Thai Esan-Style Sausage, 'Sai Grok'

I agree with Pompiere. I think I will try it but leave it in the fridge for an extra day.

I was wondering about that as well. I'd love to try it but I'd like to hear your thoughts on safety.

The garlic and salt have (together) both antibiotic and anti-fungal properties. If you allow the sausage to stay over 147F (~64C) at the center for several minutes while cooking, you will compromise any bacterial agents that might take root in the pork. Because it spends the time tightly wrapped in plastic, there won't be any intrusion from air-borne bacteria during the resting. (I assume it rests to allow some fermentation to take place; I can't think of anything else that would be inhibited by refrigeration.) If everything involved in the preparation (including your hands) is clean, you stand a very good chance of a positive outcome. That's what I know. (Of course, I don't speak officially for ImportFood.com, nor am I anything more than an ordinary home cook with some knowledge of food safety practices.) Everything I've written is informational only, and should not be construed as a warranty of safety.

What a coincidence. We just had these today, on a stick from a vendor at Nong Nooch in Pattaya. Delicious!

Very good

So glad to find this recipe! Have bought, cooked, and eaten Thai sausage in Nan Province, Thailand and loved it. WE LIVED IN NAN for about 6 months and shopped at the morning market. It was a wonderful adventure. Wanted to make the sausage we bought there. Thank you.

I have never made it, also because of my concerns about leaving meat out at room temperature for extended times. But the WHOLE POINT of leaving it out is for fermentation to take place and produce the so very typical tart/sour taste. If kept in the refrigerator, fermentation most likely won't take place and the sour taste will be missing. The sausage may taste good, but it won't taste right.

If you are still ultimately concerned with the safety issues, then I would suggest avoiding any fermented meats of any kind (including salami). Me, I haven't had or known any other Thais that have had issues with food poisoning or dysentery as a result of eating cooked sai grok. I have often enough eaten uncooked naem sausage, right out of the refrigerator... Still, much like with sushi and raw shellfish, don't feed this to infants, the infirm, or the immune-compromised.

I was wondering about the fermentation issue, too. It seems that the addition of "pickled garlic" is the key for the authentic recipe. Originally, pickled vegetables were made by natural lacto-fermentation and the residual bacteria on the pickled garlic here would start to ferment the rice added in the recipe (that's why it is at room temperatur). This process would naturally inhibit growth of any "bad" bacteria potentially present on the ground pork. However, the "pickled" garlic used in this recipe here is preserved in acetic acid (vinegar) and have no lactofermenting bacteria on them left. Maybe this could work because the "good" bacteria are coming from the fresh garlic? Does anybody having been to SE Asia know what kind of pickled garlic the street vendor uses? Has anybody followed this recipe above without getting sick?

I'm also wondering if you can make "meatballs" with the sausage, skewer them on bamboo skewers, grill them and serve as an appetizer.