Here are a few things you might find useful when making this sausage
- Iodophor Sanitizer
- MK4 Thermapen (Accurate Thermometer)
- Sausage Pricker
- Accurate Scale for spices
- Accurate scale for meat (up to 33 pounds)
- Non Fat Dry Milk Powder
- Meat Grinders
- Sausage Stuffer
- Stuffing horn cleaner
- Heavy Duty Kitchen Vacuum Sealer
- Custom Cutting Board (Use discount code 2GUYS15 at checkout for a sweet discount)
Enjoy the video and the recipe. If you have any questions feel free to ask away. If you make this at home I’d love to hear about how it came out!!
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Merguez Sausage
A North African Lamb Sausage
How much do you want to make? 1000 grams
Ingredients
- 1000 g lamb shoulder 70/30 (or you can do a 50/50 lamb and beef mixture with 30% fat)
- 16 g kosher salt
- 3 g black pepper
- 2 g cumin seed
- 2 g coriander powder
- 4 g smoked paprika
- 3 g cayenne powder
- 1 g all spice
- 5 g minced garlic
- 30 ml harissa sauce
- 60 ml water
- 20 g Non Fat Dry Milk optional for better bind and moisture retention
- sheep casings 18-24mm
Harissa Sauce
- 15 dried chiles de árbol
- 2 dried guajillo chiles
- 1 dried ancho chile
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1½ tsp coriander seeds
- 3 each garlic cloves crushed
- 30 ml fresh lemon juice
- 15 ml white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1½ tsp Hot smoked Spanish paprika
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 120 ml olive oil added to the blender
- 60 ml olive oil added after the sauce is made
Instructions
- For the harissa sauce
- Place árbol, guajillo, and ancho chiles in a large heatproof measuring glass. Pour boiling water over to submerge, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit until chiles are very pliable and cool enough to handle, 15–20 minutes. Drain; remove stems and seeds and discard (wear gloves for this part if you have them).
- Toast the cumin seeds and coriander seeds in a dry small skillet over medium-low heat till fragrant. 2-3 minutes tossing constantly. Transfer to a blender.
- In the blender add the garlic and the rehydrated chilies. Blend on high till a paste is formed. Next add the lemon juice, vinegar, tomato paste, paprika, and salt and process until the mixture is 75% smooth. With the blender on a medium speed, drizzle in the olive oil (blender). Continue to blend till the olive oil is incorporated.
- transfer the harissa sauce to a bowl and stir in the remaining olive oil.
- This can be made ahead and refrigerated.
For the Merguez Sausage
- Clean the meat from any sinew, arteries, and veins. Cut the meat and fat into small pieces and place in the freezer to chill. You want the temperature to be below 34f.
- Grind the chilled meat/fat on a 6mm plate. Add all of the spices to the meat and rechill. For a finer texture regrind partially frozen mince meat on a 4.5mm plate (optional)
- Mix the chilled meat/fat (under 34f) with the harissa sauce, and water. Once the texture begins to get tacky and can stick toy your hand once it's turned upside down you can stop mixing.
- Stuff into sheep casings, link, prick out any air pockets, and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day cook and enjoy!
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I will try this recipe with great expectations .And eagerly hahaha
Produced main prep tonight with 50/50 lamb leg and pork butt. No dry milk necessary because of the pork and I know this isn’t traditional whatsoever. I prefer this sausage managed with pork fat because it helps with what we’re doing now in the kitchen. Easier in a way.
Produced the harissa as directed but cut out many ancho chiles and replaced with two charred and peeled red bells. Added a bit of caraway / toasted everything and toasted half the garlic / comal style.
Otherwise Harissa pretty much as recipe detailed. Vitamix but didn’t let it roll too long. Stirred in final good oil to cover and develop flavor overnight. Got about a quart total.
All meat for merguez cut into 1″ and *seasoned ahead of time* and in the fridge “before grinding.” It’s how I do. Tomorrow I’ll come in, stick it in the freezer for an hour and then grind. …paddle mix for at least a minute and add ice water at the same time. 10# batch.
We have hog casings and it’s what we’ll use but if we make it more often, sheep casing next.
Will serve this merguez grilled with chickpeas, pickled mussels, this harissa.
I cut out a lot of the cayenne because it seemed big for how we’re serving.
Thank you very much for the formulas.
Very happy with this sausage. The flavors are intense and bright. The tutorials yall put up are spot on. All I had were two leg of lamb, They were very lean so I added 2lbs pork back fat to 7lbs of lamb and 1lb of beef round steak. Had to use the beef to finish out the fat/meat ratio. I thought about a 3lb backfat to 7lbs lean meat for a 30% ratio but when I got it all piled up and looked at 3lbs of pork back fat I was like dang that’s a lot of fat so I went with 20% ratio or 2lbs and when cooking it rendered well but still stayed juicy.
I have never had Harissa before but I do make red chili sauce from the exact chilis the recipe calls for so it is similar and flat out DELISHIOUS however I didn’t like the seed remnants getting stuck in my teeth so next time I am going to grind them in a spice grinder. Now to the casings!! Sheep casings give me fits!!! I had the Sausage Maker 18-24mm casing’s and I swear there ain’t one dam casing even close to 24mm. Your sausage looks like a hot dog size and mine look like snack sticks!! I struggled just getting the ends open to fit over stuffing 1/2″ tube and sometimes the casing would stick on tube then would get overstuffed and spring a meat leak…I am thinking I will buy the 22-24mm casings that oh by the way appears in your video but recipe calls for 18-24mm. Or just switch to 32-33mm pork casings instead and avoid all the frustrations.
One final note. Letting the sausage stay in fridge overnight to meld spices was genius. The wonderful aroma punches you in the face. Can’t wait to try this with recipe wild game. Thanks 2 guys & A Cooler!!
I wonder how these would go smoked.
I have 4 lamb shoulders in the cooler that I was thinking of turning into sausage.
I’m thinking 2 of them per the recipe and the other 2 with the addition of cure and smoke. Thoughts?
that sounds amazing!!
wow vraiment les meilleures saucisses que j’ai manger de ma vie !!! merci Eric, tu a révolutionner ma façon de faire des saucisses !!!!
Nice!!! Thank you for the comment.