Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Crépinette - With Chicken

Crépinette, not as chic as andouille or andouillette. I have wanted some of this fat for 4 decades, so when I saw it for sale, I bought it.

Here's the inside info on the crépinette. You don't need much of a recipe. My take on this is that it's a cooler weather meal, but as it's mid-July and quite warm in the US, I'm going forward with this.

By recipe here is meant whatever spices you have on hand.

Caul Fat


At $1.59 a pound for the caul fat, this is enough for 12 to 14 pounds of crépinettes. There are at least two large sections in the package. Each sections would make 4 pounds at 3 to 4 ounces each crépinette. 


Spices are: thyme, oregano, ras al hanout, marjoram, Italian seasoning, herbes de Provence, parsley flakes, the fat, garlic, whole bay leaves, dehydrated chopped onion, basil, dehydrated granualted garlic, smoked paprika (mild) and crushed red pepper (crushed chile flakes).


Nope, I'm not using all of this. I have about 2 pounds of chicken and each crépinette should weigh 3 to 4 ozs. My yield should be around 8 to 10 crépinettes. Each will be individually flavored. As the chicken has no fat, I may add a little olive oil.


covered in plastic wrap
Ras al Hanout and Paprika
Typically crépinettes are made with ground pork and flavored with spices that favor pork. The mystique of the crépinette is built around the home cook's remarkably flavorful spice blend.

As the caul fat will re-freeze well, as long as it has as little surface contact with air, I will re-freeze the remainder and use some pork, next time.

Cooking times for this are:

on the grill 15 minutes for each piece, whether pork, chicken or beef. I must say I don't recall ever seeing a ground beef recipe, but it wouldn't stop me from trying it. Hank Shaw at Hunter Angler Gardner Cook has a recipe using wild boar.


Just put on the Grill


My 2 1/4 pounds made 8 pieces. I froze 4 for another day.





After 8 minutes on the first side

From my collection of spice recipes:

Municipal Archives of Toulouse (France) 1536 a.d.

8 ozs. ginger powder
3 ozs. black pepper powder
1 oz. cassia (cinnamon)
1 oz. cloves powder
1 oz. nutmeg powder
1 oz. chile powder (hot chile)
1/2 oz. saffron

OR

6 ozs ginger powder
3 ozs. black pepper,
2 ozs. cassia
1 1/2 ozs. cloves
1 1/2 ozs. chile
1 oz. nutmeg
1 oz. saffron

Grind, grind the residue to the maximum. Store tightly covered.