This sausage is a tribute to the No Blog Dog. I call him that because he refuses to let me use a photo of him or his proper name on this blog. (Alas! And I have so many great photos that I’m saving up for when he’s nominated to the Supreme Court!) So the picture there to the left is the best I can do.

It’s a tribute to him because, of all the dozens of different kinds of sausages I’ve made, this one is his absolute favorite. And the secret, special ingredient of this Greek lamb sausage is orange zest. Any other resemblance is purely intentional and, well, best left to the imagination…

For this batch, I’ve tweaked it even more to his liking. The original recipe, in Bruce Aidell’s great Complete Sausage Book, calls for white wine. But, for this batch, I substituted No Blog Dog’s second favorite thing that I make: vin d’orange. Spoiler alert: I’m taking this sausage over to his place for Movie Night tomorrow (Pulp Fiction and Michael Clayton are on the bill), at which point he will commandeer every link that’s left. So order now or hold your peace, or lose your piece, or something like that . . .

Aidell’s recipe calls for a mixture of pork and lamb, but this one is all lamb, using a year-old ewe that the Joy of Illinois Farm just sent to slaughter.  Seasoned with a little, garlic, coriander, salt, and pepper, then oregano and thyme, and finally with the orange zest and vin d’orange, this is perfect for summertime or fall grilling.

According to Clifford A. Wright’s authoritative site on Mediterranean cooking, “Merguez, the French transliteration of the Arabic word mirqaz or mirkas, is a spicy small sausage used in Tunisia and Algeria.” But, as usual, Cliff’s recipe for this sausage should be taken with a grain of salt–and cumin–and coriander–and allspice–and most definitely more harisa. “Harisa,” Wright writes, “comes from the Arabic word for ‘to break into pieces,’ which is done by pounding hot chiles in a mortar, although today a food processor can be used… This famous hot chile paste is also found in the cooking of Algeria, Libya, and even in western Sicily where cùscusu is made… The simplest recipe is merely a paste of red chiles and salt that is covered in olive oil and stored.”

But then his recipe for homemade harisa calls for Guajillo and Anaheim chiles (Tunisian New Mexico chiles?), which have about half the heat of jalapenos and would make a harisa far feebler than any I’ve ever tasted, while his recipe for merguez calls for only 1 teaspoon of his tepid sauce for almost 3 pounds of meat and fat. Whoo! Cliff, don’t overdo it! Needless to say, we found it necessary to bump this up a Scoville notch or two, or ten.

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As I type this, Kent (the much-tattooed-tradesman) is installing the last part I need to get my Traulsen fridge running again.

With a week of enforced idleness on my hands, I’ve been going a little stir crazy, planning ever more varieties of sausages to make.  In addition to that, special requests have been piling up for the summer-sausage-grilling season.  So this month I’m going hog wild and making at least four different varieties of fresh sausage.

For the Lar-B-Q I tried to make some “thai smoked chicken.”  Tasty as the chickens were, I was a little disappointed  that they didn’t pick up much chili, cilantro, or lime flavors from the brine I made.  Meantime, ¡Shazam!® has been after me to make some chicken sausages for summer grilling.  So the first thing I’ll make are some chicken and turkey sausages, bursting with the flavors of fresh herbs and spices–cilantro, basil, mint, lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and lime zest–given depth with a little Thai fish sauce and green curry paste and then set alight with these tiny Thai chilis, which are twice as hot as cayenne.  Grab a Singha or the fire extinguisher of your choice!   When I work out the recipe, I’ll be sure and share it.

To make these sausages I picked up some ground turkey from the Amish-run poultry processing plant down by Arthur.  I have enough to make two kinds of sausage, so I’m also going to try an Italian-style turkey sausage out of Bruce Aidell’s Complete Sausage Book.  In addition to the traditional garlic, fennel, and red pepper flakes, his recipe calls for sun-dried tomatoes and white wine.

Last week, I also heard from the Giojas at the Joy of Illinois Farm that they had a yearling ewe they were sending to slaughter this week.  (It only produced one ram this spring, and that’s not enough to earn it’s keep on the farm.)  Since the No-Blog-Dog has been threatening me with serious bodily harm (or at least the revocation of my pool privileges) unless I make the lamb Loukanika again, I told the slaughterhouse to grind up all the lamb except for the racks.  With its generous seasonings of thyme, oregano, coriander, garlic, and orange zest, this sausage is also one of my favorites, so keep an eye out for it before the two of us snap it all up.  They will go perfectly with this year’s vintage of vin d’orange!

Finally, my sausagemaking apprentice Michaela (“You’re hired!”) has been hankering for some merguez.  This is another lamb sausage, from north Africa, seasoned with cumin and coriander, and maybe a little fennel and allspice, but definitely heated up with a good dose of harissa, their fiery red pepper paste.