Kent's Exclusive Sausage Artist Interviews
On the Sausage Trail: Zelo's of Minneapolis
-> Click here for the complete interview!
Fall Tasting Notes - The Sausage Shop, Sebastian & Robs
-> Click here for the complete interview!
A Pound of Questions: Q&A With Dan Malone of Dan's Meat Market
-> Click here for the complete interview!
Featured Interview: James Fare of Hungry Hill Sausage-
I had a great meeting with James Fares and have tasted some of the best Italian Sausage.
-> Read the complete interview here!
16 Questions for a Sausage Artist: Randy Ream - Elburn Meat Market
-> Click here for the complete interview!
Kent's Review of Artamos Meats & Deli
-> Click here for the complete review!
A Pound of Questions for Lalich Deli: Zoran Lalich
-> Click here for the complete review!
New Introduction to Sausage Artist Section
Since 1998 we have sampled hundreds of various sausage. While we remain open minded, all of this experience leads to the conclusion that its difficult to assign high quality marks to mass market commercial sausage. The operative phrase here is mass market.
Mostly through good fortune and decent work assignments I’ve been to many sausage venues. Passport in hand 
I’ve sampled sausages in far off places like the Canadian provinces, the U.K., Mexico, Jamaica, and Texas. I’ve also tasted sausages from most of the 50 states. Though I have to admit some of these tastings blur in memory due to abuse of local beverages or other stimulants.
Finding a truly outstanding artist of sausage takes some doing and usually it happens by word of mouth (the way most good news is transmitted).
It’s hard for me to write this because as soon as you mention a small high end artist, they get discovered and the weight of money and celebrity sits on them like stink on a sumo. Where once there was a good butcher you get the Jabba The Hut purveyor. I hope the artisans stay smaller and stay true to their craft.
The big exception to this rule is that special case: hot dogs. Where hot dogs are respected or revered there are often mass market emperors of their local markets. When you have many people happy with the product, its hard not to respect those purveyors who have battled the hot dog wars and win market share year in and out. There’s always exception to the rule.
With prayer and hopes for a better outcome, Sausagefest.com wants to point you to the following artisans.
Please Note: We do not taste sausages sent to us – for obvious reasons. We generally pay our way, buy the sausage then do the tasting later. In some cases we have friends and acquaintances serve us sausage or suggest we try their favorites. Drop us a note and let us know what artisanal sausage maker is your favorite. As we grow we’ll provide the world with a long list of sausage artists worth experiencing. Bon Appetite!
e-mail: kentantonius@yahoo.com
SausageFest.com featured "Sausage Artists"
ILLINOIS Sausage Artists
New - Heybeck's Meats - Palatine, IL
Heybeck’s has been quality butcher shop for a long time. At one time the store displayed more than 20 different Illinois state fair ribbons for all kinds of meat creations. A recent remodeling took those away.
They are more of a butcher shop than sausage shop but they make some very good sausages. If you are in the area, stop in because you MUST try their New Mexico sausage. I haven’t seen this name on sausage anywhere else and the flavor and spice is top shelf. This sausage is very lean and the peppery taste is just enough to get your attention but isn’t Oh My God hot. I think there are Serrano peppers at work here but just enough to be really good on the pleasure/pain scale.
Their other sausage offerings are also very good but the New Mexico is a must try.
Heybeck’s Meat Market
333 W. Northwest Highway Palatine, IL 60067
847-358-3820
847-358-9199 (fax)
www.heybecks.com
Ream's Elburn Market
Sausagefest.com has to point to Ream's Elburn Market in rural Elburn, Ill as one of those Artisanal sources of fine sausages. For several years, the Sausagefest judges have given "exceptional art" marks to their:
- Italian Sausage
- Hot Italian Sausage
- Cudghi Italian Sausage
The Cudghi is an example of a small regional variation of Italian sausage taken to a different taste realm. You know its Italian Sausage but you know it’s not the same thing as you expect. You expect lean and full taste from Ream's and their Cudghi sausage is "exceptional art". (As always, our sampling was done on our dime. We pay for what we eat and review.)
