Making The Sausage

Posted by Jeff Carter
on July 11th, 2012

Last night, I went out for a little culinary recreation. I signed up for a class on Dabble with my daughter. We went to the Butcher and Burger to learn how to make sausage. Normally, the only sausage I see made is legislation, or what happens in a trading environment. Since I am kind of a foodie, I was interested.

Over the past year, we have started canning things at home and having fun with it. Sausage making is the next step. Really good charcuterie is one of life’s simple pleasures. It’s why I really like to patronize places like The Butcher and Larder. Rob makes some tremendous pate and sausages. It would be fun to try at home.

During the class, we learned how to make Italian sausage, and bratwurst. That was very interesting. What was excellent was that the chef, Allen Sternweiler, showed us how to do it. He explained every step of the process, and let us get our hands dirty. Chicago isn’t just a good start up town, it’s one of the best restaurant towns in America.

I posted a bunch of pictures on Instagram. You can see them if you go to pointsnfigures. They are also on my Twitter feed and Facebook wall.

It turns out, sausage almost always has pork in it. I didn’t know that. If you are making duck sausage, you will have duck, pork shoulder, pork fat in a percentage mixture. Maybe 20% duck, 60% pork shoulder and 20% pork fat, plus spices. Pork shoulder is non-aggressive in it’s taste, so the duck flavor comes through. Pork shoulder is a good binder that helps the sausage hold its shape.

In our case, the Italian sausage was 80% pork shoulder, 20% pork backfat plus some really great spices. The bratwurst was 70% pork, 30% pork fat and spices.

After putting the sausage through the grinder, you could feel how it began to come together and bind. At the end of the class, Allen cooked the sausages and we ate some. He stored the rest for sale in his restaurant.

The other interesting thing to me was the social part of it. I got to do something with my daughter which was nice. I got to meet some really neat people that also signed up for the class. We had a chance to commiserate and break some sausage together. Kind of a neat way to spend an evening thanks to Dabble.

But, then I started thinking about it from Chef Sternweiler’s perspective. He probably was going to make the sausages anyway. Instead of simply going into his basement and cranking it out, he was able to enlighten some individuals that would pay for the privilege of watching him make sausage, learn about it, and then perhaps try it at home. When they failed at home, they’d buy more sausage from him. Or if they were successful at home, they’d buy sausage from him when they couldn’t make it. A win/win for him.

If more people looked at their jobs like that, maybe they could earn a little more money on Dabble. They could certainly raise awareness about their place of business, their craft, their vocation. It’s a pretty cool concept and I am sure I will take a Dabble class again. Already there are a bunch of people that tweeted at me about taking the sausage class. They offer classes in mixing drinks, wine tasting, knitting and other things.

Even big businesses and museums could take advantage by offering small Dabble classes once in awhile. An art museum could offer a one night class on a particular artist or painting. An exchange could even offer a one night class to explain trading. It seems like a no risk idea and you get potential customers through your door.

Dabble seems like a great way to have a night out without going to a bar. Might be a fun way to get to know someone. Great way for seniors to get connected, people without kids to meet or a cheap date for parents with kids.

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.