Sai Ua - Northern Thai Sausage - ไส้อั่ว
Aromatic and herbaceous pork sausage from the north of Thailand. Great with sticky rice!
Equipment
- Meat grinder with medium-coarse grinder die (holes about 7-8mm or 1/4" in diameter)
- Funnel, sausage stuffer, or stuffer attachment for the meat grinder
- kitchen scale
Ingredients
- 1400 grams lean pork, ideally shoulder
- 600 grams pork fat (try to use solid, harder pork fat)
- 20 grams salt
- 170 grams soy sauce
- 100 grams fish sauce
- 30 grams makrut lime leaves, center stem removed
- 110 gram chopped cilantro stems and roots (some leaves are OK0
- 320 grams roughly chopped lemongrass (tender parts only)
- 200 grams roughly chopped fresh or thawed galangal (peeled if the skins are very tough)
- 70 grams roughly chopped fresh or thawed turmeric root
- 200 grams roughly chopped shallot
- 240 grams garlic cloves
- 3 Tbsp toasted red chili flake
- 40 grams palm sugar or light brown sugar
- 20 grams Thai shrimp paste (gapi)
- 80 grams roughly chopped scallions
- pork sausage casings (as needed)
Instructions
- Cut the pork and pork fat into roughly 1-inch chunks. Mix the fat and lean pork together and place in the freezer until it is half-frozen, about 20-30 minutes, Cut and weigh out the rest of the ingredients.
- When the pork and fat are half-frozen (it should not be frozen solid), mix with all the rest of the ingredients (besides the pork casings) in a large bowl .
- Using a medium-coarse grinder die (holes about 7-8mm or 1/4" in diameter), grind everything together once. "Knead" the ground sausage a few times using your hands.
- Rinse the sausage casing very well inside and out using cold water and attach them to whatever implement you will be using to stuff the sausages. I will not be going over "proper" sausage stuffing and linking technique. There are many good resources online to learn how to stuff a sausage.
- Stuff the sausage into the casings and form individual links or large coils, depending on what you prefer. Pat the sausage dry and lay on an uncovered sheet tray and allow to dry overnight in the refrigerator. Pat dry and flip the sausages halfway through so that both sides of the sausage casing get a bit dry. Freeze whatever sausage you will not be cooking within 2 or 3 days.
- Cook the sausage using whichever method you prefer. For the ideal smokey flavor, cook over charcoal or wood.
