Posts Tagged ‘Andouille’
StoneRidge Andouille Sausage Review
Having lived in New Orleans for a decade, and Paris for a couple of years, I’m very fond of andouille (on-doo-ee) sausage, a U.S. transplant/evolution from France.
The French version consists of very rough chopped organ meats, onions, wine, and seasoning. They usually have a fairly distinctive odor and are gray in color.
The French Canadians that settled in Louisiana developed their own version, a finer ground sausage using smoked pork shoulder, garlic, peppers, wine, onions, spices and herbs, in a natural casing and smoked a second time.
In Louisiana, andouille is most often used as an “ingredient,” and particularly in gumbos or crawfish boils. You’ll rarely see it consumed on its own, and that’s a shame, cause it’s a nice flavorful change from ordinary smoked sausage.
StoneRidge’s own recipe calls for quality pork, onion, red pepper, and spices in a natural casing, smoked for hours over wood. The effort they put into making it shows in appearance, texture and flavor.
These are good sized sausages, about four to a pound, and today I am using them as a dinner entree. I have parboiled them (although this is not a required preparation step), sliced them on a bias, and then pan-fried in cast iron as it’s too cold to go outside and grill!
I serve ’em with sauerkraut for a hearty winter dinner! (But they would be terrific off the grill and onto a bun!)
StoneRidge Andouille Sausage Review
(Ed. Note – the manufacturer provided product for us to sample)
Our Annual 4th of July Cookout
A modest affair this year, just Mrs. BDB and me, but momentous nonetheless, because the 4th is one of the two days per year that Mrs. BurgerDogBoy has a burger. (The other day is completely random). So we set out to have a “quiet” 4th at home, and it was a wonderfully lazy day, lounging, grazing, a few random cocktails, and a very patriotic BurgerDogBoy having a few Mexican beers, while watching Joey Chestnut claim his 4th Nathan’s hot dog title in a row. You see, I have my own annual tradition, the 4th of July is the one day of the year I tune into ESPN!
We overcooked as usual, and had a choice of sausages from Gartner’s Meat Market, we cooked up some oversized garlic sausages and Gartner’s firey andouille, plus a couple burgers received in a promotional pack from Omaha steaks.
Corn on the cob, potato salad, deviled eggs accompanied, as is our custom. Mrs. BDB decorated her burger with delectables from our condiment garden, variety of lettuce, tomatoes, cuke slices, plus mayo and asked for a slab of Swiss, as well. I went with a Greek-style burger, topped only with feta and kalamata olives.
The Omaha burgers, which I have talked about before, are flavorful, but I would like a coarser grind; also, they are “better” (easier to cook) when plopped right from the freezer onto the grill or griddle. I had completely thawed these, and because they are so lean, I had to reshape them into patties before cooking, not that it matters.
I liked the garlic sausage, even tho it was milder in flavor than I am used to, it was flavorful, a nice fine grind, and the casing had great snap from charring on the Weber. The Andoulle was a coarser grind, lots of red pepper or cayenne, but lacked the deep smokiness so often associated with true Andouille, and while it was good, it was certainly not a match for the ones we picked up at “Eat-An Oyster Bar” a few weeks ago.
Our bellies full, we ended the evening launching fireworks off the driveway in a largely deserted neighborhood, and pondered out menu for July 5th, a legal holiday around these parts. MMMM, Monday grilling!
