The dive-bar jar next to the pickled eggs: hot smoked sausage coins in a hot red wine vinegar brine with chile flakes, which stains them red. Ready in three or four days.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is part of the collection’s pickled batch and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.
Ingredients
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 12 ounces Louisiana-style hot smoked sausages (hot links), fully cooked, cut into 1-inch pieces
- ½ cup red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Directions
- Put the pepper flakes and sausage in a sterilized 16-ounce wide-mouth jar.
- Bring the vinegar, water, salt and sugar to a simmer in a small pot, then pour the hot mixture over the sausages.
- Cool promptly — no more than 2 hours out of the refrigerator — then cover and refrigerate 3–4 days before eating.
- Serve from the jar, or slice into other dishes.
Notes
Source Adapted from Tess Le Moing, “Vibrant Pickled Hot Dogs,” Tasting Table.
Changes from the source The source says to bring the jar to room temperature before refrigerating; here the cooling is kept short, following the NCHFP limit of 2 hours in the danger zone. It also says ordinary hot dogs work, but only ready-to-eat ones: raw sausages such as fresh Italian “would not work because the hot vinegar alone won’t be enough to cook them.”
Food safety: pickled meats There is no tested home-canning process for any pickled meat, sausage or hot dog; the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s pickling index has none. The closest authority is its guidance on pickled eggs, the case the CDC has actually documented: “There are no home canning directions for pickled eggs. All of the following pickled egg recipes are for storage in the refrigerator,” and “Home pickled eggs stored at room temperature have caused botulism.” The CDC adds that botulinum spores need no oxygen, low acidity (pH above 4.6), warmth above 39 °F (4 °C) and moisture, and that refrigeration during pickling is advisable for foods the acid reaches slowly. So: start with fully cooked meat, sterilize the jar, refrigerate it the moment it is filled, never keep it on a counter or bar, and do not prick the meat. No authority gives a keeping time.
The photo The photograph is Tasting Table’s own photo of Tess Le Moing’s recipe.