At the 2005 Fest we sampled the chorizo and it was top notch – a bit leaner than what you might be use to but that’s not a bad thing. Chorizo in Elburn, Ill – who knew??
Ream's Elburn Market
128 North Main Street
Elburn, IL 60119
(630) 365-6461
www.elburnmarket.com
Lalich Deli (Serbian Deli)
While Ream's take on a panoramic view of sausages of every type, the Lalich deli's (one in Niles, Ill another in Chicago) stays true to its own ethnic origins of Serbia.
I was lucky enough to grow up near a Serbian church and was even luckier to be accepted into many of their summer Sunday night picnics. There I became familiar with barbecued lamb and the Serbian sausage known as Ćevapčići. (See the wikipedia link for more on this great sausage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cevapcici )
Ćevapčići. From the Lalich Deli is one of the great protein bombs you can ever experience. (Thanks to Zoran and Vera Lalich for the great stuff.)
If you love the taste of gyros you will like Cevapcici even more. These sausages are so lean (fat free) that if you fry them in a pan you have to add oil. The best flavoring, however, comes from grilling these skinless little meat sausages.
Sure they look like your typical breakfast sausage in length but there the comparison ends. Whip up some home made Tszaki sauce (the yogurt/sour cream sauce for gyro's) to go with these guys. The traditional side dish with these (at least when I was growing up) is a mound of finely chopped onions and a thick cut piece of crusty fresh bread. Wow.
The other thing that makes Cevapcici at the Lalich Deli's unique is that they only make these sausages on Friday and Saturday. You buy them fresh, never frozen and you cook them that day. These are not smoked sausages so what you are getting is a freshly formed no casing meat sausage ready for a hot grill.
Being too American, I've frozen these guys then tried them later. They were still good but, there is a big difference between the fresh vs. frozen kind.
The two flavors are garlic and non-garlic, and I say why try the non-garlic. It’s like Light beer and white bread – why cheapen your life at this point. One last point, they are a great value!!
Lalich Deli's
8133 N. Milwaukee
Niles, IL
(847) 581-1120
4208 W. Lawrence
Chicago, IL
(773) 545-3642
No website at this point.
MICHIGAN Sausage Artists
New - Goodrich's Shop Rite - East Lansing, MI
Dave 'Dr. Beef' Lindemann is a serious sausage artist. When you’re anywhere near Michigan State University get over to Goodrich’s. Dave is the maestro of the meat grinder there. This a full service family grocery store (Thank God for family grocers) and they have a great selection of sausages.
Dave’s the guy with the fertile imagination that can come up with an Italian sausage that’s different. Italian sausage can cover a lot taste bud territory – you have fennel differences, texture differences, regional biases, etc. I sampled some of Dave’s Italian the other night and this little insight came to me. I’ve tasted a ton of Italian sausage and on first bite this didn’t quite have the traditional texture I’m use to. BUT, don’t judge a sausage by first lick (all you filthy minds just take a time out in the corner). With Dave’s Italian you need to chew, savor and commit to it. Once you’ve done this you’ll realize that the artist hit all the must haves in Italian sausage – fennel, spice, a longer bit of spice taste on the end plus a texture that’s easy to swallow, no little gristle to spit out.
In addition to this staple Dave creates some ‘different’ sausages. You’re going to find creative combinations. I won’t list them all, but pick up any lamb sausages when you see them. He’s one of those artists that will even add fruit to his sausages. Old traditional French cooking would cast a suspect eye at this fruit/meat combo but in East Lansing no one gives a shit about old French canards.
Expect to but at least a four to six different packages of various sausages; most likely that’s a low estimate. You should also pick up a Dr. Beef t-shirt while you’re there.
Goodrich's Shop Rite
940 Trowbridge Road
East Lansing, MI
(517) 351-5820
www.goodrichshoprite.com
