The Wurst of Lucky Peach: A Treasury of Encased Meat
Edited by Chris Ying
Razorbill 2016
If someone creates a book named The Wurst of Lucky Peach: A Treasury of Encased Meat, the reader can expect a certain playfulness. Indeed, editor Chris Ying’s introduction includes an apology because “Sausage’s phallic nature never ceases to make me giggle, and although The Wurst of Lucky Peach is rife with the references to this fact, there could have been more.” Ying was one of the driving forces behind Lucky Peach which included a McSweeney’s published magazine and three other books. Ying (and his collaborators) have produced an idiosyncratic, incomplete, and incredible encyclopedia of sausage. The bulk of it is made up of “Sausage Quest” which is a geographic exploration of sausages covering all the continents (except, you know, Antarctica which would only have cold penguin sausage?). In between the lists of the different ways that people chop up meat and then stuff it into the intestines, there are the stories of peoples sausage travels, rants about sausage related subjects, and a ton of pictures of sausages.
I’m not a guy who was very interested in sausages thanks to my fourth grade teacher–a Sister of Saint Joseph who preached, among other things, the gospel of pork borne illnesses–so I was not the natural target audience for this book. However, the writing, design and general fun that clearly went into creating this book won me over even though I would have told you that I’d never be that interested in a tome about sausage. I should give illustrator Tim Lahan the spotlight for a moment. His contributions, especially the kangaroo with the sausage coming out of the pouch on the Australia page and a cartoon panda eating sausage, keep the experience of reading the book fun and light.)
But, the enthusiasm that the writers and the sausage lovers in this book carried me along. There are at least a 100 capsule reviews of the world’s sausages are pithy and interesting: highlighting specific production methods, cultural moments, or just weirdness from the smoked and fermented world. You’ll learn what wacky but delicious use the the rest of the world has found for American style hot dogs. Unless you’re already an international sausage savant, you’ll probably find how some of the world’s sausage to be disturbing, but fascinating process. At least I did.
For example: The Opka Hesip is served “with chunks of stuffed sheep’s lung and steaming stock.” There’s also the Sai Krok Isan which “As you travel through the Isan countryside, look for strands of [Sai Krok Isan] dangling like beaded curtains from clotheslines along the side of road, drying and fermenting in the open air.” There’s also the Completo–a Chilean monster where a hotdog is wrapped in sauerkraut, tomatoes, and avocado on a hoagie/grinder roll.
The one drawback to any well-written, engaging book about food is that you can’t actually taste the stuff that they’ve describing. And given the global reach of this one, you might find yourself dreaming of an around the world trip specifically for craft sausage tasting. The fact that there are several longer narrative travelogue pieces of people tasting, making, or celebrating sausages will either send you screaming toward kayak.com or looking up your local pork purveyors so you can find your own link to the wonders of the sausage kingdom.
Of course, it’s sad to know that soon after this book was published Lucky Peach went the way of James Dean and died a too early death for such a bright, interesting rising star. Indeed, imagine the volumes of books that Lucky Peach could have produced had it lived as long as Jimmy Dean, singer and sausage entrepreneur who passed away at 81. It’s fun to imagine an alternate universe somewhere, where in addition to The Wurst of Lucky Peach, there sits on the bookshelf some more books: The Cheesiest of Lucky Peach, The Pits of the Lucky Peach, and Lucky Peach Whines & Cries in It’s Beer. But in the real world, we still have a book tightly packed with fun and information that was given plenty of time to cure and develop a tangy, yummy taste.
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