The Stewpot Recipe Gallery

Lucanian Sausages

Apicius, #61:

Lucanicae: … Teritur piper, cuminum, satureia, ruta, petroselinum, condimentum, bacae lauri, liquamen, et admiscetur pulpa bene tunas ita ut denuo bene cum ipso subtrito fricetur.  Cum liquamine admixto, pipere integro et abundanti pinguedine et nucleis incies in intestinum perquam tenuatim perductum, et sic ad fumum suspenditur. 

Translation:  [Lucanian Sausages:  … Pepper is ground with cumin, savory, rue, parsley, condiments, bay berries, and garum.  Finely ground meat is mixed in, then ground again together with the other ground ingredients.  Mix with garum, peppercorns, and plenty of fat, and pine nuts; fill a casing stretched extremely thin, and thus it is hung in smoke. [Giacosa, p. 182]

Ingredients:

One pound pork and pork fat, mixed (approx 70% lean)
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon winter savory, dried, or 1 T. fresh
1/4 teaspoon ground juniper berries
1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce (garum)
1 T. fresh parsley (3-4 sprigs)
2 T. pine nuts, very coarsely chopped
Sausage casings

Preparation Steps

Cut meat and fat into chunks and place in a bowl.  Sprinkle with pepper, cumin, savory, juniper berries, and fish sauce.  Mix with hands so that all chunks are well-coated with spice mixture.  Break stems from parsley, and break each sprig into 3-4 pieces.  Add to meat mixture and toss.  Put meat mixture through meat grinder, or grind with a food processor.  Mix in pine nuts and stuff into sausage casings.  Finished sausages may be grilled, boiled, roasted, or smoked. 

Number of Servings

Makes 8-10 small sausages.

Redaction Notes

Note that rue is omitted from this recipe, due to possible health concerns.  Bay berries were unavailable, so juniper berries were substituted, as they appear in other meat recipes in Apicius.  I was unable to determine what “condiments” are referred to, so they were omitted.

I originally attempted to make this recipe without chopping the pine nuts first, but they clogged my modern sausage-stuffing equipment.  Therefore, I recommend either chopping the nuts before adding them, or planning to re-grind the sausage mixture after adding them (which is what I ended up doing).

The original recipe calls for additional pepper, in the form of whole peppercorns, but after cooking a sample, my tasters agreed that it did not need any additional seasonings.  Pepper fans may feel free to add a few whole peppercorns to the mixture before stuffing the sausage into the casings.

References

• Giacosa, Ilaria Gozzini (Herklotz, Anna, translator).  A Taste of Ancient Rome.  The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1992.  ISBN 0-226-29032-8.
• Vehling, Joseph Dommers (translator).  Apicius:  Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome.  Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1977.  ISBN 0-486-23563-7.

Date Of Redaction

March, 2003.