![]() ![]() Armed with this master ratio, and my Pinoy tastebuds, I went about creating my own recipe for homemade Filipino Longanisa. ![]() While there is no Longanisa recipe in Charcuterie, Ruhlman and Polcyn have a great “master ratio” for a standard sausage that consists of 5 pounds of pork and fat, 1.5 ounces of kosher salt, seasonings, and 1 cup of ice-cold liquid. Although Charcuterie was written by non-Filipinos, I wanted to use it as a guideline for making Filipino sausage because it’s a great cookbook with sound sausage-making advice regardless of who wrote it. So, a few weeks ago, I decided I’d try my hand at homemade Longanisa, using Charcuterie as a guide. It also helped that the Filipino love of pork that was hardwired into my brain eventually made itself more dominant. My great aunt’s homemade Longanisa, I slowly learned, was the best sausage I’ve tasted-grease, pig guts, and all.Įven more years later, after reading Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s Charcuterie and after returning from a charcuterie and salumi-filled vacation in Europe, I learned that grease and pig parts are to be revered rather than feared. Yup, my great aunt twists a mean Longanisa link-chopping her pork and stuffing her casings all by hand. But nothing compared to the gold-standard of Longanisas in my family-those made by my grandmother’s sister. These store-bought links were fairly decent, if not overly sweet and filled with preservatives, food coloring, and who knows what else. I started eating the Longanisa my mother would sometimes bring home from the Asian market. As such, my aversion to Longanisa slowly gave way, link by garlicky link. And last I checked, my father had all 10 digits in tact. Years later, after reading “The Jungle” in high school, I figured that there were worse things that could end up in sausage besides grease and pig guts. But every time I saw Longanisa on our dinner table, I remembered pig guts and my dad’s greazy meat grinder-memories strong enough to prevent me from enjoying a truly delicious Filipino specialty. I ate my fair share of hot dogs as a kid. ![]() This isn’t to say I avoided all sausage consumption. While this scenario may be old-hat to grizzled sausage-making veterans, it was a bit disturbing to me as a little kid, what with all the grease and pig guts. I remember him squishing fatty pork chunks through his old school hand-cranked meat grinder, and then stuffing this slippery mess into lengths and lengths of pig intestines. One hot, San Fernando Valley summer when I was a wee little boy, my dad sweated away in our little kitchen making homemade Longanisa. But, seeing as I’m Filipino, and this is a Filipino Food Blog, I must mention with pride that most distinct Filipino sausage redolent of black pepper, vinegar, and garlic: Longanisa.Īlthough I’ve only somewhat recently come to appreciate the vinegary virtues of Longanisa, there was a time in my life when I avoided this sausage at all costs. Of course, France, Italy, and Germany all have their own unique sausage incarnates, but so does China, Mexico, Spain, the good ‘ol USA, and countless other cultures. Sausage is as near a universal food as you can get. See my new and improved recipe for Homemade Longanisa. ![]()
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