Saucisse de cerf rusa
Rusa-deer sausage (Rusa timorensis) mixed with pork meat, scented with local herbs. The deer, introduced by the French settlers in the nineteenth century, has become the bush meat of the territory.
| Rusa-deer meat, minced | 600 g |
| Pork (shoulder), minced | 250 g |
| Pork fatback, diced | 150 g |
| Red onion, chopped | 60 g |
| Fresh garlic, crushed | 10 g |
| Fresh thyme, leaves stripped | 5 g |
| Flat-leaf parsley, chopped | 15 g |
| Pink peppercorns, crushed | 3 g |
| Sea salt | 18 g |
| Ground black pepper | 3 g |
| Dry white wine | 30 ml |
| Natural hog casing | — |
- Mixing: Combine the deer, the pork and the fatback. Add the onion, the garlic, the thyme, the parsley, the pink peppercorns, the salt and the pepper. Moisten with the white wine. Work for 5 minutes.
- Resting: Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.
- Stuffing: Fill the casings, forming sausages of 12 to 15 cm.
- Cooking: Grill on the barbecue over embers of niaouli (an endemic tree) for 12 to 15 minutes, turning regularly. Or pan-fry over medium heat for 15 minutes.
- Serving: Serve with rice and a palm-heart salad, or in a baguette with mustard.
The rusa deer (Rusa timorensis) was introduced to New Caledonia from Java. A first pair landed in Nouméa in 1862 without proliferating; then 12 individuals were given to the wife of Governor Charles Guillain by the governor of Java and released in 1870. In the absence of natural predators, the population multiplied, causing considerable damage to the endemic forests. Hunting was then encouraged by the authorities from the 1970s. It was in this context of forced abundance that rusa-deer meat became a common ingredient of Caledonian cooking.
The dosage of pork and fatback in the forcemeat is the decisive technical gesture. Deer meat, very lean (less than 2 per cent fat), produces, without added fat, a dry, crumbly sausage. The standard proportion (60 per cent deer, 25 per cent pork, 15 per cent fatback) is an empirical balance stabilised by the butchers of Nouméa. An excess of pork effaces the taste of the venison; a shortfall of fatback makes the sausage burst on the barbecue. The white wine tenderises the deer fibres, firmer than those of pork.
The pink peppercorns, whose faintly peppery, resinous scent constitutes the most distinctive aromatic element, grow in abundance on the territory. Some bush butchers add local basil or lemongrass as a partial replacement for thyme.
It is grilled over embers of niaouli, an endemic tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia) whose wood gives a faintly mentholated smoke. Its consumption is both communal (neighbourhood festivals, Kanak gatherings) and domestic, among the Caldoche and Kanak families who hunt.
The book
All 144 recipes and their histories, gathered in a single volume.