When last raindrops of the season have ended, giving way to the tender sunshine in December, through beautiful dreamy roads under green rubber trees of Long Nguyen, Bau Bang district; there is Bui Phong Son household business, the producer of “Cô Giáo Phượng” (teacher Phuong) sausages.
Cô Giáo Phượng sausage receives OCOP’s title in 2022
Phuong and her husband do not want to talk about big things. “For many years now, I have tried to do my job well and am fortunate to have the support and encouragement of local commune and district to provincial agencies. That's what makes me so happy. But I still do not want to talk about myself because our business establishment is too small, the house is still messy…”
Cô Giáo Phượng sausage was firstly noticed from the 2022 provincial OCOP poll. Then many people find information about this product and appreciate the quality of this fresh sausage.
Second time receiving attention was at EXPO Binh Duong 2022 when Cô Giáo Phượng sausage’s stall had not enough products to sell, the stall even had to close early because they were out of stock.
Their production facility is a row of three rooms. It doesn't look spacious on the outside, but inside the production area is extremely neat and clean, showing the dedication of teacher Phuong and her husband.
“I started my career with love, so I do it with all my love. In the past, when my mother was still alive, she made very delicious sausages, I didn't even have time to learn her secret. Later, when my mother passed away, I tried to rebuild her recipe as a way to remember memories of my mother.
With encouragement from my family and neighbors, I made my first batch of sausages for sale in 2007. These batches were bought and supported by my neighbors, colleagues, and parents… The name Cô Giáo Phượng sausage was born from that. It can be said that I started my career from the heart of a teacher, student, and colleague as I am", Phuong said with tears in her eyes.
Production stages of Cô Giáo Phượng sausage
Teacher Phuong talked about the couple's 5-year path containing numerous efforts. Although it’s true that no success comes easily, for those who are self-reliant and establish themselves from empty hands like Phuong and her husband, it is an arduous journey.
Phuong’s husband decided to take a break from his stable job to devote himself to their sausage production that his wife is passionate about. It was a reckless when the pressure of the cost of living weighed heavily on this small family.
There was a time when Phuong also left the podium, but after all, the love of teaching, the nostalgia for colleagues, the memory of the children's eyes made her return to the teaching profession with all her love, her devotion... When choosing both jobs together, it's very hard, but I accept it because maybe I can't choose...
When Phuong told us again and again that her two professions have great similarities, that are, dedication, responsibility and love, we did not quite understand. The teaching profession is certainly true, but the profession of making sausages, is it an exaggeration? Then the answer is obtained when witnessing firsthand the stages of making fresh sausages, which also requires the same dedication of a teacher.
If you want to make good sausages, you must choose fresh pork, get up at dawn, go to slaughterhouses to get fresh meat. The first step is to preliminarily process the meat and small intestine thoroughly through water and white wine, which is the fundamental step that determines whether the sausage is soft, naturally sweet, and not oily.
Qualified pork must be fresh. Intestines must be ones of a pig about 80kg, neither too old nor too young, and must be ground to thin, salted, then rinsed with water to make it clean. The cutter must be very skilled to have very sweet slices, separate lean part and fat part, and strongly remove tendons and skin. This stage takes a lot of time and cannot be replaced by machines.
Lean meat is skinned, chopped, and fatty meat is diced separately, then mixed with spices. The most complicated step is stuffing the meat. With small intestines prepared carefully, meat is stuffed into it, and then tied every 15-20cm into segments.
After that, all of them are dried vertically and then horizontally, then the sausage will ferment, dry again, and can be packaged and preserved. Standardized products need to achieve a balanced lean-fat ratio. Too much lean meat content will dry the sausages and lose the supple taste of fresh sausages.
“In the old days, the most difficult stage was to mince the meat until it was fine and then stuff the meat into intestines very carefully so as not to be “broken”. Today, sausages are made almost all year round to serve consumer’s need. Manual steps are reduced, replaced by machines, like grinding and stuffing meat, so it is faster, more productive and specially to ensure food safety and hygiene", Phuong said.
Good food is not only in taste, but also in visual enjoyment. Therefore, Phuong meticulously takes care of each sausage segments, ensures the uniformity and beauty of the product. Therefore, customers as receiving sausages as gifts feel happy.
Drying is the process that takes the most time and effort. If over-heated, the product will be burnt on the outside and undercooked on the inside. Drying with less fire, the sausage is still very fresh, cannot meet the requirements and not kill microorganisms and not be preserved for a long time. Therefore, during the drying process, the worker must constantly watch, turn over the product regardless of day or night...
One lucky thing is to Phuong’s husband worked a refrigeration job, thus he designed a both horizontal and vertical drying oven for her to dry sausages, helping gradually push the excess fat to the outside, dry the product slowly and achieve the required ripeness.
Reported by Tieu My - Translated by Ngoc Huynh
