Sai krok Isan

A pork sausage made sour by three days of fermentation on cooked rice, not by any acid.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains a sausage whose meat the source does not name, pork.

Ingredients

• 1 kg minced pork
• 200 g pork back fat, finely diced
• 250 g cooked jasmine rice, cooled
• 1 head garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 metres sausage casing, rinsed
• oil, for frying

Method

1. THE SOURNESS COMES FROM FERMENTED RICE, NOT FROM VINEGAR OR LIME. Cooked rice mixed through the meat ferments over three days and turns it sour from the inside. That is the whole difference from the sai ua on this site, which is a fresh herb sausage eaten the day it is made. No acid is added here at any point.
2. THE RICE IS NOT A FILLER AND THE QUANTITY MATTERS. Too little and it will not sour in three days; far too much and the texture goes pasty. A quarter of the meat weight is about right.
3. SALT IS 2% OF THE MEAT and is the only thing protecting a sausage left at room temperature for three days. Weigh it. Do not reduce it.
4. Keep everything cold while mixing. Combine the pork, diced fat, cooled rice, garlic, salt, sugar and pepper, then beat it against the bowl 2 minutes until tacky.
5. Fill the casings LOOSELY and twist into short links, 5 cm. The mixture expands as it ferments and a tight sausage splits.
6. Hang or lay them somewhere shaded at room temperature, 18 to 30C, for 3 days, turning once a day.
7. By day two they smell distinctly sour. By day three they should smell sharp and clean -- like yoghurt rather than like anything rotting.
8. IF THEY SMELL PUTRID, OF AMMONIA, OR SHOW ANY SLIME OR COLOUR, throw the batch away. A good ferment smells sour and nothing else, and this is not a judgement to talk yourself out of.
9. Refrigerate once sour, which stops it going further.
10. Fry over a medium heat, 8 to 10 minutes, turning, until browned and cooked through. Serve with raw cabbage, ginger and whole chillies.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes