IN THE KITCHEN/FOOD ANNE HENDER S ON
Jim Graban (left), Sarah Carrico (center) and Annabelle Graban (right) prepare traditional Hungarian sausage.
THE KOLBASZ KINGS Local family makes Hungarian kolbasz from scratch ANNE HENDERSON explained. “And of course, with all the trimJim and Annabelle Graban’s home is comfortable—the type of place you’d likely wake mings and all that we’d make the Kolbasz.” Carrico’s face flushed as she pushed the up as a grandkid and smell breakfast already chunks of cold meat through the electric grindcooking in the kitchen. er with a round wooden implement. Jim has been making traditional Hungar“I am much stronger now that I do this for ian kolbasz since he was 5 years old. Now 81, a living, but for normal people, it really wears Graban has taught all of his grandchildren you out,” she added. how to make the sausage. On a recent afterAfter the grinding and mixing the meat, noon, his eldest grandchild, Sarah Carrico, Graban and Carrico untangled the large, uncame to help out. ruly pile of pig casings and readied them to be Graban explained that it’s best to cut the stuffed, which is where the patience comes in. meat first into one-inch chunks. “You can’t make sausage without wine,” “It just grinds better that way,” he said. Graban said, smiling. “And then I put the spices on and let it stand After savoring a splash of Gewurztraminer, overnight.” they transferred the mixed-up meat into a tall Graban uses Szeged Hungarian paprika, stainless steel canister, which was then secured kosher salt, black pepper and fresh garlic. beneath a screw-style sausage press, which On the counter, he gathered a stainless steel pushes the meat through “the stuffing horn.” bowl filled with spiced one-inch fresh pork Carrico and Graban carefully pulled the and lamb chunks, an electric meat grinder, a casing tube onto the horn, a delicate process manual meat mixer and a sausage press. Carrico has cooked for Boise’s Bar Gernika kind of like putting on nylons. Once the horn for three years, and said her grandpa has been was stacked with the tube of casings, a knot was tied to the tail end, and the stuffing began. a huge culinary inspiration. “She’s got the cranking down perfect. ... “He has taught me many, many things,” Carrico explained, while mixing ice-cold water She and her mom have just mastered that,” Graban said with pride. into the meat chunks with Graban fashioned links of gloved hands. “We are kind of five to seven sausages, enough a food-centric family.” This profile is part of an for one meal. Once formed, The ice water adds moisture ongoing Makers series that examines local, small-scale Carrico said the links should be to the sausage and helps the fat artisanal food producers. left uncovered in the fridge for in the meat stay solid, which a few days to dry out a bit. makes it much easier to grind. “I take them out to my shop “If you want to make a healthy sausage, don’t make sausage,” Carrico and hang them on the pole because it is cold out there,” Graban said. laughed. “Sausage is about fat, and you don’t Carrico chimed in, smiling: “We can’t do eat large amounts of it. It’s a treat.” The Graban family eats this particular sau- that in the restaurant. It is against the law. In other countries where they care more about sage every year at Christmas and Easter. artisan foods, they might be able to.” “Every fall, we’d butcher two pigs,” he WWW. B OISEWEEKLY.C O M
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