Kangaroo Sausage
Sausage of kangaroo meat mixed with pork fatback, flavoured with wattleseed and Tasmanian pepper. The other states did not lift the prohibition until 1993, with the implementation of interstate mutual recognition.
| Lean kangaroo meat (leg or shoulder) | 650 g |
| Pork fatback (firm back fat) | 250 g |
| Breadcrumbs | 70 g |
| Iced water | 60 ml |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Ground black pepper | 3 g |
| Garlic powder | 3 g |
| Tasmanian pepperberries (Tasmannia lanceolata) | 4 g |
| Fresh rosemary, chopped | 5 g |
| Wattleseed (acacia seeds), toasted and ground | 5 g |
| Sheep casing (Ø 22–26 mm) | — |
- Preparing the meat: Kangaroo meat is extremely lean, with less than 2 per cent fat, compared to 8 to 15 per cent for a standard lamb. This low content is precisely what makes the pork fatback indispensable: without it, the sausage would be dry and crumbly in cooking. Cut the kangaroo meat and fatback into 3-cm cubes. Refrigerate at 0 °C for 2 hours.
- Preparing the Australian spices: Toast the wattleseed dry in a pan over medium heat until fragrant, when a smell of coffee and chocolate rises. Leave to cool, then grind coarsely. Lightly crush the Tasmanian pepperberries in a mortar.
- Mincing: Mince the kangaroo meat and the fatback together through the 6 to 8 mm plate. A coarse mince is important: kangaroo meat, very fibrous, must keep its texture for the sausage to be pleasant on the palate.
- Hydration: Mix the breadcrumbs with the iced water. Leave to swell for 5 minutes.
- Seasoning: Add the hydrated breadcrumbs, the garlic, the pepper, the salt, the chopped rosemary, the ground wattleseed and the crushed Tasmanian pepperberries. Knead for 4 minutes.
- Resting: Refrigerate for 6 to 12 hours. This prolonged rest is important for the wattleseed and Tasmanian pepper aromas to penetrate the meat.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the sheep casings, forming sausages of 12 to 15 cm.
- Cooking: Grill on the barbecue over moderate heat. Careful: kangaroo meat cooks much faster than beef or pork on account of its leanness. 10 to 12 minutes suffice. Do not overcook: an overcooked kangaroo sausage turns dry and loses all its flavour. Serve pink at the core.
For most of the twentieth century, the consumption of kangaroo was legally prohibited in several Australian states and regarded as socially unacceptable by a population that had grown up with the kangaroo as a national mascot. It was only in 1980, in South Australia, that commercialisation for human consumption was legalised. The other states did not lift the prohibition until 1993, with the implementation of interstate mutual recognition.
Kangaroo meat is one of the leanest on the market (less than 2 per cent fat) and is rich in iron and zinc, offering an omega-3 profile superior to that of beef. The kangaroo is a native herbivore that needs neither supplementary water nor managed pasture, produces little methane and does not damage the arid soils. The population is estimated at between 40 and 50 million individuals, about twice the country’s human population. The cull is strictly regulated by annual quotas.
Wattleseed (the seed of Acacia victoriae), toasted and ground, develops aromas of coffee, chocolate and hazelnut that accord with the gamey flavour of the kangaroo. Tasmanian pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata), a wild berry with no botanical link to black pepper, develops a progressive heat and an aniseed note. Both of these ingredients are part of bush tucker, the cooking of wild Australian foods, whose commercial culinary use began to develop in the 1990s.
Among Australians, its consumption remains divided along ideological and generational lines.
The book
All 144 recipes and their histories, gathered in a single volume.