<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: SYNOPSIS AND AUTHOR INFORMATION
Review: Fans of Aidells sausages know there's a whole world beyond kielbasa, and it starts with Bruce Aidells gourmet sausages. In BRUCE AIDELLS COMPLETE SAUSAGE BOOK, the king of the links defines each type of sausage, explains its origin, teaches us how to make sausages, and treats us to his favorite recipes for cooking with them. Hundreds of related tips and essays on Aidells's never-ending quest for yet another great sausage round out the collection, which includes color photos of 16 of the most mouth-watering dishes. With the COMPLETE SAUSAGE BOOK on hand, you'll be ready to add this most versatile, hearty, and satisfying ingredient to your gourmet cooking repertoire. • The over 25 varieties of Aidells sausages-many of which are low-fat-are sold in butcher shops, quality markets, and warehouse clubs from coast to coast. • Authors' previous book, The Complete Meat Book , was a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection and sold over 50,000 copies.
Rating: 
Summary: Insanely great book (if you want to make sausage)!
Review: I really bought this book to make cajun boudin, as well as andouille sausage. My dream was to make gumbo with my own andouille, and darned if it didn't turn out perfect the first time. We've made Chorizo, Linguica, and are looking at a poultry-Thai sausage next! To truly get the most out of this book you need the following: 1) a meat grinder (I use my Kitchen-Aid with an attachment 2) a sausage filling attachment for your meat grinder (not required, if you're just going to make patties!) 3) some medium hog casings (again, not required, if you're just going to make patties!) 4) a smoker (not required, if you're not making smoked sausages, of course!) However! The second half of the book is recipes USING sausage, so you could just buy the sausage at the market and enjoy the recipes (but what's the fun in that?) This is a fantastic book, highly recommended, with interesting background essays on several of the sausage varieties. The sidebar on "Hot Boudin and Cold Beer" is right on the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth it even if you don't make your own sausage
Review: If you're unsure about your commitment to sausage making, don't let your uncertainty dissuade you from buying this book. While his sausage recipes are indeed excellent (I've made a few of them), a large portion of the book provides recipes for using sausage in recipes. And those recipes are very good. Personally, I think the book's worth the price for the cornbread stuffing (with pork sausage and andouille) alone.
Rating:
Summary: absolute keeper
Review: Okay, I bought this book, went out to get the food grinder and sausage stuffer attachment for my KitchenAid. I read and scanned the book over and over again. I finally decided to try the fresh Italian sausage and the chicken and apple recipe. I kept stalling and putting it off..well finally I got so sick of postponing that I actually got out of bed at 2 a.m. in the morning. Rolled up my sleeves and went right into it. From grinding, to mixing, to clean up took me at least 4 hours. You have to remember that this is the first time I ever attempted something this crazy. I was petrified. What did I get myself into? But know what... the sausages were incredible. I practically ate the first batch of Italian sausage all of 3.5 lbs by myself. I had the hardest time sharing it with my kids who stared at me drooling with those puppy eyes begging to have a taste of what Mama was eating. And when I have to use these sausages for a pasta dish for some visiting friends, I actually regretted inviting them over since I wanted to eat the sausages myself. That bad..and that good!! Sorry for the long story..but anyways here's the lesson for me. I won't know till I try and that's all it took me. Once. So for you who are intimidated with the whole thing but who loves to eat like me it's all worth it. Here's an excellent book to start your journey to becoming a sausage maker. And you will see the great difference between a store bought and something you made yourself. Another book I found useful is Home Sausage Making by Charles something. Have an incredible time eating!!!
Rating:
Summary: Really Good Sausage Recipes
Review: The word "complete" is because this cookbook shows you both how to make sausages, and then how to cook with them. I liked the sausage making recipes, but was not very impressed with the sausage cooking section.
This book is really 2 different books in one, so I will describe them separately. The first part, which is the first 100 pages, is full of wonderful, useful, and very rare recipes for making fresh or cured sausages. The second part is 200 pages is a pretty standard collection of recipes that use sausages, which I am less enthusiastic about.
The first 20 pages of the sausage making section supplies information for making and curing sausages. The rest of the section has individual recipes for many different types of sausages. It has sections on: country style, southern, german / east european, southwest, mediterranean, asian, game, and seafood. You quickly learn that despite their variety, sausages are really just ground meat with many seasonings (getting the texture just right and fighting with the meat grinder is a different story). The only difficulty with this part is the necessity of a meat grinder; in most cases, you cannot use a food processor. The other problem is getting the sausages casings; you can just make them in bulk (which is how I usually use them, as I am too lazy to go through the trouble of stuffing them into casings), or go to a local, old fashion meat butcher and get them there.
The recipe section is a little less interesting. It has: breakfast, appetizers, soup, sandwich, pasta, grains, seafood, poultry, meat, and sides. The quality of the recipes is OK, but not exceptional (sort of like the recipes in those magazines in the check-out lines at the grocery store). The recipe section is a moderately useful section, since you can use store bought varieties of sausages. The problem here is that the recipes are arranged in standard fashion; organizing according to the sausage they use would have been more helpful. That way, if you have some sausage sitting in the refrigerator or freezer, it would be easier to find a recipe that uses them.
Some of the page references are wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Easy recipes and colorful descriptions
Review: These sausage recipes gather dishes from across the country, providing a treatise on different kinds of sausages and regional variations. Recipes blend with Aidell's travels across America in search of great sausages, providing a wide range of sausages and ethnic insights. No color photos, but the easy recipes and colorful descriptions don't need them.
Rating:
Summary: Want to make sausage? Buy this book!
Review: While visiting from Indiana, my brother told me about making sausage. He bought a grinder and a book. Said I would no longer wonder about the fancy sausages I got in Portland. He convinced me. I bought an attachment for my Kitchen Aid, picked up Bruce Aidell's book and that was that! I bought some casings from the local whole foods store and some meat, spices and stuffing goodies and started making the best sausages I have ever eaten! This book has all the recipes and they are wonderful! Easy to follow. No pictures, but it is a book about grinding and stuffing. Who needs pictures? The book is great! Want to make your own sausages? Buy this book. Adds a new dimension to cooking...or grilling!
<< 1 >>
| 
