Mrs. Burgerdogboy love getting our pork on for weekend breakfasts, and this can take many forms: bacon, ham chops, jowls, links, patties, smoked or fresh sausage. This weekend, we picked up some linguica from Uli’s Sausage of Seattle, being sold in the Portland area at Sheridan Fruit Market.
Linguica (for those of you who didn’t click the link to wikipedia) is “Portuguese sausage” a smoked pork link seasoned with garlic and paprika. Outside of the Iberian peninsula, you’ll find it popular in Massachusetts, NJ, Washington and environs, and most of all, in Hawaii. Especially Hawaii, where you’ll find it even on the McDonald’s breakfast menu.
Uli’s is a fresh sausage, that is, one has to cook it prior to consuming. I have a habit of parboiling fresh sausage before frying or grilling, a holdover from days in the Upper Midwest and they want locals treat bratwurst sausages (parboiled in beer).
Uli’s is a very fine grind, which I personally prefer (if you’ve ever ordered andouille in France, you’ll know what I mean). The flavors are strong, but I can’t identify them to you, as the label only lists (in addition to garlic, paprika and red wine), “spices” as an ingredient.
After some discussion on the home front, and multiple tastes, we’re gonna guess that Uli has some finely ground fennel in the links, as well.
It’s a great product. I’ll try others of his as I run across them.
