Saumagen — Palatinate, Germany

Saumagen is a large stuffed pork dish: a cleaned pork stomach filled with a mixture of diced pork, sausage meat and potatoes, seasoned and then poached gently until cooked through, in the manner of a boiled sausage rather than a roast. Once cooked and cooled, it is sliced and pan-fried to serve, giving a crisp edge around a soft, sausage-like interior. It is reported from the Palatinate, the wine-growing region on the west bank of the Rhine, where it takes its name from the local word Sau for pig and the stomach used as the casing. In the region itself, it is usually referred to simply by its short name and pronounced according to the local dialect, without needing to specify where it comes from. To prepare it, potatoes are parboiled and diced, then mixed raw with diced pork shoulder, coarse sausage meat, onion, marjoram and allspice, and packed firmly into the cleaned stomach, which is then sewn or tied shut. The filled stomach is poached in a large pot of gently simmering stock for two to three hours, until firm to the touch, then left to cool before being cut into thick slices and browned in a pan. Butchers and households vary the ratio of potato to meat, the coarseness of the sausage meat, and the balance of marjoram to allspice, which shifts the texture from firm and sliceable to softer and more spreadable. It is commonly served with sauerkraut or potato salad and a glass of the region's own wine, though the pairing is mostly a matter of local habit.