SERVELAT is a semi-dry sausage.
I made this Cervelat sausage using Soviet's government recipe dated 1938. This sausage was very popular in Soviet Union in 1960th, 1970th & 1980th but lost its quality at the end of 1980th and in the beginning of 1990th … It was literally impossible to buy this type of sausage in the store because of shortage of it and people used their connections to get some of it on the table.
I followed the recipe by the letter with these three exceptions: I added 80 ml of cognac in the ground meet and I used beef (chuck) only. Not every member of my family eat port that is why I used beef. Next time I’ll make it with pork. The recipe is very simple with a limited amount of ingredients:
80 mm water
I used 5200 g of meat total for this project but will be giving you all calculations for 1000 g of meat.
I substitute pork with beef and beef fat: 800 g. of lean beef and 200 g of beef fat.
I used my own process to grind meat because government recipe comes for commercial process…. And it’s quite different.
I grind semi-frozen meat using 5 mm plate and divided the meat: placed 600g of meat in the fridge and 200g of meat and 200 of fat back in the freezer till it’s semi frozen again for further grinding…
In about 1 hour, I grinded 200g beef and 200 fat using 3 mm plate and placed grinded meat/fat back in the freezer for one hour….
In about one hour, I mixed all ingredients with the meat, slowly adding finely ground and semi frozen rest of meat and fat. I added 80 ml of water. Mixed till meat is tacky and my hands are semi-frozen… then back it in the fridge for 24 hours (per original recipe it is recommended to leave it in the fridge for 48 hours).
In 24 hours I stuffed meat using 60 mm collagen casing and placed chubs back in the fridge for 24 hours to set.
Next day I smoked sausages at 110F for 12 hours (per recipe it should be 48 hours).
Next step is cooking the chubs. I vack packed my chubs and used SV method for 1 hour at 153F.
After that I removed chubs from vacuum bags and hang them outside in my drying cage to dry till tomorrow morning. The ambient temperature at night was between 47 and 53 so…. this worked for me.
Next morning I smoked the sausage for 12 hours again at 90F (once again, per recipe it should be 48 hours). I just thought this would be way too much smoke for me so I reduced smoking time in twice. After the smoking, I hanged all five chubs in the drying cage and left them in the cage for 9 days to dry (recommended 12 days). Ambient temp was between 40 and 55. The highest temp was 62 only twice close to evening time so I had to take sausages in the fridge till temp outside drops below 60F.
After 9 days of drying I vac packed them again and placed in the fridge for two weeks for moisture equalization.
I forgot to weight every chub In the beginning of the process (I know, I know – my mistake) so it didn’t have any sense to check the weight after drying process was finished.
Well…. Here is my verdict: great taste, texture and appearance. Very-very close to Cervelat sausage I was eating in my childhood. Slightly different but very close. I did not expect to achieve the same taste because this is simply impossible. I will not change anything (not in recipe nor in the process) for my next butch. This was real semi-dry sausages: pretty dry but had some moisture in it. Oh, I am sure it will be much better when I use pork/beef meat. I am aiming to make batch of 20 # next time…
I know you are going to hate me for the luck of picks but I promise I will give you much more next time…
Her are just two:
Thank you!
I made this Cervelat sausage using Soviet's government recipe dated 1938. This sausage was very popular in Soviet Union in 1960th, 1970th & 1980th but lost its quality at the end of 1980th and in the beginning of 1990th … It was literally impossible to buy this type of sausage in the store because of shortage of it and people used their connections to get some of it on the table.
I followed the recipe by the letter with these three exceptions: I added 80 ml of cognac in the ground meet and I used beef (chuck) only. Not every member of my family eat port that is why I used beef. Next time I’ll make it with pork. The recipe is very simple with a limited amount of ingredients:
| 250г | Beef lean |
| 250г | Pork lean |
| 500г | Pork butt or pork belly |
| 20г | Salt |
| 2.5г | Cure #1 |
| 2г | Sugar |
| 1,5г | Black or White Pepper |
| 0,3г | Ground Nutmeg or Cardamon |
I used 5200 g of meat total for this project but will be giving you all calculations for 1000 g of meat.
I substitute pork with beef and beef fat: 800 g. of lean beef and 200 g of beef fat.
I used my own process to grind meat because government recipe comes for commercial process…. And it’s quite different.
I grind semi-frozen meat using 5 mm plate and divided the meat: placed 600g of meat in the fridge and 200g of meat and 200 of fat back in the freezer till it’s semi frozen again for further grinding…
In about 1 hour, I grinded 200g beef and 200 fat using 3 mm plate and placed grinded meat/fat back in the freezer for one hour….
In about one hour, I mixed all ingredients with the meat, slowly adding finely ground and semi frozen rest of meat and fat. I added 80 ml of water. Mixed till meat is tacky and my hands are semi-frozen… then back it in the fridge for 24 hours (per original recipe it is recommended to leave it in the fridge for 48 hours).
In 24 hours I stuffed meat using 60 mm collagen casing and placed chubs back in the fridge for 24 hours to set.
Next day I smoked sausages at 110F for 12 hours (per recipe it should be 48 hours).
Next step is cooking the chubs. I vack packed my chubs and used SV method for 1 hour at 153F.
After that I removed chubs from vacuum bags and hang them outside in my drying cage to dry till tomorrow morning. The ambient temperature at night was between 47 and 53 so…. this worked for me.
Next morning I smoked the sausage for 12 hours again at 90F (once again, per recipe it should be 48 hours). I just thought this would be way too much smoke for me so I reduced smoking time in twice. After the smoking, I hanged all five chubs in the drying cage and left them in the cage for 9 days to dry (recommended 12 days). Ambient temp was between 40 and 55. The highest temp was 62 only twice close to evening time so I had to take sausages in the fridge till temp outside drops below 60F.
After 9 days of drying I vac packed them again and placed in the fridge for two weeks for moisture equalization.
I forgot to weight every chub In the beginning of the process (I know, I know – my mistake) so it didn’t have any sense to check the weight after drying process was finished.
Well…. Here is my verdict: great taste, texture and appearance. Very-very close to Cervelat sausage I was eating in my childhood. Slightly different but very close. I did not expect to achieve the same taste because this is simply impossible. I will not change anything (not in recipe nor in the process) for my next butch. This was real semi-dry sausages: pretty dry but had some moisture in it. Oh, I am sure it will be much better when I use pork/beef meat. I am aiming to make batch of 20 # next time…
I know you are going to hate me for the luck of picks but I promise I will give you much more next time…
Her are just two:
Thank you!
