How I make them now, years later:

I usually use Owen's sausage, the maple stuff. Jimmy Dean or any bulk breakfast sausage (or homemade if you want to be entirely fancy) would do.

Put it in a big bowl with an equal amount of cheddar or colby cheese (more or less, or more).

Add some flour, a handful at a time.

Add one or two of these (not all of them): grated apple, currants, chopped walnuts or pecans, raisins, (dried cranberries might work well, but I haven't tried it as of this writing, and nobody'd ever heard of them 25 years ago when the story to the left took place), and maybe honey.

Form into balls at least an inch or two across on ungreased cookie sheets, and bake just until the bottoms brown and you think the sausage isn't raw. It will take at least eight minutes, maybe fifteen, depending on their size and the oven temperature.


LATER NOTES:
I've used dried cranberries, and it's great.

CHEESE SAVORY / LURA’s SAUSAGE COOKIES

At an office party once a girl brought what she called “sausage cookies.” It didn’t sound too great, but as soon as I tasted them I knew they were medieval munchies. Lura couldn’t find the recipe or forgot to bring it for several weeks. In the meantime, I was digging through old copies of Medieval Spread (an even-then-defunct publication of Raymond's Quiet Press] and found a recipe for Cheese Savory, which is similar. Both recipes are listed below as I found them. [Lura’s recipe, down to the name “sausage cookies,” I found later in a little New Mexico Christmas cookbook, which I’ve since misplaced. The Cheese Savory recipe had no medieval references and had been contributed to Medieval Spread by Madithkgr the Diverse.]

I’ve tried both ways and found that any combination of the ingredients that will hold together will work, and that the things are good when nearly raw, overdone, hot or cold. They can be frozen, reheated, left out on the table all day—in essence, they’re pretty foolproof thingies. I’ve made some with sausage, cheese, flour and honey. I’ve made some with cheese, flour, nuts, currants and apple.

—Ælflæd of Duckford

SAUSAGE COOKIES

3 cups Bisquick 1 lb. sausage
small can of chopped green chile 3/4 to 1 lb. grated longhorn cheese

Mix all the ingredients. Form into small balls on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

CHEESE SAVORY

CHEESE usually cheddar alone or combined with other semi-hard to hard cheeses, grated
BUTTER OR MARGARINE softened to room temperature. You might also try lard or vegetable grease. I don’t know if oil will work.
FLOUR white, bleached or unbleached, sifted if you wish
SALT to taste
OPTIONAL: sugar, honey, spices, paprika, nuts, finely minced meat (crumbled bacon, say)

Mix cheese(s), butter and flour together until you have a sticky dough that will form balls (about cookie dough consistency. Lots of room for variation here, as some people want a chewy savory and others a crispier one.

You may form this into balls and bake, or add any of the optionals on top of each piece or mixed in. Make the balls 3/4” to 1 1/4” in diameter.

Bake at your own choice of temperature until the pieces are a bit brown around the edges and have flattened somewhat. Don’t flatten in advance, but you may wish to depress them when adding a topping. Once again, this is a matter of taste, experience and your equipment, etc.

Note at the building of this webpage: Turned out Lura's recipe was on the Bisquick box, minus the green chile. The New Mexico Christmas or Santa Fe Christmas pamphlet did have it the same way with green chile. Others in the SCA have made the Bisquick version and called them "fighter biscuits." I don't like that one as much because biscuits start dry and in New Mexico, they go from dry to hard as rock. These don't need to be hard. My eventual recipe, made for Outlandish nearly every year for a long time, is up above to the right.



Ælflæd of Duckford