More Merguez

Ingredient	Grams	Percentage
lamb	1756	95.66
salt	30	0.98
merguez spice mix	40	0.49
harissa	8	0.98
fresh coriander leaf, chopped	8	0.98

Casing: sheep casings

It's been a long time since I first made merguez sausages and I think these have turned out a lot better. The spices are more punchy and I like the stronger colour.

I went to see a friend who keeps pigs to see if there would be any meat available form them for me. The pigs won't be ready for another couple of weeks but he said that the he had just got hold of some lambs so it was an easy call to say that I would make some merguez for him to try. He had never tried them before and I felt confident that he would like these spicy and interesting sausages.

There was plenty of lamb breast, but even after cutting off most of the fat it was still too fatty to use by itself and so I added a small amount of leg to get the right balance of meat to fat.

Having noticed that the green sage looked so good when I made the last batch of sage sausages, I only rough-chopped the fresh coriander leaf to get a similar effect and I'm very happy with the result. Most of the orange colour comes from the paprika and the rose harissa and acts as a great visual cue that these sausages pack a bit of spice.

I have a good amount of spice mix left over which I could seal and save for the next time. But spices taste sweeter when fresh ground so I'm more likely to combine this with something else, just to see what comes out. The colour reminds me of the fresh chorizo sausage I made previously so I may try a combination of the two ideas.

Merguez spice mix

Ingredient	Grams
sweet paprika	60
fennel seed, ground	30
cumin, ground	30
coriander, ground	15
cinnamon, ground	5
chilli, ground	5
black pepper	5
sugar (optional)	20