ozs. dry antiseptic.
2 ozs. ground corianders.
¼ ozs. ground cayenne.
1 ozs. ground nutmegs.
1 ozs. ground sage.
3 ozs. powdered saltpetre.
¼ teaspoonful Armenian bole (No. 1).
2 teaspoonfuls cane sugar (dissolve in hot water).
Method of Preparation.—Chop beef in machine till fine, adding seasoning during process, then throw in pork until the whole is cut fine. Mix farina with water and pour it in, then put in the back fat (having cut it into squares, as described in previous recipe), and mix the whole well together. Remove from machine, and fill out into bungs. Hang the sausages in the open air until the skin is well dried, and then smoke them well. On withdrawing them from smoke house, place in copper, and boil for two hours at a temperature of 180° F. These German sausages will keep for some months in good condition. It may be remarked that no salt is added as the quantity derived from the salt pork is enough. Should, however, it be deemed necessary to add to this, a handful thrown in, with seasoning, will suffice.
Giant Sausage of Konigsberg.—The revival of trade after the long stagnation which followed in the wake of the crusades, was responsible for many fantastic procession freaks in the larger towns of Western Europe. For instance, we are told that in the new year's procession at Konigsberg,
in 1558, a Bologna sausage exhibited by the "butchermen" was 622 feet in length, and was carried on the shoulders of sixty-seven men and boys. The one exhibited in the same city in the year 1583, was over 1600 feet in length, and weighed 434 lbs. But the giant of all sausages, and perhaps the largest thing of the kind ever made, was exhibited by the Konigsberg butchers on new year's day in 1601, when they paraded the streets with a Bologna nearly three-quarters of a mile in length, and weighing 2000 lbs. It was carried on the shoulders of 187 men, the first and last in the column each having it wound round their necks.
Ginger.—-The consumption of ginger in Great Britain amounts to a big item. It is one of the most useful spices we have. It is the root of the ginger plant which is so largely grown in the East and West Indies, Brazil, and the West Coast of Africa. There seems to be some doubt as to what part of the world it is native. It is claimed as indigenous to China and also to Guinea. Ginger is used largely in cakes, gingerbread, sauces, spiced wines, and a variety of pleasant eatables and drinkables. It has a stimulating effect on the stomach, and in hot weather or in hot climates where
decomposing food is often eaten, it forms a pleasant corrective. In Jamaica, propagation is done by sub-dividing the root; each piece planted throwing up two different stems. The first bears the leaves and rises sometimes to the height of about three feet, though usually it does not exceed eighteeninches; when this spreads its leaves and is in full perfection, the second stem springs up—the top of which carries a roundish scaly flower-spike. The plant flowers about September and fades again towards the end of the year; and when the stalks are withered the root is considered to be full grown. They are dug up, picked, cleaned, and gradually scalded in boiling water, and are then dried in the sun until they are ready for packing. In the Dacca district of India, the natives cleanse the roots in boiling lime water, but this process is supposed to destroy much of the natural flavour.
Glaze Colour.—Sometimes called Parisian Essence, is a deep brown colour of vegetable origin used for giving the colour of gravy to jelly used for dressing pressed beef and other cooked goods. It is also used for colouring soups. The directions for use are as follows:—Take two parts
gelatine and one part glaze colour, and dissolve in five parts of boiling water, then apply in the usual way.
Glazing for Hams, Tongues, etc.—Boil a shin of beef and knuckle of veal for twelve hours in four gallons of water, adding salt, pepper, and a few cloves, strain the liquor and skim off all fat, return meat from shin of beef to strained liquor, and simmer down to one quart of liquor, withdraw shin meat and add two ounces burnt sugar; when wanted for use warm a portion and paint on with a feather. It will keep good for twelve months.