Something Special About Spike Island

1 1/2 Yards large sausage casing, approximately (about 2/3 inches wide)
4 Pound Lean fresh pork
2 Pound Pork fat
3 1/3 Tablespoon Finely minced garlic
2 Tablespoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
1/8 Teaspoon Cayenne
1/8 Teaspoon Chili powder
1/8 Teaspoon Mace
1/8 Teaspoon Allspice
1/2 Teaspoon Dried thyme
1 Tablespoon Paprika
1/4 Teaspoon Ground bay leaf
1/4 Teaspoon Sage
5 Teaspoon Colgin’s liquid hickory smoke

Soak the casing about an hour in cold water to soften it and to loosen the salt in which it is packed. Cut into 3 yard lengths, then place the narrow end of the sausage stuffer in one end of the casing. Place the wide end of the stuffer up against the sink faucet and run cold water through the inside of the casing to remove any salt.

(Roll up the casing you do not intend to use; put about 2 inches of coarse salt in a large jar, place the rolled up casing on it, then fill the rest of the jar with salt. Close tightly and refrigerate for later use.)

Cut the meat and fat into chunks about 1/2 inch across and pass once through the coarse blade of the meat grinder. Combine the pork with the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. Cut the casings into 26 inch lengths and stuff as follows: Tie a knot in each piece of casing about 2 inches from one end. Fit the open end over the tip of the sausage stuffer and slide it to about 1 inch from the wide end. Push the rest of the casing onto the stuffer until the top touches the knot.

(The casing will look like accordian folds on the stuffer.)

Fit the stuffer onto the meat grinder as directed on the instructions that come with the machine, or hold the wide end of the stuffer against or over the opening by hand. Fill the hopper with stuffing. Turn the machine on if it is electric and feed the stuffing gradually into the hopper; for a manual machine, push the stuffing through with a wooden pestle. The sausage casing will fill and inflate gradually. Stop filling about 1 1/4 inches from the funnel end and slip the casing off the funnel, smoothing out any bumps carefully with your fingers and being careful not to push the stuffing out of the casing. Tie off the open end of the sausage tightly with a piece of string or make a knot in the casing itself. Repeat until all the stuffing is used up.

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The rack rate is the maximum rate a hotel charges for a room. It’s the rate you get if you walk in off the street and ask for a room for the night. You sometimes see these rates printed on the fire/emergency exit diagrams posted on the back of your door. You can get some information of local private jet charters here too.

Hotels are happy to charge you the rack rate, but you can almost always do better. Perhaps the best way to avoid paying the rack rate is surprisingly simple: Just ask for a cheaper or discounted rate. You may be pleasantly surprised. If you are in Italy, get Car Hire Sicily airport to help your travel around easily.

In hotels and larger guesthouses, the rate you pay for a room depends on many factors chief among them being how you make your reservation. A travel agent may be able to negotiate a better price with certain hotels than you can get by yourself. (That’s because the hotel often gives the agent a discount in exchange for steering business to that hotel.)

Reserving a room through the hotel’s toll-free number may also result in a lower rate than calling the hotel directly. On the other hand, the central reservations number may not know about discount rates at specific locations. For example, local franchises may offer a special group rate for a wedding or family reunion, but they may neglect to tell the central booking line. Your best bet is to call both the local number and the toll free number, and see which one gives you a better deal.

Room rates (even rack rates) change with the season, as occupancy rates rise and fall. In most of Ireland, hotels charge the highest rate during the high season of June through August and the lowest during the low season of November through March. In Dublin, all bets are off because the city receives a high volume of visitors all year, and most rates don’t go down during the winter.

Know that even within a given season, room prices are subject to change without notice, so the rates quoted in this book may be different from the actual rate you receive when you make your reservation.