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Mac’s Air Dried Sausage

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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 Sitting here all blurry-eyed in the middle of piles of old historical documents, I try to remind myself that there’s a season for all things, as Ecclesiastes tells us, and that I will have other days to walk in those fields and woods that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.

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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!

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Filed Under: Food, Uncategorized

About david-old

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Reginald Davis says

    June 12, 2014 at 2:25 am

    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

    Reply
    • Dry Sausage Connoisseur says

      October 22, 2014 at 5:34 pm

      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

      Reply
  2. Janice Spencer says

    August 13, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • KEVIN STONE says

      February 1, 2015 at 7:38 pm

      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.

      Reply
    • Macs 919-894-3648 says

      March 13, 2015 at 2:17 pm

      FAMILY OWNED AN OPERATES IN NORTH CAROLINA

      Reply
    • Otis White says

      January 3, 2023 at 10:26 pm

      Bet they bought it in the Smiths Red and White market in Dorches NC . Very near Rocky Point. 👍

      Reply
  3. Cathy says

    March 11, 2015 at 1:43 pm

    Supply Line in Henderson NC also carries this. I purchased some just yesterday. 03/15
    Address
    235 Raleigh Rd
    Henderson, North Carolina 27536

    Reply
  4. Cathy says

    March 11, 2015 at 1:45 pm

    Supply Line Country Store
    Address
    235 Raleigh Rd
    Henderson, North Carolina 27536

    Just purchased some yesterday 3/15

    Reply
  5. JOHN C CASTANES says

    April 7, 2015 at 10:00 am

    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?

    Reply
    • Gary McLamb says

      February 21, 2016 at 8:01 pm

      Mac’s is being made in Mt Olive NC but don’t have the phone number. The Benson NC location no longer carries it

      Reply
      • Danny says

        February 24, 2017 at 8:08 pm

        Mac’s still sells Air Dried Sausage Hot and Mild open 6 days a week from 7am to 7pm

        Reply
  6. Doug says

    June 17, 2018 at 12:28 pm

    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!!!!

    Reply
  7. Phil Bradley says

    December 16, 2018 at 11:20 pm

    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.

    Reply
  8. Greg says

    February 16, 2020 at 10:51 pm

    Out here cooking me some of that old fashion sausage I love it

    Reply
  9. Elaine Jarrell Hamilton says

    July 6, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    Absolutely the best air dried sausage…. my grandparents lived in Buies Creek and cooked it almost every morning for breakfast… oh.. the wonderful aroma each morning as I woke up. Many years have passed and I returned to NC and upon visiting relatives in Dunn found Mac’s General Merchandise and AIR DRIED SAUSAGE…AGAIN!! Tears of precious memories and delicious sausage have thrilled me and I make special trips (going out of my way) to purchase and freeze the ‘hot’ sausage. My favorite! The best country hams and hoop cheese too. LOVE going there!

    Reply
  10. Jessica Strickland says

    May 25, 2021 at 6:59 pm

    Yes the benson location the actual old timey store indeed does still carry everything for sausage.

    Reply
  11. Emmanuel Stevens says

    June 3, 2021 at 5:41 pm

    I buy mine @ Piggly wiggly in Mt. Olive some times Goldsboro when Mt. Olive is out I live in baltimore I would love to find someone making that old black drum molasses I use to get it in Goldsboro all I had to do is carry the jar the 1 they sell in Piggly wiggly I think grandma’s is a good 2nd thanks Manny I wish I could have it shipped also

    Reply
  12. Lillian says

    July 13, 2022 at 2:16 pm

    I am from eastern nc. When I was young my grandma would cook dried green sausage, does anyone k ow where I can find it now a days?

    Reply

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