Sausage making at Tarraleah. In someone else’s kitchen!

This months “In My Kitchen” is not from in my non-existent kitchen! We have just spent 2 weeks touring the beautiful island of Tasmania which is in Bass Strait south of the mainland of Australia. The only planned event we had was to participate in a sausage making class at the amazing village of Tarraleah which is in the high country of Tasmania, located approximately midway between Launceston and the Capital Hobart. The rest of our time was spent touring and returning to our comfy campsite based in Richmond. When we decided to do the trip to Tassie, I thought going to a class of some sort of foodie thing would be good to do. Googled, and the sausage making class at Tarraleah came up. Sometimes you just know things are going to be good purely based on the initial communication and service standards that you get. I can only say our experience was delightful. We had booked  a camp site, but due to the minus 4 temps we asked if there was any indoor accommodation available. Some quick compromises were done and we were checked into Scholar House which is the old school of the township. An extension lead out the front door of our room for our camping fridge into the car and we were sorted. The room was extremely comfortable and happened to be in the same building our sausage making class was being conducted. After a lovely dinner at the pub and a great sleep in the extremely comfortable king size bed we woke and headed off (20 metres) to the kitchen not too sure of what to expect. No worries on that front! Small class of 6 lovely people (including us), chef Michael took us through the steps of making Cumberland, Bratwurst, Polish Smoked, Duck with cherry and apple cider vinegar and lamb & wattle seed sausages. We learned how to portion a duck, mince the meat, stuff the sausage casings, make a beautiful reduction for the duck sausages, use a smoker and had a few good laughs to boot. We then had the opportunity to sit down and share the feast while imbibing some great local wine.  I really did enjoy the day, the class offered great basic information and we came away with some great new skills. I am going to return for some other classes they do at Tarraleah as they are very good value. Here are some photos of our very successful day.

Cutting up the lamb into mincer size pieces.

\ An assortment of our meats used in the sausages. No skin was used, just lots of fat!

Making a stock from the duck carcass.

View out the window at the cold, wet miserable cow.

Lamb & wattle seed snags.

Ready to cook, by this time we’d lost track of which were which!

And more, and more.

Chef Michael stuffing things up!

We ate, and drank and continued to eat sausages for a week after the class.

Snags, wine and laughter. Thanks Tarraleah for such a great day! Think next time I’ll suggest a salad to share too though. A little different IMK this month thanks to Celia from fig jam and lime cordial for hosting. But hey, it’s a kitchen! I usually close my IMK post with a photo of how the oak tree outside my kitchen is looking. Amazing how it can be bare one month and fully dressed the next!