In his seven years in Beijing, New Jersey native Andy Horowitz has always been his own boss; his last business endeavor was trading in semi-precious stones. The leap to craft sausages seems like a big one, especially since he grew up kosher and didn’t used to eat pork. However, it all falls into place after you learn about Horowitz’s love for cooking and how his mother wrote cookbooks for a living.
The story starts in 2012, when Horowitz made sausages with his friend Stephen Shaver for a barbecue. Guests raved about their creations and wanted to know where to buy them. After making sausages by request for dinners and barbecues, Horowitz invested a few hundred dollars in some equipment and founded Andy’s Sausages.
Over the last two years, Horowitz’ business has grown from a meat grinder, sausage stuffer, and bowl mixer on his living room TV stand to a central kitchen, where he manufactures sausages up to five days a week. With organic sausages in the works and plans to offer Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, business is in full swing.
Currently, there are eight sausages on offer. The flavors stay true to classic recipes but with a bit of a twist. “Some sausages just taste like one thing and that to me is not interesting. When you’re eating something, [you want]to taste everything that’s in there,” he says.
Andy’s Spicy Italian, Lincolnshire Sage, and Cheese Bratwurst sausages (RMB 150/kg) are the best sellers. While the Italian has a bit more of a kick, the other two are popular with families. Horowitz estimates that 80 percent of his customers are expats with kids because they’re the ones who are most concerned with what they eat.
To ensure food safety, Horowitz avoids wet markets and sources raw meat from Metro, a German wholesale chain that uses the Star Farm traceability system. Metro also uses a system called HAACP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), which monitors food during the production process and enforces high standards for food handling, temperature, and hygiene.
Apart from sourcing, most of Horowitz’s time is occupied by the making, packaging, and delivering of sausages. Deliveries are mostly done within the city, but customers can also arrange a time and place to pick up their order from Horowitz. He’ll show up in his bubble car (nicknamed the “Hamborghini”) to deliver the sausages.
You can also buy sausages by the kilo at Tavalin Bagels on the west side of Yashow Market or try them out at Grinders and Unconditional Love in Shuangjing. If you’re cooking them from frozen, Horowitz suggests poaching the sausages first, then pan-frying them for best results.
Andy’s Sausages
Place your order by visiting www.beijingsausages.com or emailing sausagebyandy@gmail.com. You can also call Horowitz at 131 2147 1669 or add him on WeChat at beijingsausages.
This article originally appeared on p18 in the November 2014 issue of beijingkids. To view it online for free, click here. To find out how you can obtain your own copy, email distribution@truerun.com.
Photos: Courtesy of Andy’s Sausages