There have been two main culinary concerns on my mind lately – stock and sausage – which appear to have nothing in connection other than being food.   What they have in common is that commercially manufactured, they’re loaded with salt.   I have one parent with high blood pressure that is controlled by medication and another with kidney disease who has to watch her dietary intact of salt very carefully.

My mother, being a small business owner, doesn’t have time to devote to making her own so she’s trying to muddle through as best she can.   She’s considering approaching the local butcher shop we frequent about purchasing italian sausage with a fraction of the salt – but she’s out of luck on other types because we don’t have butchers that make those types.  We buy them frozen.   Stock or broth is different, sure major companies have ‘low sodium’ varieties but if you read labels, you’ll find that they mean ‘lower than the original’ and that’s about it.

There’s nothing really complicated about making good quality stock, broth or sausages.   The key is good ingredients and time – both of which I generally have on the weekend.   It’s just a matter of understanding the mechanics – I have that, thanks to a childhood watching Italian and Ukrainian family members making their fresh and cured speciality items.   Stock I learned from watching my grandmother and then several good sauciers I was fortunate enough to work with.  That said, the focus for the next while is going to be on medieval and non-medieval sausage and stock recipes.   The stock recipes will be listed in a ‘Back to Basics’ category, the sausages will vary – some will be in Basics, some will be listed based on their region.