If it’s spring, it’s time for mustreipen

If it’s spring, it’s must be mustreipen time for sausage makers with Luxembourgish roots.

They include Lance Leider, who can be found in his farm shed mixing, cooking and casing the traditional blood sausage about this time almost every year.

The Town of Fredonia chairman has been making mustreipen since he was a child, using a recipe he learned from his grandmother Rose — not to be confused with his mother Rose — and “tweaked” over the years, he said.

“It came with my people from Luxembourg,” he said. “I’ve just adjusted it. There’s less fat in it than it had years ago. I’ve also added a little garlic.”

Leider makes it every year — “or every other year,” he said — with his brother Roman and friends Gary Grasse, Mike Pohl and Sue Samson.

They make the sausage for their own consumption, not for sale.

For those who love mustreipen but don’t make their own, local  butcher shops keep a ready supply.

Steve Bennett, owner of Bernie’s Fine Meats in Port Washington, said he always has some mustreipen in the freezer at his shop.

“It’s not a big seller, but there are some very loyal shoppers who come in year-round,” Bennett said. “It brings back memories of their grandparents and family gatherings. We’re very happy to provide it.”

Bennett’s recipe was handed down to him from previous Bernie’s owner John Salchert, who  inherited it from the original Bernie’s owner, Bernie Skeris, who died in 2002.

Bennett said he tweaked the recipe a few years ago when he was given a recipe developed by Alex Noster, another area butcher famed for his mustreipen recipe. Noster died in 2005.

Mustreipen is traditionally formed into a ring and filled with blood, parts from the head of a pig such as the snout, other pieces of pork —Leider uses shoulder meat — cabbage, bread crumbs, onions, salt, pepper and spices.

“Basically, you have to boil the head to get the meat off it  — all the leftover parts that you wouldn’t use otherwise. Like any other sausage,” Leider said.

Mustreipen is traditionally made in late winter or early spring, but Leider said the time of year doesn’t matter.

“It doesn’t make any difference to me. I just have more time (in the spring) to make it before I can get into the field,” he said.