Meats and Sausages
Tatar Sausage
The name Tatar initially appeared amongst the nomadic Turkic peoples of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century. As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khan’s army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place and the invaders of Rus and Hungary became known to Europeans as Tatars (or Tartars). After the break up of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, which included most of European Russia and was known as the Golden Horde. This is a hot smoked version of the Tatar sausage which was originally cold smoked and not cooked. To make a cold smoked version, increase salt to 28 g, replace Cure #1 with Cure #2, replace water with Madeira wine and follow instructions for Russian-Cold Smoked sausage.
| Meats | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| lamb | 900 g | 1.98 lb. |
| lamb hard fat | 100 g | 0.22 lb. |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
| salt | 18 g | 3 tsp. |
| Cure #1 | 2.5 g | ½ tsp. |
| pepper | 2.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| allspice | 2.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| caraway seed | 2.0 g | 1 tsp. |
| nutmeg | 1.0 g | ½ tsp. |
| garlic | 3.5 g | 1 clove |
| cold water | 60 ml | ¼ cup |
Instructions
- Grind meats with 3/8” (10 mm) plate. Cut fat manually into ⅛ “ (3 mm) cubes.
- Mix all ingredients with meat adding water. Then add diced fat and mix everything together.
- Stuff into sheep casings 24-26 mm and form rings.
- Hang at room temperature for 1 hour (optional step, but recommended).
- Apply hot smoke for 60-90 min until casings develop a brown color with a red tint.
- In the last stage of smoking the sausage is baked at 176-194º F (80-90º C) until internal meat temperature is 68-70º C (154-158º F).
- Shower with cold water for about 5 min, then lower sausage temperature to below 12º C (53º F).
- Store in refrigerator.
