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[hughver]

My daughter is visiting this weekend and am considering fixing Cotechino con Lenticchie for supper. I'm wondering if this pre- cooked sausage would be a candidate for smoking. I was thinking that an hour at low temperature after boiling and before slicing. Thoughts?

[Bentley]

Doing some research on it, the cotechino to me almost sounds like a variation of head cheese, with lentils.  It is a fresh sausage, so I would say no to the smoke, but you might as well try it to see how you like it!   Or at least smoke some of it!

[hughver]

It is a fresh sausage

[/quote]
The sausage that I bought is not fresh, it's pre-cooked and does not have a skin. It came via mail order in a sealed in a foil cold pack. Directions say to boil for ~30 minutes and serve over cooked lentils sliced. I have not opened the foil package yet but it weighs one pound. I'm not too familiar with head cheese but from what little that I do know, I don' think that this is any thing like head cheese. my thought was that a little smoke would add another dimension to the flavor. however, trying it as purchased sounds like a good idea. thanks for your thoughts.

[Bentley]

Google must be wrong about what cotechino is.

[Hank D Thoreau]

This is what I found in Wikipedia in addition to a page full of photos of Cotechino and lentils that came up on Bing.

I think you are safe on the head cheese issue. There was none mentioned anywhere I looked.

The cotechino (/ˌkoʊtɪˈkiːnoʊ, -teɪˈ-/, Italian: [koteˈkiːno]) is an Italian large pork sausage requiring slow cooking; usually it is simmered at low heat for several hours.[1] Its name comes from cotica (rind), but it may take different names in the different production areas. According to tradition, it is served with lentils on New Year's Eve,[2] because lentils—due to their shape—are 'credited' to bring money for the coming year.

It is prepared by filling the natural casing with rind, pork meat (usually of secondary choice), and fat mixed with salt and spices;[2] in industrial production, nitrites and nitrates are added as preservatives. Some similar sausages exist in the Italian cooking tradition, for example musetto and zampone which are made with different meat and parts of the pig, musetto being made with meat taken from the pig's muzzle and zampone being held together by the pig's anterior leg skin.

[hughver]

The recipe that I found for DYI version uses pork shoulder, rind and bacon ground with spices. however, no mention of smoke.

[Bentley]

If you have the time post some photos of it when you are done.  And I guess I did not express my thoughts clearly on the Head Cheese comparison.  It appears this sausage can be finished several ways.  It just seemed to me the ingredients were cook before piping into casing, much like a head cheese.

[Darwin]

I think smoking makes any sausage better.       I have never seen or heard of head cheese not in aspic or gelatin.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I agree that smoke of any kind makes sausage have a better flavor

[hughver]

This sausage supposedly has no skin. I plan on a real time smoke decision based on what it looks like after boiling and opening the foil. It is pre-cooked, I think that the boiling is just for heating. The juices go into the lentils.

[hughver]

This sausage turned out to be very moist after boiling so I smoked for a little over an hour. After smoking and slicing, it was still very moist so I fried each slice which worked great, slight crispness with moist middle. overall, the meal was excellent. My guess loved it. Everyone had a second helping.