Sausage Porn, old enticing photos!

One of my favorite things from my brief stint in culinary school was the option to take electives. While most college students find this a fun benefit, it was exceedingly so for me in culinary school (as if tennis didn't measure up during my B.A.!). Some of my favorites included Fermentation, Cheese Making and Cuisines of China. But without question my favorite was Chef Pierre's Sausage Making Class. This was an evening class and it led up to the holiday break. It was one night a week and we made some damn good encased meats. Each class we made 2-3 types of sausage per pair of students. I took my camera in one class towards the end of the quarter. Here are some noteworthy photos!

A rack going into the smoker/cooker.

Cooked Sausages: Kielbasa, Linguica, Andouille, Cotto, Boudin Noir and Leberkase

More Cooked Sausages: Saucisson de Lyon, Bockwurst, Braunsweiger, Scrapple

Raw sausages: Merguez, Bratwurst, Boudin Blanc, Greek Lukanika and Bangers

More Raw Sausages: Vermouth Chicken, Sun-dried Tomato Chicken and Thai Sausage.

Classmate Nate holding our 10+ lb. Cotto Salami. Being fully matured college students we took every opportunity to make jokes about stuffing our bung (holes). He and I did a few of the large format sausages.

Our 25+ pound Mortadella. I screwed it up after the class. I misunderstood which cooler it was supposed to go into and it ended up spoiling and molding over the holiday break. Talk about feeling bad! It was a beauty until I put it in the drying cooler for 2 weeks!

The last day of class we had a dinner and invited all those important people in the school to come by and PIG OUT! Ha, I know. We made traditional accompaniments to most of the sausages. You know, cabbages, potatoes, etc. The school garde manger kitchen was nice. It had an Enviro-Pak smoker, electric feed sausage stuffers, vertical stuffers, combi ovens, and the now infamous fermentation room! Many of the recipes we did were directly from Rytek Kutas' book Great Sausage Recipes as it was our "handbook."