Smoked short rib sausage: 1 in 1 out

By: Raph Rashid
From: Hungry For That
Makes: 10 –12
Photographer: Lauren Bamford

I created this recipe in honour of Mike, my ‘back of back of house guy’ who stops the wheels falling off my whole operation. I met him a few years ago when I had the Beatbox truck at a music festival in country Victoria. It was midnight and we were busy. I could see that we were going to run out of sliced cheese for the burgers, so I grabbed a couple of wheels of gouda and set up the deli slicer and got to it. Another caterer at the event came past and saw me furiously slicing cheese. He said, ‘Buddy there must be a better way.’ I looked up and said, ‘Yep, there is a better way. Be more organised.’ He replied, ‘OK, maybe I can help you out sometime.’ That was Mike. Since then I have called on him nearly every other day. He understands my path and does his best to keep me on it.

In Australia, huge hardware stores have sausage sizzles out front, and it’s pretty hard to resist the smell of sausages and onions, so I can guarantee that guys like Mike have one sausage on the way in and one on the way out.

I’m not trying to change the sausage at all. I even like the way the cook at the hardware store will burn a few edges while he or she waits for the next customers. But I do like the idea of making the sausage with better quality ingredients and giving it a little smoke. For me, it’s all about the onions and quality beef.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1kg	short rib, minced, with 25 per cent fat ratio, (see recipe note)
2 tablespoons	mustard powder
1 tablespoon	sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon	freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon	salt
1/4 teaspoon	garlic powder
2 pieces	caul fat, (see recipe note)
90g	smoking woodchips, soaked for 1 hour
2 tablespoons	oil
3	brown onions, sliced
10-12 slices	white bread
	mustard, to serve
	tomato sauce, to serve

Method

Mix together the minced short rib, mustard powder, paprika, black pepper, salt and garlic powder in a bowl. Transfer half of the mixture to a food processor and start to process slowly. Add 60 ml iced water to the food processor to help the mixture combine. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and repeat the process with the remaining mince mixture. Divide the mixture into 10–12 equal-sized portions.
Spread out the caul fat on a clean work surface and cut it into 15–20 cm × 10 cm pieces. To make the sausages, divide the mixture between the caul fat pieces, carefully roll them into sausages and tuck in the ends. Continue until all of the meat mixture is used up.
To cook the sausages, prepare a stove-top smoker. Put the woodchips in a foil parcel, with an opening at the top to allow the smoke to escape. Put the parcel in a wok over a low heat. Arrange a 2-tier bamboo steamer basket over the top of the woodchips. Put the sausages into the top steamer basket and smoke over a low heat for around 15–20 minutes.
While the sausages are smoking, add the oil to a frying pan and sauté the onions over a medium heat until nicely browned, about 6–8 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl and keep warm.
Heat the same frying pan until it’s really hot. Transfer the sausages from the smoker into the frying pan. Cook for 2–3 minutes to crisp them up.
Serve the sausages in slices of white bread, topped with the onions, mustard and tomato sauce.

Recipe notes

Minced short rib: Ask your butcher to prepare the minced short rib with this ratio of fat.

Caul fat: Ask your butcher for caul fat. It’s the membrane of fat that surrounds the stomach of a pig, cow or sheep.