A garlic pork sausage, smoked over beech and wild cherry wood, then poached in broth
The smell of the smokehouse, the garlic coming through in every slice: a homemade smoked sausage never stays on the board for long. This recipe guides you through making flavorful artisanal charcuterie and mastering every step along the way. With patience and care, you’ll end up with a sausage that everyone at the table will enjoy.
What Is Smoked Garlic Sausage?
Smoked garlic sausage is a traditional type of charcuterie, prized for its rich, aromatic flavor. The pork is seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper, lightly sweetened, then smoked. The sausage is then poached in broth before serving.
All About the Smokehouse
Smoked garlic sausage comes from regions where preserving meat by smoking was essential, and it is part of the artisanal charcuterie tradition of France and Europe. Smoking preserves the meat and gives it its aroma.
The Main Ingredients in Smoked Garlic Sausage
The sausage meat combines two-thirds pork shoulder with one-third pork belly. Choose fresh, good-quality cuts, preferably from farm-raised pork: the meat directly determines the texture and flavor of the sausage.
The seasoning stays simple: garlic, salt, pepper, a little sugar and a splash of alcohol. Egg whites, added the next day, bind the sausage meat.
Natural beef casings let the flavors spread better during smoking and cooking. Soak them in lukewarm water before use to soften them.
Technical Pointers
Grind the meat evenly using a medium grinding plate: the texture will be uniform, the spices better distributed and the cooking more even.
Let the sausage meat rest in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours so the spices have time to fully penetrate the meat.
Smoke with a mix of beech and wild cherry wood for a balanced aroma, at a low temperature (between 20°C and 30°C): the sausages take on the smoke without cooking.
For cooking, a thermometer helps you keep the broth at 85°C. Any hotter and the casings may burst; any cooler and the sausages won’t cook through.
This recipe was found on the “Charcuterie Di Lorenzo” blog
Ingredients
- 666 g pork shoulder
- 333 g pork belly
- 10 g salt
- 3 g pepper
- 6 g sugar
- 2 cl spirits
- 1 large garlic clove
- 2 egg whites
- Beef casings 50 mm diameter
Instructions
- Cut the pork shoulder and pork belly into strips according to your meat grinder’s instructions
- Run all the meat through the meat grinder
- Add the salt, pepper, sugar, spirits and garlic to the ground meat
- Knead the sausage mixture, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it in the refrigerator overnight
- The next day, add the egg whites and knead the mixture again
- Stuff the mixture into the beef casings to form the sausages
- Leave the sausages to drain for 48 hours in a cool place
- Smoke the sausages over a mix of beech and wild cherry wood until they reach the color you want
- Make a vegetable broth with an onion studded with 2 cloves, three slices of fresh ginger, a carrot, a turnip, the white part of a leek and a sprig of thyme
- Cook the sausages in the broth at 85°C for 45 minutes
- Serve the smoked, cooked sausages however you like
