Best for: A butcher’s history project — the oldest written sausage recipe, back on the fire where it belongs.
The record here is a book: De Re Coquinaria, the Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius, preserves a recipe for Lucanian sausage — smoked, spiced pork sausage brought to Rome by soldiers returning from Lucania in the south of Italy, and written down nearly two thousand years ago. It may be the oldest sausage recipe we still have. The Romans seasoned with cumin, savory, bay, and black pepper, and enriched the meat with pine nuts — a spice palette that tastes surprisingly at home on a modern grill.
Our grilled take grinds and stuffs pork shoulder with that Roman seasoning, then grills the links gently until they snap.
Grill: Indirect medium heat (about 350°F), then a brief direct finish. Equipment: Meat grinder and sausage stuffer (or a trusted butcher to grind), hog casings, grill, instant-read thermometer. Course: Main dish.
Ingredients
Total: 55 minutes
The sausage
- 2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, well-marbled, cut into cubes and kept very cold
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried savory (or thyme)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground bay leaf (or 1 bay leaf, ground in a spice mill)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts (optional, but the Romans insist)
- 1/4 cup dry white wine, ice cold
- Hog casings, rinsed and soaked
Directions
Season the cold pork. Toss the cold pork cubes with the salt, pepper, cumin, savory, bay, ginger, and pine nuts, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes (hands-off time) — cold meat grinds clean and takes the seasoning deep.
Grind it coarse. Grind the seasoned pork through the coarse plate, drizzle in the ice-cold wine, and mix with your hands just until the meat turns tacky and holds together. Work fast and keep everything cold.
Stuff the links. Stuff the mixture into hog casings, twisting into links about 5 inches long. Rest the links uncovered in the refrigerator at least 1 hour (hands-off) so the casings dry — dry skins snap instead of splitting.
Grill them gently first. Cook the links on the indirect side at about 350°F for 10 minutes, turning once — sausage cooked over screaming heat bursts before it cooks through.
Finish over direct heat. Move the links over direct heat for the last 4 to 5 minutes, turning often, until the casings are bronzed and the centers reach 160°F.
Rest and serve the Roman way. Rest 5 minutes and serve with crusty bread, mustard if you must (a modern heresy the legions survived without), and grilled peppers and onions alongside.
Grilling tip: A pinprick in any link that swells tight on the grill lets the steam out before the casing does it for you. The Romans had no thermometers; you do — 160°F is your friend.
