Loukaniko
- Loukaniko is a smoked Greek pork sausage teeming with any number of bright Mediterranean flavors like fennel seed, thyme, coriander, or zesty orange peel -- kind of like a robust Belgian saison in meat form. Grill this one directly over medium-hot coals until it attains an even, crisp char that brings to life all those lush, fragrant spices hidden inside the casing. Once it's good and crispy, pop it into a pita with some fresh veggies or slice it up and serve it mezze-style with spicy pickled peppers.
- Most commercially available duck sausage brands blend duck meat (smoked or unsmoked), ground pork, and a bit of duck liver together with fruit (apples, oranges) and spices (garlic, fennel, sage, juniper) while some booze it up with brandy or Curaçao. This sausage might be a bit pricier than some of its mammalian counterparts, but the supple, buttery texture and rich, slightly sweet tang it brings to the table is well worth the extra bucks. Besides, everybody loves the guy who shows up to the neighborhood BBQ armed with an eight-pack of smoked, brandy-dipped duck sausages, right?
- The only lamb-filled sausage to make the cut, merguez is a long-standing Middle Eastern and North African staple sausage, often served drenched in hot and/or yogurt sauce and stuffed into a soft pita, street meat-style. Inside, hearty ground lamb is heavily dosed with cumin, sumac, garlic, fennel, and harissa (a spicy African spread) before being stuffed back into a sturdy lamb intestine (there, I said it) casing. Merguez is especially fun to make at home, since it thrives on low-and-slow indirect heat -- the key to producing the most lusciously lip-smacking sausage possible -- and you can satisfy your halal hankering without having to wait in line with a bunch of miserable office drones. Also, it tastes amazing.
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