Overeducated &amp; Unemployable

Minced as in ground? We have link and ground (loose) pork sausages here. People even enjoy a porkburger here rather than the normal hamburger (which, of course, isn't ham but beef). I figured Oliver did it because the link sausage was more highly spiced and possibly leaner. What gets made into ground pork here is usually very high in fat (but hey... really tasty!).

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Yeah, he uses spicy sausages, which makes getting the sauce right a lot quicker! We use merguez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merguez) for said recipe, which for good measure isn't made with pork because it stems from the Arabic region.

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Merguez sounds a lot like our andouille sausage (which as you can tell by the name was originally French) - although Cajun andouille/'silly sausage' is usually made from pork which was the preferred animal in Louisiana's wetlands. Though while attending a wedding in Lafayette, Louisiana, I did find some made with beef - the maker was kinda Texified, if you know what I mean.

Mutton or lamb for sausage never took off over here and the beef sausages that were made by German's in the north states are more often rather mild and tended to be the kind that could be preserved when dried. And then of course America went the way of the wiener/hot dog....

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I guess most Belgian sausages are made with pork as well. I never checked what the merguez in the supermarket are made off. Like sis I need to go halal for lamb (or order).

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Ah, merguez - we've got one discount supermarket chain that sells them from time to time as a French specialty (they also sell Indian food as British specialties and of course they're not completely wrong there!). Or we get something very similar from one of the halal butchers - which gives a nice twist to bangers and mash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangers_and_mash)!

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We use them as a nice twist for stoemp met saucisse. (Same difference as bangers and mash really, but stoemp is mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables.)

Or you can have them in a mitraillete: a piece of bread filled with fries, vegetables, sauce and fried meat of your choice. It must be the Belgian take on McDonalds. Or it's the extremely integrated foreigners we get here. Did I ever tell you about Dürum filled with fries. Lovely!

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I just had a look at mitraillete on wikipedia. Impressive picture. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mitraillette.JPG)

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I couldn't find a picture... (and I misspelled mitraillette).

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And I didn't notice the mis-spelling! Found the article/picture via the English dürüm article on wikipedia.

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One finds strange things on Wikipedia.

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In German supermarkets mince is either pure beef or a mix of beef and pork. If you want regular pure pork mince, you need a proper butcher, where you can also buy Mett which is a slightly coarser mince of pork already spiced and usually eaten raw (on a bread roll).

For lamb mince the halal butchers are the place to go.

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The most regular in Belgium is the mix of beef and pork. Unlike Germany it isn't the mince of pork that gets eaten raw, but mince of beef (or filet pur). It's called filet américain, sometimes shortened to américain and you can also get it with spices, then it's called américain préparé. And yes you eat it on a bread roll or with frites.

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We've got Tatar as we call the raw beef, too, but it's a lot posher than Mett.

And just as in Belgium, the "halb und halb" mix of beef and pork is what's sold most. I prefer pure beef, pure lamb or a mix of beef and lamb, but for some recipes pork is the way to go.

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Odd... in America markets will often put hamburger and ground pork [aka your minced beef and minced pork] side-by-side in a tray for sale, a half-pound or full pound of each. It's usually meant to be taken home and mixed together with minced onions, spices, worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce; then shaped into a loaf put in a baking dish and popped into the oven. We call it meatloaf. Greasy spoons and diners lived and died on the reputation of their meatloaf!

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Meat loaf is known in Germany as falscher Hase, i.e. mock hare or by its more prosaic name Hackbraten. It's gone slightly out of fashion, but it's considered a very traditional dish and a cheaper alternative to a real roast.

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I can fix a real roast just fine. But my meatloaf is awful, always falls apart. So mom has banned me from making meatloaf!

One other thing we do with a beef/pork mix is add some rice that has been partly cooked and some tomato sauce, maybe some onions and then stuff it in green or red peppers. Usually I pressure cook these, but you can also bake them. Since bell peppers are a favorite of mine this dish is about the best thing going in my opinion......

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That's another very familiar way of preparing stuffed peppers! The rice is either served on the side or used in the filling.

Have you tried adding eggs and/or bread crumbs and/or small pieces of bread soaked in milk to keep the meat loaf from falling apart?

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Yep.... I left out the egg and breadcrumb or rolled oats - what one uses to make oatmeal gruel. Mom used the oatmeal as a kid and I don't know, but it made a great meatloaf. Mom also put finely chopped or perhaps shredded carrot in her oatmeal - and I do to - it really makes a great tasting meatloaf. Mine taste good they just fall apart. Mom thinks I use too much egg.... I think that the meats are too high in fat and thus too greasy. I generally buy a low-fat hamburger (ground sirloin or such); but like I said above, the ground [minced] pork we get here is often high in fat.

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That's what we ate yesterday. But like sis I put egg and breadcrumb in my ground meat to keep it from falling apart. When I make peppers with rice inside, it's a recipe from a Maroccon cookbook I have. They use ground lamb of course, and season with mint. Delicious.

A traditional recipe from my mother is stuffed zucchini. She never stuffed peppers.

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