Sausage Haus

So the roughfisher has been slacking a bit in both the fishing and blogging department. I apologize folks. But I have been busy in the background grinding up some fresh meats in the seedy underground laboratory at the Roughfisher Command Post. In addition to making some 8 quarts of napa cabbage, daikon radish, and cucumber kimchis, I've managed to stuff about forty-five pounds of beef, pork and venison, transforming plain old protein into the delectable charcuterie known as sausage.



I ended up with six varieties of sausage, a Wisconsin-style bratwurst, Italian sausage, a smoked Italian, smoked jalapeño cheddar, smoked bulgogi inspired snack sticks, and a fresh salsa verde pork sausage.




There was lots of fun behind the grill. My favorite experiment was the chile verde pork sausage. Crafted on a whim, I ground pork shoulder, onion, garlic, jalapeños, cilantro, and tomatillos, stuffed it into a hog casing, and cooked it on the grill. I served it on a brat-style hard roll and garnished it with fresh onion, cilantro and salsa verde. Most definitely a winner!


Thankfully I saved a few sausages for the freezer to nourish me through the winter...

Soft Hackle Heaven

Whether you call it a partridge, thunderbird, thunder chicken, or a ruffed grouse, Bonasa umbellus is among the tastiest of all upland birds and game. It is also prized for its hackle in my fly tying stash. Fortunately, living in Minnesota provides me with the nation's premier grouse habitat and population, with over half a million birds harvested annually, making it Minnesota's top game bird. Life is good in the Great White North.


The rump feathers, while used to determine the sex of a ruffed grouse, are also a vital component of the venerable Carp Crack pattern. The ruff feathers, located on the sides of the necks of both genders, are used to form the collar on the Mustache Ride and Landing Strip patterns, as they are long and wispy, providing lots of movement in the water. They are the ultimate soft hackle for those larger streamer fly patterns.



Regardless of how you obtain a ruffed grouse skin, whether it be a a retail acquisition, roadkill salvage, harvested bird, or a donation from a fellow hunter, consider yourself blessed. The ruffed grouse is the pinnacle prize of keen fly tyers.

smart business decisions

What do you do with all of the countless fly leftovers and daddy's got to eat? You trade flies for beef. Prime 100% grass fed locally raised beef. I'm glad someone's got a use for all the test flies and holdover patterns from the past several years, but frankly it was an insult to them to be sitting in my fly boxes not even getting a chance to see light of day or breathe some fresh air. Now, there's two winners involved here. My buddy gets to stack his fly boxes with some roughfisher originals and I get some tasty beef from Thousand Hills Cattle Company. Winner.


I think I've just found a new niche market, bartering flies for food and drink. Now if anyone's got some homebrewed IPA, barleywine ale, or imperial stouts they're willing to trade for, I'm listening.
Use the contact link to get in touch.

Independence Log

Two can play at this game....


One pound of bacon.


Two pounds of beef.


A half pound of cheese.


Cooked over low heat until an internal temp of 165°F is reached.


Enjoy.

Thanks for the inspiration goes out to my Fat Guy brethren. Thanks Brothers! It may not have been as pretty as your "bacon stripe" but it was just as delicious!

Carnitas Michoacan

Pork tenderloin tips and Mojo marinade, slow cooked for four hours. Fried finish, traditional garnish of onion, cilantro, radish, and lime. Served on corn tortillas with guac and fire roasted salsa verde.

¡Estos pinche tacos estan lo más chingón! ¡Estan divina del coño! Cause that's how we roll...

Meat in my tooth

I love long weekends. They give me enough time to do things that I love like fishing, spending time with my family, or charcuterie. I'm making up a batch of roughfisher's pulled pork for the family this Memorial Day weekend; Fifteen pounds worth. That should be enough to satisfy the family's meat tooth. The rub recipe is a secret so don't even bother asking for it.



Waiting is the hardest part.

PSA #3: Stuffed Meats

In a move to collect more capital, I went into hardcore sausage production here at the Roughfisher Command Post. Singlebarbed's offer of a one foot square of Polar Bear and a Jungle Cock cape are great and all, but I want something worthy of a brownliner. Give me a pound of glimmer flash chenille in cinnamon, or 2K 5/32" tungsten beads. Throw in a thousand Knapek scud hooks, size 10; hell, I'll even settle for Skalka's. Throw in everything you've got, 'cause these goods aren't going to go cheap.



A batch of pepperoni, currywurst, and Hawaiian-style portuguese sausage, aka linguiça. Can't go wrong smoking up a pork loin either, canadian bacon style.



Now that I've got you drooling, open up your wallets. The bidding war has begun.

Charcuterie

I love eating sausage. Who doesn't? One of man's finest creations, a sausage is a pocket of meat goodness without need for a wrapper. I had been putting off the dastardly duty of making a batch for better than a month and finally just had to suck it up. Playing with your meat can be fun, don't get me wrong, but it can often be a laborious and tantric task. Luckily, there's always a happy ending. I set to making some spicy snack sticks and a batch of bratwurst, Wisconsin style of course. It was time to get my sausage on.









Best to divvy those sticks up and pack 'em away in the freezer for later. Lest the roughfisher and his little helper down them all in one sitting.





Those brats have the right to be served with brown mustard, onions, pickles, and kraut, with a tall mug of ale to wash it all down. Anybody caught drowning their weenie in ketchup will be shot on the spot. No exceptions.

ditch bangin'

Mid October means one thing in the Upper Midwest: pheasant season.

I had to travel damn near south of the border (Iowa not Mexico) to get to the nether regions of the corn belt, a six hour drive south from the Roughfisher Command Post. Southwestern Minnesota is prime country for ditch chickens. Hopefully I'll get a shot at these tasty exotics before the rain comes rolling in from the west.

When it comes to the issue of animal rights, pheasants have rights:
the right to be served with bacon, onions, and wild rice.