Sausage

March 1, 2010
Clearly authored for those who prefer knowing how the sausage is made, Wise (American Charcuterie
) writes with the gentility of a woman who owned and operated her own French-style charcuterie in Berkeley in the 1970s, and with the precision of an author of 12 previous books. Here she guides us through the making of a vast array of sausages that can either be shaped by hand or stuffed into casings. She also provides a variety of international recipes that incorporate the freshly made creations. Chapters are broken out by main ingredient, be it pork, beef, lamb, poultry, or seafood. There are even three vegetarian entries for the tofu, bulgur, and brown rice crowd. The classics are all accounted for, including a chorizo made with plenty of garlic for use in a black bean chili, and a basic lamb and rice sausage for stuffing grape leaves or bell peppers. Sweet Italian sausage, with fennel and thyme, is at the heart of a Pittsburgh-style sausage sandwich, while more exotic options include a Vietnamese-style beef meatball made with mint, cilantro, and Thai fish sauce. A gefilte fish recipe in a book with this title may strike some as culinarily sacrilegious, but Wise justifies the entry, simmers her ground white-fish dumplings in a broth of fish bones and heads, and explains that gefilte is actually the Yiddish word for “stuffed.”

April 15, 2010
Wise ("The Pressure Cooker Gourmet; American Charcuterie"), who owned and operated Pig-by-the-Tail Charcuterie in California for 12 years, begins with an introductory discussion of store-bought sausage ingredients (meats, fats, herbs, spices, and salt and pepper) and homemade ingredients (fresh bread crumbs and broths) and presents recipes for pork, beef, lamb, poultry, and seafood sausages. Three vegetarian sausages are also included. The appendix features guidelines for grinding and stuffing sausage at home. Libraries should also consider Susan Mahnke Peery and Charles G. Reavis's "Home Sausage Making", which includes information on equipment that is absent from Wise's book.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2010
America has always loved hot dogs and sandwich salami, but recent years have brought new appreciation of the vast universe of chopped meat that constitutes the sausage. Wise, whose Berkeley shop purveys all manner of these products, teaches that the home cook can conveniently produce a number of sausages withhout always falling back on commercially produced ones. She offers instruction in just about every sort of sausage. Lamb and beef sausages can be put to as many culinary uses as the dominant traditions of pork, and Wise presents even a few sausages of ground fish. Vegetarians appreciate sausage presented as Wises bulgura balls with yogurt sauce. These internationally inclusive sausage recipes dont require the use of casings, and many recipes fall into the category of meatballs, croquettes, and patties. Aware that the process of smoking sausages goes beyond the abilities of most home cooks, Wise judiciously avoids this complex and challenging technique of preserving meat.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)