Lucanian Ancient Roman Sausages

Our cooking club had an Ancient Roman Dinner, complete with Togas. My addition to the dinner was Lucanian Sausages. I used a Kitchen Aid Mixer with the meat grinder and sausage attachment. If you do not have the luxury of these appliances the meat can be ground in a food processor or finely minced by hand and the sausages can be hand stuffed using a pastry bag, though this method is not ideal. Natural casings were obtained at Hilo’s Sack n Save. We are fortunate to have a store that provides these casings, otherwise I would have had to order them online. My guess is that the large Portuguese population here uses a lot of casings for making sausage. Juniper berries can be found in the bulk spice section of most health food stores. They can also be sourced online. 

Lucanian Sausage Recipe 

This sausage was brought back to Rome by soldiers who had served in Lucania, located in the heel of southern Italy, probably around 200 B.C.

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4 pounds pork shoulder cut in 1” cubes
½ cup of pine nuts
¼ cup black peppercorns
¼ cup pink pepper corns
3 tablespoons cumin seeds
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
30 bayberries or juniper berries (if available)
2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or dried rue
2 teaspoons dried savory
1 tablespoon oregano
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup fish sauce
¼ cup honey
sausage casings

1. Grind meat using the large die on the grinder
2. Toast pine nuts and set aside, be careful not to burn
3. If you are using natural casings, they are preserved in salt and should be rinsed several times in water, including the inside. Do this by attaching the sausage filling ring to a length of sausage, then fill with water, then squeeze all of the water out. Then soak the casings in water for at least 20 minutes, finally rinse and place in a clean bowl.
4. Toast the seeds, pepper corns and juniper berries, allow to cool
5. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the seeds etc. to a rough consistency
6. In a large bowl add the ground meat, the seeds, herbs, parsley, fish sauce, honey, salt and pepper.
7. Using a 2-3 foot or so length of casing, push the casing over the sausage filling funnel on the sausage stuffer. Tie the end of the casing and secure with kitchen string. Have a large needle handy in case of air bubbles. If you get an air bubble, poke it. Run the machine on the #6 setting to fill the sausage. If you do not have a sausage stuffer, put a 1/2 inch plain tube in a piping bag and 1/2 fill with the mixture; do not put too much in at one time or it will be difficult to squeeze. Take the open end of the skin, pull it over the tube and push down repeatedly until the majority of the skin sits like a collar half way down the tube. Grip this with your finger and thumb and slowly release the skin as you squeeze the bag. Stop squeezing well before the skin runs out, leaving 2-3 inches of skin to allow for shrinkage. It will take some practice before you get this procedure right.
8. I like to work with 2 foot sections of casing, filling it completely, but not too tightly, then twist each length of sausage into the size of sausage you want. In this case I was serving many people so I made smaller sausages. I also tied each twist off with kitchen twine because I was smoking the sausages and they have to hang for that.
9. If you are able to smoke the sausages, tie them to the top rack and suspend in cool smoke for 5 hours. You can add a smoke box to a grill if you do not have a smoker. After smoking, grill the sausages briefly till the outsides are caramelized. 

Big Island International Cooking Club: Cajun Night

With an inspiration of the 5th anniversary of Katrina, the Big Island International Cooking Club's August venue including sausage making with Cajun spices as well as many terrific food offerings from the Big Easy and surrounds. If you live on the big island and you are interested in joining our group, please send me an e-mail While I could type on and on about this fun night, I think I will just let the pictures do the talking, after all, that is what you want anyway!

Wordless Wednesday : Making Italian Sausage

Portuguese Bean Soup Recipe and Other Good Things!

It is all about my Portuguese Bean Soup recipe, but before you start reading, I must tell you while that this post is about Portuguese bean soup, there are some other interesting things you have to read first, before you get to my recipe! Read on….

Hawaii has many ethnic influences from it's sugar plantation history. Immigrant workers arrived on Hawaiian shores from all around the world; Chinese, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Japanese, Koreans, British (especially the Scots), Spanish and of course… the Portuguese. This post is about the Portuguese and one food that you see every where on the islands that they created here.

The Portuguese came with a love of music and the ukulele, which has become an icon of Hawaiian Music and culture was a result There are many stories about how the Uke came to be. One is that a ship named the Ravenscrag arrived in Honolulu on the afternoon of August 23, 1879, it was carrying 419 Portuguese immigrants from the island of Madeira to work in the sugar cane fields. It had been a long and hard journey of over 4 months and some 15,000 miles. In celebration of their arrival, Joao Fernandes borrowed his friend's braguinha ( a small instrument shaped like a guitar) , jumped off the ship, and started playing folks songs from his native land on the wharf. The Hawaiians who came down to the dock were very impressed at the speed of this musicians' fingers as they danced across the fingerboard and they called the instrument "ukulele", which translates into English as "jumping flea". You see, that was the image conjured up by those flying fingers.Another story says that Queen Lili'uokalani thought it came from the Hawaiian words for "the gift that came here", or "uku" (gift or reward) and "lele" (to come).


