Traditional recipe key to flavour

FERGUSON Valley resident Dominic Pinzone was named the top Italian Sausage Maker at last year’s Brunswick Show, his family recipe winning the title in his first year entering.

Mr Pinzone will be returning to the Brunswick Show this year.

Despite entering for the first time last year, Mr Pinzone has been making sausages with his family for years.

“Naomi, my partner, and I decided we’d put some in and see how it went,” he said.

Mr Pinzone said it was a family tradition to make sausages in the winter and he produced all the ingredients himself.

“Making sausages from pork in the winter is quite a big thing and part of our culture but it’s spread out into the community so everybody does it,” he said.

“The Brunswick Show embraced it, which I thought was good.”

Mr Pinzone said he also raised his own pigs and was able to control their feed to optimise the taste of his sausages.

“We focus ours on being grain fed,” he said.

“We think it gives a better sausage, a better texture as opposed to the pellets in piggeries.”

Mr Pinzone said the recipe varies from family to family but all the ingredients are naturally made.

“We use wine, salt, aniseed and chilli for flavour and a bit of garlic, but the main thing is there’s no 220 preservatives in it or additives,” he said.

“The seasons vary and the drying time and the weather conditions on your sausages, how they dry and cure, so they vary a little bit from year to year,” he said.

“I stick with the same recipe, I’m happy with what I’ve got.”