You are a partner, along with Alan Broner, of Jack’s Gourmet Sausages. What inspired you to start a kosher line of sausages?
Alan and I met at some culinary classes I was teaching at a local shop in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. One night after a wine and cheese class I taught, Alan and I got to talking and he told me how he had always wanted to learn how to make corned beef and pastrami……I had had a few drinks and I agreed that if Alan got a smoker I would teach him how to pickle and smoke meats (I had never done this before except in culinary school).
Several months later we had developed a corned beef and pastrami recipe that we and our friends were in love with. I was working on some consulting projects for a meat company at this point and Alan was begging me to teach him more. After a few months of pleading and prodding from Alan, I agreed to teach him how to make sausages (again something I hadn’t done since culinary school).
Five recipes and about six months later we had perfected our now current line of sausages. The sausages and corned beef and pastrami are all very important because they happen to be some of mine and Alan’s favorite foods that we both missed due to our keeping kosher. (Alan and I are both Baalei Teshuva). Keeping Kosher is hard enough but is even harder when you really love food!
Before Jack’s Gourmet there were no kosher sausages on the national market (other than hot dogs, which are a type of sausage). As for corned beef and pastrami, everything on the market was mass-produced pickled meats without any particularly unique flavor and pumped full of water. By contrast, our corned beef and pastrami is made in small batches using only quality briskets, freshly ground spices, fresh garlic (that’s right, FRESH) and it is pickled over about eight days. We do not use carrageenan in our deli which would cause the meat to retain the water that is pumped into it, so when you buy our deli meats, you are paying for pure meat. As for the sausages, we developed and now sell five unique flavors that span the culinary globe and can satisfy any taste.
We have a wonderfully aromatic sweet Italian sausage, a spicy bold flavored hot Italian, a very mild German bratwurst which is like a hot dog on steroids, a very spicy Mexican style chorizo which has over twelve herbs and spices and a tangy South African style boerewors.
What makes your sausages different from the other kosher brands on the market?
For one, there aren’t really any other authentic handcrafted kosher sausages on the national market. Our sausages taste just like their non-kosher counterparts. Our sausages are made using only quality beef and freshly ground spices. We NEVER use any fillers or by-products in our sausages. Our sausages are therefore gluten-free and better for you. Also, once you taste our sausages you will agree that there really is nothing like them in the kosher world. We even have a following of non-kosher consumers who prefer our product as they avoid pork products.
Do you have a culinary background? Tell us about it.
I am a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY where I graduated with honors. While attending CIA I completed a 6 month internship at the LA Times in Los Angeles, CA where I worked in the food section learning recipe testing and development. It is there that I learned the art of recipe development which was crucial in my developing the recipes for Jack’s Gourmet. I have also worked in restaurants, as a private chef (both on land and on a private 112 foot yacht), as a chef consultant and as a cooking teacher. Cooking is my passion and it’s as if it runs through my blood.
How did you become interested in food and food preparation?
My first memories of food are my mother’s strawberry and tofu smoothie and roasted chicken. I began cooking when I was 8 years old by baking muffins. My mother literally gave me free run of her kitchen and allowed me to bake and cook unchecked. I would read all the cookbooks I could get my hands on and call my mother’s friend who was a local caterer with questions. When I was 13 worked as an apprentice at Levana, the now defunct NY kosher restaurant. I worked with the pastry chef learning how to form breads and decorate cakes. My passion continued through high school and I worked as a fully paid line cook in several NYC restaurants in my junior and senior years. All the while I prepared weekday dinners and elaborate Shabbos meals for my family and friends. It was college- the Culinary Institute of America – where all my years of playing around in the kitchen actually paid off and where I took my cooking to the next level.
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Best of Kosher New Product Winner – Jack’s Gourmet
Jack’s Gourmet Jamaican Style Jerk Sausages was voted as the best new kosher product …
What’s your plan for the future at Jack’s? Will you branch out into other products?
The plan for Jack’s is quite simple- produce the best quality products possible using the best ingredients. We are happy making sausages and deli meats right now and will focus on that. We like what we do and are always striving to do it better. We are in the process of developing a line of chicken and turkey sausages and have some really cool other products in the works which will for the first time be available to the kosher consumer. I can’t tell you what they are of course, so you will just have to wait and see. I would like to point out that we are only as good as the feedback we receive from our customers. We love hearing from them because without their thoughts and comments we would be producing only for ourselves and that’s no fun. We strongly encourage feedback and have made it quite easy. Simply log onto www.jacksgourmetkosher.com or email us at [email protected].
How can people find your products?
You can find our products in many kosher stores all across the United States. From New York to Los Angeles and everywhere in between our products are sold. We are constantly expanding into new stores and marketplaces and are working to ensure that Kosher consumers can purchase our products in every major kosher city in the US. If you cannot buy our authentic handcrafted deli meats and sausages in the store, you can buy it on our website jacksgourmetkosher.com and we will ship it directly to you in an insulated foam box with ice packs. It will arrive ready for you to enjoy!
Jack has shared three delicious recipes with us – try them out today:
Bratwurst Sliders
Pepper and Onion Soup with Sweet Italian Sausage
Chorizo Tacos
Hi Mark,
Congratulations you are the winner of this contest. Please email us at [email protected] to claim your prize.
I would like to make Jack’s Spicy Sausage and Chicken Gumbo 🙂 *Thanks* for the giveaway!
Pasta with sausage, peppers, and onions in a garlic and olive oil sauce.
I cook them with peppers, potatoes, garlic, onions and a little olive oil in the oven. Yum!
We like them grilled, with onions and peppers!
My favorite is kosher pigs in blankets!
