Garlic and Ham Luncheon Meat

Luncheon meat is one of the best illustrations of the British relationship with food; call something Luncheon Meat and it's sold as a product in the supermarket's budget range at £3 a kilo; call it Jagdwurst, Stuttgarter, Schinkenwurst or Mortadella and it costs five times as much! We just don't value our own British products. Admittedly, the budget Luncheon Meat has a little less meat than it's fancy named counterparts, but this doesn't have to be so. If it was held in higher esteem and commanded a higher price like it's continental counterparts, this could be changed.

Fortunately, attitudes are gradually changing, and with that in mind this is my first 'prototype' of a Ham and Garlic Sausage, a clone of one that Pauline likes to buy. It's a work in progress, so although it's received favourable comments from the people that have tried it, I want to tweak the recipe before I put in online; maybe a bit more garlic and a 'paste' with more bite.

The small air holes annoy me, but are difficult to avoid when recreating an industrial process with domestic equipment.

There are twelve comments

I realize that you do not have a slow speed on the unit you are using (if you do use it at the end to remove the offending bubbles) take small handfuls of the emulsified meat and throw it with force into another container two or three times and it will limit the amount of bubbles. Other than that I do not think a vacuum stuffer is on your Christmas list this year

Robert, - 10-09-’11 07:42

Don’t get me going about the holes Phil. :) Those slices look delicious, I can’t wait to see the recipe. Did you use a combination of emulsified and chunks of ham?

DanMcG, - 10-09-’11 13:22

Robert – thanks, that’s good advice; I tried to something very similar, but think that, as you infer, a few holes are inevitable with the setup I have. I want a bowl cutter/chopper rather than a vacuum stuffer – both exceed my budget by £1000’s though!

Dan – I used an emulsion plus about one third pre-cured pieces ground on a 12mm plate. Other’s who’ve tried it disagree but I would like the emulsified paste with a bit more bite, so want to adjust the water content and maybe add some form of flour. I’m also going to up the garlic ‘cos Mrs Phil says I’ve got to! I’ll post the recipe shortly.

Phil, (URL) - 10-09-’11 16:13

Luncheon meat does have a poor reputation in the UK. I’ve made my own sausages for a while, but I think that I’ll branch out into this – it looks delicious, so I’ll be keeping my eye out for your recipe.

David, (URL) - 11-09-’11 17:11

Thanks David – there’s some great food photography on your site. I wish I had the patience to set up shots like yours.

Phil, (URL) - 11-09-’11 20:41

Ok Phil I think you’re just teasing me now. Truly looking forward to the recipe. Hope all is well

danmcg, - 25-09-’11 00:33

Dan, I’ll email it to you in it’s prototype form.

Phil, (URL) - 26-09-’11 15:25

Hi Phil- I love luncheon meat, if you might ask. I am also interested about the recipe. Would you mind to email me about it also? Thanks a lot.

HughTfall, (URL) - 14-09-’12 11:49

Likewise – I’ll email it in it’s prototype form because I’ve yet to do more tests.

Phil, - 14-09-’12 20:55

Good Morning Phil,
I find that by stewing/softening the garlic in water the garlic taste is better. and you can add lots more garlic before it becomes objectionable. Stewing takes the raw garlic taste away.
This works very well in Csabai sausage as per Snagmans instructions. The leftover water can be used as an aid to emulsifying in the luncheon meat.
Jan crustyo44

Jan Ooms, - 14-10-’12 20:14

Hi Jan – I do that for Hummous and Tuna Pate – http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=116

I hadn’t thought of doing it for this sausage – that’s a great idea.

Phil, - 15-10-’12 17:18

“The leftover water can be used as an aid to emulsifying in the luncheon meat”, is this really possible Jan? If it does then that would be great since I normally threw leftovers in the garbage.

HughTfall, (URL) - 26-10-’12 11:10