Simply Sausage, Utterly Delicious
By Warren Rojas
Photography by Hana Jung
Most folks tend to retire to tropical, sun-drenched locales. Lucky for us, Stanley Feder is more of a sub-freezing, meat processing plant type of guy.
A former CIA analyst with a Ph.D. in political science, Feder decided to indulge his love for artisan meats by launching Simply Sausage in 2005—a lifelong dream born from trekking across Europe.
The nascent meatpacker wound up befriending several of our area’s top toques, including Jonathan Krinn (the 2941 founder fondly remembers helping Feder fine-tune his flavors and wove Feder’s merguez and French country sausages into his cuisine) and Jose Andres (Feder makes Jaleo’s spicy and mild chorizos and traditional butifarra; last winter, Andres convinced Feder to visit with Catalunyan sausage-makers to better hone his craft).
“We are always happy to help connect Stanley with folks in Spain,” asserted an Andres’ spokeswoman. “He builds his skills and knowledge, and it allows us to offer our guests a better, more authentic product.”
Feder’s four-person team cranks out between 300 to 600 pounds of sausage per day, five days a week. Combine the labor-intensive recipes with Feder’s affinity for hard-to-find spices (Dutch caraway, Hungarian paprika, Indonesian white peppercorns), and you begin to see why his products have been so well received in such a short time.
“We are fanatical about quality,” Feder insisted.
That dedication comes through in the nearly dozen standard offerings and even more so in the half-dozen specialty links (think blue cheese-stuffed butifarra and cranberry and wine-stuffed venison). Core favorites include:
Traditional butifarra: salt-and-pepper-laced pork plumps and browns nicely
Spicy Italian: more about warmth than heat; great fennel notes
Spicy chorizo: cayenne and hot paprika fused into a marvelously zesty link
French country: big herb bouquet and pâté-like flavors
Nürnburger bratwurst: hefty links yield ample caraway in every bite
Feder said future projects include a buffalo sausage with chipotle and ancho peppers for Cibola Farms, as well as a spring asparagus-spiked butifarra.
Simply Sausage products are available for retail purchase at Arrowine in Arlington, Cecilia’s Fine Wine in McLean, Cibola Farms in Culpeper (also participate in a number of area farmers markets) and the Marshall IGA grocery in Marshall. To try a fully cooked version, visit the Crystal City Jaleo. To view the full Simply Sausage catalog, visit: www.simply-sausage.com.
(January 2008)
Tags: Chew on this, sausage