Special Embutido

I already have a post for embutido, but I wanted to make my grandmother's embutido - the delicious, unforgettable kind. Sadly, because I couldn't get some of the ingredients here, I had to be creative and wish for the best (hahaha). 

When my grandmother used to make embutido, she would wrap it in caul fat, which is a lining  in a pig's intestines. Sounds really gross, but it is actually a natural sausage casing, and when cooked, caul fat melts, leaving the meat moist and succulent.

Anyway, since caul fat isn't something I can buy from our local store, I decided to just use cheese cloth. No, it didn't melt, but it also held the meat very well.  And I loved that I boiled it instead of steaming it because - aside from the meat being very moist - I used the liquid as the base for sauce. Yummy!!!

 What you need:

For the embutido:
1 1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 green + 1/2 red bell pepper
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 carrot
1/2 Vidalia onion
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 eggs
2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon Worcerstershire sauce
3 tablespoons raisins
3 hard boiled eggs, sliced in quarters
1 can Vienna sausage
1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper


For the sauce:
6 to 8 cups of water
1 teaspoon canola oil 
1/4 Vidalia onion, sliced
2 pork bouillon cubes
2 tomatoes
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup water


What to do: 

Using your food processor, grind the peppers, carrot, and onion. Place in a large bowl. Add in all the embutido ingredients, except the hard boiled eggs and sausage. Mix well.

Place a good amount of ground pork mixture on the top end of a piece of 10"X10"cheese cloth and flatten it a bit. You should be forming a rectangle of sorts. Put a quartered egg on top of the meat, then a piece of sausage. Alternate the egg and sausage until you reach the end of the meat mixture.

Form a log by rolling the meat and seal it by lifting the top part of the cheesecloth and rolling towards you. Secure by twisting both ends like you would twist a candy wrapper. Repeat the procedure until you have used up all the meat. Set aside.

In a pot, saute the garlic, tomatoes and onion in oil for about a minute. Lower the heat, place the embutido logs in the pot (on top of the onions) and pour about 6 to 8 cups of water. Crank the heat up to high until water begins to boil. Once boiling, drop the pork bouillon cubes and bring heat back to low. Allow meat to simmer for about an hour.

Remove meat to cool. Add cornstarch, soy sauce, tomato paste and sugar to the boiling broth. Cook for about 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Serve with the embutido.


Tips, Tricks and Tweaks:

1. I made a lot of substitutions in this recipe because I didn't have some ingredients. Feel free to use sweet pickle relish instead of vinegar, and fresh garlic instead of garlic powder.
2. Don't have cheesecloth? Do it the regular way then - by using aluminum foil, then steaming instead of boiling.
3. Skip the bouillon cubes if you don't have any. Try cooking it in beef broth instead.