Cathy and I attended this last night and so did, we were happy to find, JSM, whose wife is on the board of the DANKhaus. The DANKhaus, like a lot of old Chicago institutions, finds itself at a certain age with a large building and a lessened audience and mission, so one thing they started doing recently was a series of cooking classes. The first one was on schnitzel, and last night's was on sausage-making, and both, apparently, have sold out, so watch for more (including a repeat of this one in November, we were told).
Running the class was Chef Martin, who helped open Spago (he was wearing the whites to prove it) and now has his own business of nitrite-free sausages sold at various small stores around town (Harvestime, Provenance, Zaleski & Horvath, etc.) He pulled a game young woman from the crowd to make short work of a large pork butt and started mixing up the spices for three sausages: kielbasa, bratwurst and a Spanish chorizo.
The class was very easygoing, as the beer in his hand attests: in fact we all, for our registration fee, received a beverage of our choice. For Cathy and me, who had collaborated some months back on
sopressata and other dry sausages, the main interest here was watching someone who really knew what he was doing work the Kitchenaid attachments for sausage-making. We basically found that we had done everything right, we just weren't all that good at it yet, and definitely picked up some pointers on technique. As with all sausage-making events, it took about .002 seconds before the phallic jokes were flying.
In the end, three big trays of sausages, which translated to...
...a hearty plate for each of us. As we noshed, Cathy and I got to talking to, among others, a couple near us who, as serendipity would have it, not only knew LTHForum and Sky Full of Bacon but had had their own recent
whole pig adventures with some mangalitsa pigs and were wondering what to do with large amounts of mangalitsa pork in their freezer. It was great to be able to share some insight into making bacon, coppa, etc. and to hear about the process of being a first-time pig-raiser and butcher who lives in the city. It's a small pork world.
Anyway, great way to spend a Friday evening instead of just watching TV or something, I highly recommend the class and am curious to pick up some of Chef Martin's sausages now.
_________________
Watch
Sky Full of Bacon, the Chicago food HD podcast!
New episode:
Soil, Corn, Cows and CheeseWatch the Reader's James Beard Award-winning
Key Ingredient here.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
