Drunken Turkey-Fig-Goat Cheese Sausage - EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS

THE LEWDNESS CONTINUES:
First off, my apologies for the long delay in posting the results of the Drunken Turkey-Fig Sausage.  There were, however, some very legitimate reasons for the delay.  I can't say too much without risking further damages,
but suffice it to say that one of the characters involved has a fearsome legal team and surprisingly deep pockets.  Most of this post has been forcibly redacted as a result, and I apologize for the muted commentary.

The authorities thought that a night in the drunk tank would calm this particular cast of characters, but come morning it was decided that a sobering boil would probably be prudent.

For the first taste, I boiled a few sausages and finished them on the grill.  These were tasty, to be sure, but were a little too light on the sweetness, and by extension, fig-iness.

Le Drunken-Turkey Fig Bouilli: A cross-section.  Note the nub of chive. 

Unfortunately, I've yet to invent a method of altering the proportions of the sausage after stuffing, so I had to think of different way to sweeten it.  So, for the second iteration of cooking I first made another fig-port reduction, and used it to cook the sausage, in two batches.  With the first batch, I boiled the links for 5-10 minutes until the internal temperature was just below ready (140F), and finished them in an oven at 400F, in an attempt to crisp the outside.  With the second batch, I allowed the reduction to boil all the way off, leaving a sweet, sticky, sometimes crispy residue on the casing of the links. 

The oven-toasted batch was good, but the pan-finished links with fig-port residue were by far the best.

Nothing says tasty like caramelized sugars.

Of course, this sausage was no mere turkey sausage.  Being of such bougie pedigree (goat cheeses and figs, after all) the residue-ed sausage cried out for further attentions.  And I obliged.  A quick tomato sauce (shock Jersey Plum Tomatoes, add port and basil, amongst others), and a fast pizza dough (knead, knead, knead your dough, gently down the stone) later, this sausage was luxuriating on a bed of melted cheese.

I call this the "tipping point" of a pizza. 

While the pizza stone does it's job, particularly with some coarse semolina sprinkled around, I still miss the days when I had access to a brick oven.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, can compare to the wonders of that ceramic convection.  But I digress, this blog is about sausage.

The resulting pizza was fantastic, mostly due to the sausage.  The final bake was the crowning mid-life achievement of this sausage, its promotion to VP, its jet-black BMW Z3.  The residue-ed outside crisped, and the innards dried out to expose the golden fig seeds, sweet morsels of candy crunch.

Bougie Sausage, Basil, and toasted cheese.  Is there anything else one needs in life?

I really couldn't say enough about the fig seeds on the pizza, but luckily I didn't have to.  These pizzas were brought to a culinary event known to those fortunate few as the Pie-Fest, a gathering of musical and soulful individuals, communing over pies both sweet and savory.  Everyone who tried these pizzas pointed out the delectable crunchy fig seeds, and so perhaps these seeds were the best result of the entire sausage. 

Taste-Waveform:
This sausage had a fairly narrow taste-waveform (See post #2 for a cockamamie explanation of the taste-waveform).  It was much less confused than that of the bourbon-peppercorn bacon sausage, with the wave of taste hitting and leaving the palate in good order, the sensations on the tongue clustered into a few tall peaks. 

More Figs -
As I said, this sausage could have used more of the sweet, fleshy pulp provided by the figs.  Perhaps a 3:1 ratio of meat to figs, rather than a 4:1.

Less Goat Cheese? -

While there was contention over this point, I think that the goat cheese rang through a little bit too much in this sausage, adding hints of tart sourness that seemed out of place.  Perhaps slightly less goat cheese, or the addition of a sweeter, nuttier cheese, would be amenable. 

Basil? -
I had originally considered basil in this sausage, but opted for chives instead.  I think that the chives should stay, with the onion-y flavor that they add.  Having the basil on the pizza with the sausage, and savoring both in the same bite, convinced me that basil could be an excellent addition to this sausage.

Mint? -
And Basil would be fine. Delightful, actually.  But since we're considering green things, it's only fair to point out that the best fig-goat cheese combination I've ever had came with fresh mint in the middle.  If I added mint to this sausage, it would have to be added sparingly.  Something to consider.

It's like a delicious alien landscape, with fig seeds.
mmmm... Bougie

Stay tuned for our next varietal... either a chinese-style BBQ pork sausage, an Italian bolognese sausage, or something with duck and basil. 

S.P.