My tastes are very simple. Sliced sausages mixed with baked beans.
we make sausage like a sandwich steak sandwich…saute lots of onions and any color pepper you want then set aside. then saute whole or cut sausage, once they are cooked add the sauteed vegetables and add a little cumin, paprika and a bit of salt and voila! bon appetit!!!
I recently made a cassoulet using Jacks Sausages, the boerwars and mild Italian, as well as lamb shoulder and chicken legs. It was a big hit served at a simcha, on a steam table. Gone before any of the other dishes!
sausage peppers and onions are the greatest
I like bratwurst with sauteed red cabbage (I’ve begun using coconut oil for this, and it tastes a little unusual, but delicious!) sprinkled with dill seeds.
Hot Dog Kabobs!
slice the bratwurst lengthwise but not all the way through, stuff with saurkrat , wrap with turkey bacon and secure with toothpicks, grill indirect or low heat turning often.
I love to add Jack’s Kosher sausages to my pasta sauce and then over whole wheat noodles. Healthy and delicious.
The other flavors sound great! I would love to try them.
Love making franks in blanks!
i make grilled spicy sausage and mozzarella pizza on the grill
Kosher Sausage is not readily available here were I live in Seattle. I have been wanting to make a cholent using a spicy sausage. It looks like Jack’s Mexican Chorizo or the South African Boerewors, will do nicely
My mom used to saute diced onions, diced celery and/or diced green or red peppers together with bratwurst and when lightly browned, add 1 cup rice + 2 cups water, some salt and pepper and in 20 minutes, dinner was served. We licked our plates clean!
Love making a quick meal with sausage, potatoes, onions, and 3 colors of peppers!! Awesome!! [email protected]
I love making spicy sausage with peppers and onions ina toasted hoagie roll! Yum!! So excited to learn more about Kosher sausages available!
The think I like to do with sausage is a sausage soup. Much like a minestrone but with sausage added and served over macaroni.
no special recipe because I’m not a hot dog fan. haven’t seen your products locally, yet. if I win the sample pack I will definitely experiment with the chorizo taco idea.
Jack’s Pepper and Onion Soup with Sweet Italian Sausage sounds like it tastes heavenly. I’d try that.
I´d love to have a grilled chorizo on a baguette, Argentinian style…
I am a big fan of chicken gumbo with andouille sausage or chorizo in a pinch! It makes an awesome stew that can sit in the crockpot all shabbos, like cholent but more soup like. Yum!!
Slice spicy hot Italian sauce into chunks. Saute and set aside. Saute cubed skinless, boneless chicken breast and set aside. Saute some chopped red pepper, onion and garlic in a pan. Deglaze with dry white wine. Return sausage and chicken to the pan to heat through. Serve with crusty bread and salad.
These recipes all sound tasty. I have no favorite as I have never tried a suasage. Looking forward to doing so and finding a favorite.
These sound great! Can’t wait to try them. Yummy!
Grilled on a bun for me also! Yum!
I love sausages and scrambled eggs! Delicious way to start the day. Adding a little onion in makes all the difference.
I like taking the chorizo out of its casing and cooking it with fresh peppers and herbs and serving on a toasted onion bagel- yum!
Cooked with pepper and onions is a classic — but otherwise, I really just enjoy them the way I would a nice hot dog — grilled and in a bun.
I enjoy them in the simplest way possible. Heat sausage in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Open up a can of baked beans and pour into bowl. Top with sausages. The rest is delicious history.
I love to chop up the sausage and saute it with bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Then I mix it in with short pasta (ziti, macaroni, etc) and some tomato soup and cream of mushroom soup as well as adding garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper.
I love franks in blanks or hot dogs in sweet and sour sauce!
I’ve never found kosher chorizo in the stores here. I usually use the vegetarian version called soyrizo – it’s a wonderful way to season mexican eggs and chili, etc.
Jack’s Sausage’s are great! They beat out anything else on the market, which is I think only chicken or turkey.
I’m looking forward to the Kosher Bacon! Just a suggestion!
I love them straight off of the grill with a hoagie roll and fixin’s!
My favorite sausage dish would have to be one where you take chorizo out of the case and use it like a chop meat. Brown it and then take out the sausage, cook red bliss potatos with onions. Once they are browned return the chorizo and mix it all together. Simple, but very yummy! Thank you for making these sausages being a B”T I have not had these in a long time!
I love the kosher sausage! I recently sauteed it with onions and eggs, what a treat! I’ve kept kosher my whole life, and always wanted to try sausage and eggs. There was a great spice in the sausage, but not too overpowering. My husband and I really liked it, a great meal.
My husband and I love to make beef tacos with Jack’s chorizo. It’s delectable. We love the cinnamon and other spices in the chorizo. Such a treat!
I love it when I find kosher sausage. In our area it is difficult so when I do find it, I feel like I’ve uncovered a treasure. And my favorite way to use it is in my kosher rendition of Jambalaya. My father was from New Orleans and he frequently cooked with a cajun influence. This was before I ate kosher and understood my Jewish roots. Since I now eat strict kosher, I love to try and re-create the foods and flavors from my youth.
What a great interview! I enjoy hearing the backstory. I’m very happy to hear that poultry versions are in development for those of us watching calorie intake. I like making little egg and sausage rolls with pepper jelly. (I even gave that out for Shalach Manos once when I was more ambitious than I am now. 🙂 )
I love a simple dish of sausage, peppers and onions. Sautee green and red peppers til “tender crips”. Do the same for onions (cut into “half-moons”) and celery.
Sautee the sausage with only pan spray until joices and fat start to be released and the susage begins to brown slightly. Add in vegetables back in as well as 3 or 4 ripe juicy (should be Jersey) tomatoes, or a can of crushed tomatoes.
Cook another 5 minutes until everything is cooked through.