From Boudin to Chorizo

Sausage is ubiquitous to almost every culture around the world.  A method of meat preservation born from necessity has grown over time into an art form that continues to challenge culinary minds.  Those of us from Texas are fortunate to have been colonized by brave men and women who had strong sausage-making traditions.  A drive down Interstate-10 will unveil plenty of evidence of this, including many opportunities to sample the goods.

To keep this piece short and sweet we will consider three styles of sausage:

1. The most common can be found in almost every barbecue joint and smokehouse across Texas.  The best versions of traditional German and Czech sausages show up in Central Texas at places like Joel’s BBQ in Flatonia and Prasek’s in Hillje.  These are usually a blend of beef and pork and often times have jalapeño added to spice things up before they are cold-smoked.  This is also the primary style of sausage deer hunters have their meat turned into during hunting season.

2. The second most common sausage to Texas might also be the first sausage in the region, chorizo.  Mexican chorizo is vastly different from its Spanish counterpart in that it’s an uncured sausage similair to the czech sausage except heavily seasoned with chile powder and Spanish-leaning herbs.  For the most part, you will find it served with breakfast dishes but I think there’s room for chorizo at any meal.

3. Our final sausage hardly shows up at the breakfast table but it most certainly could and should (note to self).  Our Cajun neighbors to the east have given us my favorite tubular meat product in boudin sausage.  This rice- and pork-filled sausage can be found in the grocery stores these days but the good stuff is still made in small batches and sold in gas stations along I-10 east of Houston.  I know a man in Houston who goes by the name Bull that makes a smoked boudin that in my opinion reigns supreme above all others.  But that could be another article all on it’s own — we need to get to the important stuff, cooking these links of piggy goodness.

This is the easy part.  Somebody went to a lot of trouble to grind and season the filling that was then expertly stuffed into a casing and tied off and possibly cold smoked, so let’s not screw it up.  The last thing you want to do is burst that casing open over the fire and lose all the moisture while creating the inevitable flame-ups caused by grease hitting the hot coals.

We are looking for indirect medium heat, so either place your coals to one side of the grill or just light one or two burners on one end or your gas contraption.  Then, lightly oil the grates and place the sausage away from the heat.  Turn it  as many times as needed and it’s done when the casing is plumped and the sausage feels firm to the touch.  Just like any piece of meat, give it a few minutes to rest before slicing.  That’s all there is to it! Enjoy and let me know if you have any sausage recommendations to share (I might even tell you how to track down my friend Bull in Houston…).