Sausage sales are up thanks to variety, custom blends

Tim Jensen, owner of Village Meat and Wine at 5025 S. Eastern Ave., said he makes at least 20 varieties of sausages, and he’ll do custom jobs when asked. Contacted on a recent weekday, he said two customers who had been in that morning had ordered sausages with seasoning blends they provided.

Ron Lutz, owner of The Butcher Block at 7625 S. Rainbow Blvd. and 6440 N. Durango Drive, also makes sausages in-house, and some of them are a little offbeat.

“Lots of wild-game sausages are really popular now, because there are no hormones,” Lutz said. He makes them from elk, duck, rabbit, venison, alligator and buffalo.

Sausage sales are up these days — more than 8 percent between 2013 and 2014 (for a $2.75 billion market, and that covers only supermarkets and big-box stores) — and part of the reason is the ever-increasing variety.

“Over the last several years, just the varieties of sausages available have really expanded,” said Eric Mittenthal, vice president of public affairs for the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. “You see a lot of different ingredients, meats, spices; just a lot of different options out there.”

Mittenthal said he thinks the variety has risen because of our ever-more-sophisticated palates.

“I think there’s a general interest in unique foods,” he said. “Producers in general are looking to expand the options that are available for people to choose from.”

Echo &Rig, 440 S. Rampart Blvd. in Tivoli Village, is both a restaurant and butcher shop. Head butcher Aaron Oster sees the increased interest as a natural progression.

“Cooking at home is becoming something that is even more important to our culture, thanks to the Food Network and Bravo bringing dining into the spotlight,” he said. “Sausages are always a fantastic option for people either who don’t want to spend a whole lot of time cooking or who want to incorporate some variety into their table.”

He pointed out that they’re versatile, too; sausages can be used in pasta sauces or chilis, on buns, by themselves, or removed from their casings and made into patties for burgers.

Like the other butchers, Oster said their most popular sausages are the classics, which in his case are fennel and Calabrese, or sweet Italian and hot Italian. And despite what Bismarck thought, Oster said the ingredients aren’t much of a mystery.

“Four ingredients,” he said. “We like to keep our sausage to four to six ingredients, maximum. High-quality protein, the right combination of lean to fat, and simple fresh spices.”

Their fennel sausage, he said, contains just salt, pepper, fennel and pork.

“No fillers,” Oster said. “No gluten, no bread, no water, just meat and spice. We keep it really straightforward.”

But while those are the most popular, they’re not the only types of sausage Echo &Rig sells.

“We always have at least seven to 10 different varieties of sausage in the house,” he said. “The standards we always have are breakfast, the sweet Italian and the hot Italian and chorizo. Plus there’s lamb merguez, our housemade hot dogs, andouille, kielbasa, and we do beef bratwurst, veal bratwurst, pork and chicken bratwurst.

“It depends on what’s happening that season, what ingredients are freshest and what people are really excited about.”

Jensen said he sells a lot of Polish sausage at Easter, and Swedish potato at Christmas.

“I actually boil potatoes up for that,” he said. “Onion, potatoes, beef and pork.”

Echo &Rig also sells a traditional Mexican-style chorizo, a beef chorizo and a roasted Anaheim chili chicken sausage with cilantro, lime and garlic.

“We cannot keep it on the shelf,” Oster said. “It’s chicken, and we add a little bit of pork because we need a little bit of fat, but you could get it with no pork.”

Which brings us back to the subject of custom sausage-making. Oster said he has no minimum requirement.

“We don’t have a problem making a small batch for individual customers,” he said. “A butcher shop is a community center. It offers service to people in that community, which means that if you like fennel sausage but you don’t like fennel, all you have to do is ask. We like to say, ‘If you can dream it, we can do it.’ We will customize a sausage for you and your family any time you want.”

Jensen said some people bring him peppers for their Italian sausage.

“Some of them are so hot I can’t go near it,” he said. He requires a 6-pound minimum, because he said his hand-cranked sausage stuffer works better in 6-pound increments.

Over the years, he added, some special requests have evolved into Village Meat recipes.

“That’s how we came up with our own rub and barbecue sauce,” he said.

Among the varieties Lutz makes are linguica, andouille, alligator andouille and blueberry-maple sausage, “which is great for breakfast.”

“Bratwurst are really big,” he said. “We make different kinds of brats, like a bacon brat with cheddar cheese, jalapeno cheddar brat and a regular brat, Buffalo bratwurst.”

Jensen said he thinks the price of sausage has something to do with its recent increased popularity.

“It’s not expensive; you’re talking $3.89 a pound,” he said. “You can feed a ton of people.”

“In general, you can feed a family of four with sausage very economically,” Mittenthal said. “It’s a good choice for families.”

And it need never get boring.

“Sausage is endless,” Lutz said. “You can add seasonings, different kinds of meat. Every year it seems like more and more people are trying them. From now until July is the sausage-grilling time of year.”

And when you’re planning that backyard grilling party, remember that custom sausage has added cachet.

“Everybody puts their own little taste on it — ‘The only place you can get it is my house,’ ” Jensen said.

“It makes it nice.”

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Find more of her stories at bestoflasvegas.com and follow @HKRinella on Twitter.