Another legend says the instrument was originally called "ukeke lele" or "dancing ukeke" (ukeke being the Hawaiian's three stringed musical bow). The name, being mispronounced over the years, became "ukulele".

Still another theory comes from a story about Edward Purvis, an English army officer and the Assistant Chamberlain to the court of King David
alakaua, who was very adept at playing the braguinha. Since he was small and sprightly, the rather large Hawaiians nicknamed him "ukulele", the whole "jumping flea" thing all over again.


And yet another version of the origin of the world "ukulele" is attributed to Gabriel Davian and Judge W. L. Wilcox, who was a member of a well-known island family. According to the story, the two men were in attendance at a housewarming party at the Wilcox home in Kahili, where Davian was playing an 'ukulele he had made himself. When one of the guests asked what it was called, Davion jokingly replied that, judging from the way one "scratched at it," it was a "jumping flea". Wilcox, who was fluent in Hawaiian, was asked for the Hawaiian translation and is supposed to have answered, "'Ukulele!".

Because of colonization, a long history of shipping, the Portuguese had many influences on food and cultures around the world. Portugal formerly had a large empire, and the cuisine has been influenced in both directions. The Portuguese influence is strongly evident in Brazilian cuisine, which features its own versions of Portuguese dishes such as feijoada and caldeirada (fish stew). Other former colonies include the Indian province of Goa, where dishes such as vindaloo show the Portuguese influence in its pairing of vinegar and garlic.

Portuguese trade ships reached Japan in around 1550. Japanese lords enjoyed Portuguese confectionery. It was remodeled as Kompeito and Kasutera, and influenced Wagashi. Tempura was introduced to Japan in the mid-sixteenth century by early Portuguese missionaries.
I digress, the reason I am writing this post is that the Portuguese also brought food. Along with Portuguese sweet breads in a variety of forms (Pao Doce), malasadas (like giant jelly doughnuts) Portuguese sausages have become an important part of the Hawaiian diet. It is not uncommon to see people sitting on the side of the road selling Portuguese pickled onions from the trunks of their cars.

The Portuguese sausages (linguiça, chouriço), sometimes quite spicy, are served for breakfast and are even available in Hawaiian McDonalds at breakfast, along with SPAM. I will be making posts about some of the above foods in future posts, but the Portuguese Sausage plays a role in this post.

And then there is the bean soup (sopa de feijão) which is eaten regularly in the Hawaiian Islands by families of all ethnicities. It is at almost every festival and many restaurants as well as being a comfort food for all Hawaiians. Find any community or church cookbook and you will find many recipes for Portuguese Bean Soup. While all have kidney beans and Portuguese Sausage in a tomato base, the other ingredients vary. I used cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, chick peas & macaroni in mine. It made a huge pot and I froze a couple of containers of it for later. We have already had it for two meals and have enough for 3-4 more.

Ham Hocks are essential to the complex and rich flavor to this soup. If you adverse to using them, then you can use chopped ham, or eliminate the ham flavoring all together, but if you want the real thing, you need them. Some people also add bacon, I do not.

2-3 medium sized smoked ham hocks or ham shanks
3 cups chicken broth
1 pound Portuguese sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced (I used “hot” sausages, but they make them mild)
1 large or two small Maui onions, coarsely chopped
3 medium sized potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 cup chunky diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
4 cups coarsely chopped cabbage
3 15-ounce cans kidney beans with liquid or a 1# bag of kidney beans soaked over night
2 cups of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) soaked over night.
2 14.5-ounce cans diced organic tomatoes (or one large can)
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
½ pound of elbow macaroni
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch cilantro (Chinese parsley), coarsely chopped
1 bunch flat leaf (Italian) parsley
2 Tablespoons of black peppercorns
5 fresh bay leaves or 3 dried bay leaves

All amounts are approximate. You may want to add more or less of any ingredient depending on your own personal taste. Feel free to play with this recipe. I did by combining several I found. I am even thinking that fresh corn off the cob would be good with this when in season, which is almost all year in Hawaii.
In large stock pot, combine ham hocks, onion, garlic, black peppercorns and bay leaves. Add chicken broth and just enough water to cover the ham hocks completely. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer. Simmer covered for about 2 hours. This slow cooking will give the soup it's rich flavor.

Remove the ham hocks and de-bone, dice any meat and set aside.

Put the pot in a large bowl of ice and after about 30 minutes skim any fat off. Return pot to the stove.
To the pot, add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, beans, carrots, celery, potatoes, ½ of the parsley and ½ of the cilantro and all of the cabbage. Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes. Add in diced ham hocks and Portuguese sausage. Continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Add macaroni and cook until cooked through (about 10 minutes more).

Serve topped with fresh chopped parsley & cilantro and cracked black pepper.

This recipe also freezes quite well.