by David Cecelski
I’ve been working hard to finish my next book by New Years, so I haven’t visited my family’s farm in eastern North Carolina in weeks. Sitting here all blurry-eyed in the middle of piles of old historical documents, I try to remind myself that there’s a season for all things, as Ecclesiastes tells us, and that I will have other days to walk in those fields and woods that I love so much back home. In the meantime, I’ve been surrounding my writing desk with little things that will sustain my spirit until I’m at the farm again.
For me a lot of those little things, of course, are food. I have mullet roe drying in a sunny window next to my desk. I have jars of pickled green tomatoes on the windowsill, too. I made them last week with the last tomatoes on my vines. I have a bowl of speckled fall beans on the table here, next to my computer. And just around the corner, I have a round of country sausage drying on the porch.
The air-dried sausage is what’s on my mind today. I found this round of air-dried country link sausage at Mac’s General Merchandise on NC Hwy. 242, between Benson and Spivey’s Corner, on my last trip to the farm. Established in 1963, Mac’s attracts pilgrims from near and far. They’re in search of that old country store’s rendition of one of the state’s great regional delicacies.
Air-dried sausage is made like other country sausage, but it’s not smoked and doesn’t need to be kept refrigerated in the same way. Instead, you preserve the sausage either by adding salt, which removes moisture that bacteria are fond of, or more commonly, by adding nitrates, which prevent the worst kinds of bacteria from growing.
Commercial meat processors are obliged by law to keep air-dried sausage refrigerated during the beginning of its aging. I’ve noticed that a lot of backyard sausage makers don’t bother. Either way, after the sausage has dried for a time, they can safely continue the aging in the open air, as long as they hang the links in a cool, dry spot. Most connoisseurs believe that the sausage gets better with age, so the longer it air dries, the better.
I’ve just hung these air-dried links on my back porch. After a few weeks, they’ll begin to take on a different look. They’ll get hard, darker, and a little shriveled. They’ll also become very, very delicious. The butchers at Mac’s, where I got them, calls them “Old Folks” air-dried sausage, because mostly older customers come looking for them.
I look forward to sharing the air-dried sausage at one of our big family gatherings this winter. Maybe we’ll even eat it Christmas morning. But even just hanging there, the sausage is an inspiration for me. After all the years I’ve put into writing this book, I need a reminder, now and then, that many of the good things in life take time and that, in the end, they’re worth it.
Mac’s General Merchandise
4432 N Carolina 242
Dunn, NC 28334
(919) 894-3648
* PLEASE CALL MAC’S DIRECTLY FOR AIR DRIED SAUSAGE ORDERS. NC Folklife does not carry the sausages. Thank you!
Where can I get someone in Noth Carolina or anywhere to purchase air dried sausages to me in Miami…piggy wiggly on Highway 70 in Kinston N.C i know go it…Please let me know if anyone who delivers to Miami Fla overnight I’ll pay for it…Reginald M Davis phone # 305-965-1768
Call the below place, im sure they can work out an arrangement with you.
Mac’s General Merchandise
4432 N Carolina 242
Dunn, NC 28334
(919) 894-3648
I have grown up eating air dried or air cured sausage from NC…. 2 times a year my parents from NC would go visit relatives and pick up 2 country hams and several pounds of air cured or dry cured (don’t know which they called it) sausage and bring home….. to FL (they were both from NC…. Mt. Olive and Raleigh) I am trying to find that sausage… I still can smell that wonderful smell…. taste that wonderful taste but can’t find it anywhere in FL….. Please help…. I want some…. I will pay to have shipped…. Thanks!
WE SELL OLD FASHIONED AIR DRIED SAUSAGE AT RAY’S MADE IN HOUSE WITH OUR SECRET RECIPE! WE ARE IN BETWEEN RALEIGH AND SANFORD AND WOULD LOVE PEOPLE TO GIVE OURS A TRY! RAY’S HAS BEEN HERE SINCE 1955.
FAMILY OWNED AN OPERATES IN NORTH CAROLINA
Supply Line in Henderson NC also carries this. I purchased some just yesterday. 03/15
Address
235 Raleigh Rd
Henderson, North Carolina 27536
Supply Line Country Store
Address
235 Raleigh Rd
Henderson, North Carolina 27536
Just purchased some yesterday 3/15
I need six boxes of approximately 5 lbs of sausage per box. Hot air dryed. Will pick it up April 14. Are you still in Benson? I will send someone for it. How much is it per box including tax?
Mac’s is being made in Mt Olive NC but don’t have the phone number. The Benson NC location no longer carries it
Mac’s still sells Air Dried Sausage Hot and Mild open 6 days a week from 7am to 7pm
I was in Benson Nc last week out had to bring home some of the best Sausages I’ve ever eaten Delicious, if you love sausage like I do the go by Mac’s and Try Some Ole fashion Country Sausage:: Hum Hum Good!!!!
I have been buying your air dried sausage since 1976 . We cook it at our church breakfast once every month to feed 40 people. Not sure what what has happened to quality of sausage but it has more fat in the sausage and less meat and the casing tough.
We loved the original recipe for your sausage by Mr. Otis and wish you would back to it.