In Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier travels mostly on the run, with his desk in his backpack, in search of fascinating subjects and people. He speaks to everyone and is interested in all walks of life in this urban register.
One famous sausage maker has decided to “sausage” what had never been a “sausage” before: the famous baked beans from Binerie Mont-Royal, one of the last, if not the last, restaurants in Montreal, to offer a typically French flavour. – Canadian menu from the 1930s and 1940s.
My soles point to a thin layer of flour covering the stairs on which Jocelyn, owner of La Binerie in Saint-Denis, has been climbing with the ingredients for the pies and tarts she has been producing continuously for several weeks.
For more than 90 years, La Binerie has been serving small breakfast sausages, as well as penne.
For the first time in its history, artisanal sausages will be produced in the model restaurant that inspired Yves Beauchemin's novel Cat.
It will be sold throughout Quebec by Ils en fument du bon.
Equipped with his mechanical stuffing and three kilos of minced pork shoulder, sausage maker Philippe Saint Laurent, founder of the sausage factory, came to La Binerie to design his recipe alongside the owners.
“I want to make sausages that reflect the taste of La Binerie, and the most famous thing about this restaurant is the baked beans… which give it its name!” explains Mr. Saint Laurent.
Not candy
How would you describe La Binerie boxes?
They dispense with the drink and are good on their own.
Each batch is cooked for nine hours (and owner Philip starts them at 3 a.m.).
They are slightly salty and somewhat firm.
We're a far cry from the overly crumbly, runny canned beans or baked maple beans that are thought of as desserts.
“I want to eat pints, not candy,” my father said.
The maple syrup that was in the initial plan to sweeten the sausages was abandoned. It would have masked the taste and would have looked like a “sugar shack”.
Due to the relative hardness of benere-style baked beans, they remain intact while the sausage maker mixes them with ground pork shoulder.
Although we waited until La Binerie closed to carry out this cooking lab, there was regularly someone knocking on the window to ask to buy something.
When they recognize a regular food, the owners open the door and sell them pies or dishes.
“We close the restaurant mid-afternoon on Wednesdays because that allows us to focus on production,” Jocelyn explains.
Calm the gluttony
Philip and Jocelyn are clearly happy to see their main product incorporated into the center of the sausage, and enjoy flipping the portions into the pork casing in an attempt to respect the 124g format, but they make it too big and he's too small.
Philippe Brunet and Jocelyn Gingras try to roll a sausage…it's too small and too big.
Louis Philippe Messier
When they come out of the oven, it's time to taste them. My professional behavior is letting me down. I ended up eating the equivalent of four whole hot dogs. I find the taste of pines there, but it's more comforting, because it's built into tender, satisfying meat.
The first IFB/Binerie Mont-Royal sausage.
Louis Philippe Messier
“I imagined sweeter varieties and planned the salt accordingly, but since we didn't add any syrup, I'd say it's a little salty!” The judge, Mr. Saint-Laurent… who left L'Apinerie, demands no less than 60 kilos of baked beans the day after tomorrow.
His Binerie sausages are expected to arrive in Ils en fument du bon stores on Wednesday, December 27.
“It is a special holiday, but if it is very successful, we can consider more regular cooperation.”
Louis Philippe Messier
“Music guru. Incurable web practitioner. Thinker. Lifelong zombie junkie. Tv buff. Typical organizer. Evil beer scholar.”
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