Of Sausages and (the meat formerly known as) Kosher Bacon

Just a quick post as we go into Shabbat. I just finished packing up the remaining items, and had a few thoughts about the whole bacon and sausage thing.

First, the etymology. Bacon comes from the word meaning “back”, so it’s not inherently porcine. Also, since the piece of meat used to make bacon comes from the belly, the word is completely divested from its original meaning. However, there’s still the image of streaky strips of that non-kosher meat that come to mind when someone says “bacon”. I have used the term in lieu of a better word. Until now.

Somewhat ironically, the Yiddish word for ‘belly’ is boych, the diminutive plural form of which would be “boychn”, which I think is a pretty fair replacement, and as much related to the actual product I make.

So boychn it is.

Sausage has several culinary traditions; French, Italian, Chinese, and German. I think that as Jews we are still a little culturally biased against Germany, what with the Holocaust and all. So we tend to shy away from all things Teutonic. Or maybe it’s just me and how I was raised.

As you probably know, I’ve been curing meats and sausages for some time, and the products are really coming along. I’ve been experimenting with typical French and Italian sausage recipes, but this week I decided to try a German recipe I found. The difference was astonishing. The taste was on par with the flavors of what we call bologna and salami. Since I only use beef, the difference is all in the seasoning. And it made all the difference. So I’m over my anti-German sausage bias, and I’m taking a fresh look at German style sausages.

That doesn’t mean I’m running out to buy a Mercedes anytime soon. Anyway, why would I want to drive a taxi?

Oh, and by the way, happy International Boychn Day!

Comments

comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.