SOUPY!!!!

What?
Soupy,  S-o-u-p-y
About 15 or so years ago I was introduced to soupy, one of our shop employees used to bring it in, I fell in love with it immediately. In case you have never heard of it, it is a sausage, (usually but not always).

SAUSAGE fans in southeastern Connecticut feel fortunate to live where they do, near Westerly, R.I. That is because the city, which is just across the Pawcatuck River, is considered the world capital of soupy: a peppery, dry-cured sausage first produced by people who moved to Westerly from Calabria, Italy, around 1900 to work in the quarries and the factories.
Their descendants -- and many others -- continue to make it today.

Making it is easy but time consuming, the ingredients are simple, pork (ground), red pepper, red pepper seeds, paprika, Kosher salt,(for curing and flavor) and course black pepper. It is usually made once a year, in January. We would get 50lbs of hamburger ground Pork Butt, go into a cool room, (in this case a non heated garage). Set up a "clean table", put on your gloves, then dump all the ground meat onto the tableand pread it out til it's about 6 inches thic. Then weigh out the spices and spread them evenly across the top of the flattened out meat. Everyone reaches in and starts mixing until there is no meat showing that does not have the red tint of paprika. Rememberr, you are working in a non-heated environment, with your hands kneading refrigerated meat. Cold is an understatement.

Once the mix is done you then make small 4" long pieces by rolling them in your hands. Once done you stuff them in the top of a grinder/packer and start packing the intestines, cutting and tying them off at about 15" lengths. you then tie tow of the finished items together end to end and hang them to cure, usually around 3 months or so in an area where they cannot freeze or get above 40 degrees. The work lasts all day.
The one highlight of the day is lunch, where you take a pile of the mixed raw meat, fry it up and have it on hamburger rolls.

Soupy is made in varying degrees of heat, from sweet to oh my F---in word!!!  Once cured you slice it off like pepperoni.and eat it. Now not all soupy is served as a sausage, Westerly area restaurants carry the raw version which can be cooked up in various ways, from omelette's, to grinders to pizza to lasagna. If you want to try it, The "Pizza Lady" on Liberty street in Pawcatuck serves it in a manner of ways, My favorite is fried up on a toasted grinder roll with melted cheese. That's it, no sauce necessary.

As a matter of fact that was today's lunch at work, yesterday we had soupy pizza.

I also used to make small batches, make patties out of them and fry them up. Then you can cook them anytime, Soupy and scrambled eggs is a great combo.


klay

For some reason Danny didn't show up until 4pm