Do you make your own sausages? Jean-Simon Petit wants to convince us that it is possible. It can even be simple. For this reason, his book was designed to make it easier to navigate.
Published at 11:00 am.
“I wanted to show that it can also be done at home on a small scale,” said the 40-year-old chef in an interview. I started like that myself. So when I wanted to write the book, the idea was always to use materials that you could find at home. We also made the content really popular; I originally wrote it using classic cooking terms, but we revised it and people with little experience managed to make the recipes. »
The tone is set as soon as you read the title of the book. Baloney, the popular Quebec term for bologna sausage, actually has its own place in the Quebec culinary psyche.
Almost everyone knows the nonsense, everyone has a nonsense story to tell.
Jean Simon Petit
“When I started my career as a butcher, people would come in for their baloney steak. We laughed a lot. I looked for clichés related to nonsense and even made nonsense sushi inspired by Hawaiian musubi. “Baloney is a name that calls out to the world,” remarks Jean-Simon Petit with a smile in his voice.
The taste of self-sufficiency
That’s why there is also a homemade nonsense recipe among the 70 recipes in the book, but you have to read the introduction first because here you will find the essential basics of sausage products. Spices, salt, sugar, casings, lactic ferments, yeasts, nitrates – Jean-Simon Petit explains in detail the role of each crucial element in the production of good artisan sausages.
He also talks about the equipment to use, maintenance and safety to consider in the kitchen when using minters and meat grinders. “We are playing with bacteria and warmer temperatures, food safety is important,” warns the chef.
PHOTO STÉPHAN DOE, PROVIDED BY ÉDITIONS CARDINAL
Smoked bacon is one of the simple sausage recipes suggested in the book Baloney by Jean-Simon Petit.
Although the book gives a high priority to fresh sausages, terrines and other dried meats, there are also recipes for fermented foods, jams and breads, choices that are all part of a dynamic of returning to the sources of local cuisine in both supplies and cooking.
“Often when you want to cook, for example when you are interested in baking bread, you develop a preference for doing something else yourself,” says Jean-Simon Petit. That’s why I wanted to offer foundations in all transformation styles, I wanted to move towards something that was about self-sufficiency. I personally distill my alcohol, and since I live in the region and there isn’t a nice bakery nearby, I try to do it myself. »
Jean-Simon Petit lives in Hemmingford, less than 5 km from Ferme des Quatre-Temps, where he works as a chef. It was also the owner of the farm, Jean-Martin Fortier, who suggested him to write this book, for which he wrote the foreword. “A lot of people asked me how to make charcuterie, but I didn’t think about writing a book,” admits the man who previously worked in the kitchens of Toqué!, Taverne Square Dominion and L’Utopie in Quebec. “Then I realized it didn’t exist in Quebec, and when I announced that I was planning to write the book, people told me it was sick! »
PHOTO STÉPHAN DOE, PROVIDED BY ÉDITIONS CARDINAL
A section of Baloney’s book is dedicated to foods that can be stored in jars, such as the famous baseball mustard!
Five star employees
Jean-Simon Petit took advantage of his many contacts in the industry by inviting several chefs to collaborate on the book; including Patrice Demers, Stéphane Modat and Stéfano Faita. He also puts his extensive experience at the service of his readers. “I’ve been making sausages for about fifteen years. I had taken a butchering course. It really wasn’t cool back then, but I thought it was hot. I had bought some American books and old French books to try it out myself. And with my work, I have created sausage products with as few additives as possible, if any. I carried out a lot of tests to make the sausages as natural as possible and to return to traditional recipes. »
Want to make homemade, all-natural hot dog sausages? It’s in the book. “That’s one of my things, I’m a real hot dog fan; I have purchased every type of commercial sausage in the US and Canada to understand what makes a good hot dog. It looks cheap, but it starts with an emulsified sausage like in Eastern Europe. I simply recreated the sausage from back then and made it taste like a hot dog. I don’t want my kids to eat crap! » says the father of two small children, including a 2-month-old newborn.
All this by adding some baseball mustard to the bread… Because yes, that’s in Baloney too!
Baloney – charcuterie, canned goods and businesses
Cardinal editions
210 pages