Sausages- a specialty, a delicacy, an economic necessity

Is it possible to produce good food unless you are passionate about the process as well as the end product? The constant refinements and iterations that take each cook to the next level, coupled with the desire to see the dishes you create putting smiles on the faces of other people at least as much—if not more—than they light up your own palate.

For me, this process doesn’t begin or end with the food. It also includes seeking to understand why something exists, and what human or geographical events have shaped it into being. This, for me at least, is every bit as interesting and rewarding as the food itself. To my immense satisfaction, we are increasingly discovering that we are not alone in this, and that these stories are putting smiles on the faces of the people who digest them every bit as much as our food.

What on earth am I talking about? Let’s explore this further through the medium of the humble sausage.

Every Texas BBQ meal kit we serve is presented by a virtual host who briefly walks you through the history of Texas BBQ and how live-fire cooking and slow-smoked meats have come to be so utterly ubiquitous on the world culinary stage. In the video, you’ll discover that sausage-making techniques were introduced to Texans by German and Czech migrants around the mid-1800s—and that this changed Texas BBQ forever.

Do you want to know why sausage was so widely adopted? Because it coupled necessity with flavour in a way that has been replicated the world over, in times when food was harder to come by than it is today—and even harder to store. If you look closely at the economics of modern smokehouses, the factor that made sausage such a useful addition to the menu remains just as relevant today. And that factor is waste—or, more precisely, the minimisation of it.

Assume, if you will, that the core meats in most Texas smokehouses are beef brisket and pork spare ribs. What these two meats have in common, and how they came to form the backbone of Texas BBQ, is that they were historically inexpensive. Cost mattered to a general population that included freed Black Texans, Mexican, German, and Czech immigrants, ranch hands, railroad workers, and labourers.

Low-and-slow cooking techniques suited these meats perfectly, breaking them down from chewy, tough, well-worked cuts into a deliciously succulent, melt-in-the-mouth, affordable meal. But if you’ve ever cooked brisket or ribs, you’ll know it’s not just a case of throwing some meat on the fire. Each cut must be trimmed for shape (a streamlined profile improves airflow through the smoker), even thickness (to promote consistent cooking), and to remove any straggly pieces that would otherwise burn and become inedible during hours of exposure to heat and smoke.

To someone actively seeking affordable meat—and to the markets and smokehouses hoping to attract them—“trim” sounds a lot like waste. And waste is cost. And unnecessary cost is, in such an environment, anathema. So one wonders… what was to be done?

Enter the sausage.

To this day, in smokehouses all over Texas, you’ll find sausage as one third of the exalted Texas Trinity, alongside its brethren: beef brisket and pork ribs. Look closely and you’ll notice that Texas sausage is often a blend of beef and pork mince. Why? You guessed it—to avoid waste.

Smokehouses continue to make and serve sausages as a way to utilise the trim produced when preparing their brisket and ribs. Much as it was historically, this can still make the difference between turning a profit and merely breaking even.

And because humans are humans—and because these sausages have been refined over time by people passionate about both process and product—they also just happen to be absolutely delicious.

True to tradition, at WorldFeast our sausages are a 50:50 mix of beef and pork, used to hoover up any meat left over after trimming our brisket and pork ribs. Made to our recipe by our local butcher, we prepare a central batch of sausage meat incorporating herbs and spices, which is then divided into:

Texas Hot Link – Chilli flakes and cayenne pepper are added to bring a warming kick. Not too hot, but you’ll know it’s there. A true Texan classic.

Jalapeño & Cheddar – Cheddar cheese and pickled jalapeño are added to the base mix. A great example of Mexican influence in Texas BBQ, and an absolute banger: creamy cheese with fresh, mild heat.

Sausages cook more quickly than many other BBQ meats and therefore benefit from a technique known as cold smoking. We run the smoker at around 65°C to impart maximum smoke flavour, always using an all-oak fire. After approximately four hours, the temperature is raised to between 120°C and 130°C to finish the sausages.

We’ve followed the well-trodden path of many pitmasters before us, aiming to minimise waste while seeking to understand how—and why—these practices came into being in the first place. This is the part of the process we love.

So next time you’re stuck for a date-night idea, planning a dinner party, or browsing the at-home meal kits the internet has to offer, try asking yourself which part of the process their purveyors are passionate about. Because I’ll bet that if you can find that, you’ll find a meal to remember.