Over 100 years of family business and artisanship

PHILADELPHIA — Not knowing Dan Fiorella’s trade, I always labeled him a butcher.

To be certain, I asked him what his title was, and he stated simply, “Sausage-maker.”

Still not convinced, I asked him outright if he was a butcher. He humbly denied that position, but said he could dissect a pig if the need arose.

Dan is the great grandson of Luigi Fiorella. Luigi, the founder of Fiorella’s Sasuage, emigrated to Philadelphia in 1892 from Foggia, a city in Southern Italy’s Apulia region.

Dan began his career in the sausage-making trade in 1966 after graduating from West Philadelphia’s, now-defunct, Saint Thomas More High School. With his wife, Trish, a South Philly native from Saint Richard’s parish, they run the daily operation of a family business that officially began 119 years ago. Dan and Trish are the fourth generation making a living by providing Philadelphia with some of the best Italian sausage in the world.

Breakfast Sausage—City-style

As a true breakfast lover, I take notice of specialties in the sphere of morning victuals. To my palate, Fiorella’s breakfast sausage is the tastiest sausage around. I admit to what might amount to a small bias. My earliest food memory is of my grandfather helping me fork a morsel of scrambled eggs on top of a bite-size portion of Fiorella’s breakfast sausage. The combination of eggs and sausage creates a mouthful of immensely delicious and complementary flavors.

When I was a young boy still learning to use a fork, Fiorella’s breakfast sausage was a new innovation, developed by the family in the mid-1970s. The experiment started by dividing 20 pounds of sausage among five people: Dan, Dan’s father, Lou, his brother, Eddie, Dan’s cousin, Richie, and a close friend, Eddie Penna.

 

After about three months of trial and error and upward of 10 attempts, the family decided on a recipe. Because it is more cost-efficient, they use breakfast sausage seasoning from a spice company in New York.

The Fiorellas sell their  breakfast sausage as links or patties. I prefer the patty because it doesn’t roll around in the pan when frying. The patty is a thing of simplicity and versatility; it is great as part of a platter, accompanied by eggs, potatoes and toast, but it is especially suited for breakfast sandwiches. Each patty weighs one-quarter pound before cooking. If you prefer to eat lighter, the links would be the wiser choice.

In my young, formative brain Fiorella’s breakfast sausage perhaps created millions of pleasant synaptic connections when I was a child. Yet despite my strong connection to their creation, I always seek breakfast sausage that is worthy of competition, not only to see how their competition fares but also in search of variety. So far, I have found nothing that compares.

Beyond Breakfast: Liver, Sweet, Hot, and Provolone

Dan and Trish adhere to the original old-world recipes with one exception: the liver sausage. This recipe comes from Luigi’s wife, Antoinette Fusco. Originally, the recipe called for whole cloves of garlic. However, the whole cloves have been replaced with powdered garlic, an obvious improvement as granulated garlic actually blends with the other ingredients.

Despite the fact that liver has nearly vanished from the American cuisine, they routinely sell about 50 pounds per week. During the Christmas Holiday, the demand for liver sausage increases drastically.

Fiorella’s more popular sausages are sweet Italian, hot Italian, and Provolone cheese sausage. They spice their sausages very simply with salt, black or red pepper, and with or without fennel. The provolone cheese sausage is intensely flavorful. Claudio Specialty Foods, located near Fiorella’s at 924 South 9th Street, provides the provolone.

Fiorella’s prize sausage, in my opinion, is the sweet Italian with fennel. No sausage fits more perfectly in a bowl of gravy and meatballs than this sausage. Their sweet is the exemplary sausage that keeps the Italian tradition thriving in South Philly.

According to Dan, the Fiorellas have a superior product because they use only the best cut of meat and top-grade casing. Their choice cut for all of their products is the pig’s shoulder butt. Also called the Boston butt, The shoulder butt is from the upper part of the hog’s shoulder. Dan says this cut is the leanest and most tender part.

Fiorella’s pork is purchased from Leidy’s, a part of ALL Holding Company of Souderton, Pennsylvania. Leidy’s delivers between 200 to 300 pounds of shoulder butts to Fiorella’s per day.

And then there is the casing. The natural casings that  the Fiorellas use are either pig or lamb intestinal lining. Artificial casing is, in Dan’s words an “edible plastic.”

Adamant about using only natural casing, Dan says, “You can tell the difference by the curve.” He says a natural casing maintains its curve. An artificial casing is often straight.

The Fiorellas buy their natural casings from Quality Casing Company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The texture of their sausage, which is noticeably thick and flaky, is another aspect that puts Fiorella’s sausage above many of its competitors. Dan credits the thick texture to his use of a quarter-inch grinder hole. He says that most sausage-makers grind their pork with finer holes because it is easier to hide the fat.

The Future of Fiorella’s Sausage

Fiorella’s Italian sausage is the best of its kind in the United States, which by right must make it a top contender for world’s best Italian sausage. The family business is now in its 119th year, but unfortunately, there are no fifth-generation sausage-makers in the Fiorella family.

Fiorella’s Italian sausage is likely the best of its kind in the United States, which must make it a top contender for world’s best Italian sausage. The family business is now in its 119th year. Unfortunately, there are no fifth-generation sausage-makers in the family.

Life without Fiorella’s sausage is hard to imagine. Their business seems vital to the community and the Italian culture of Philadelphia. With the rise of independent bakeries, coffee shops, and other such small businesses, I hold out hope that someone will buy their business when Dan and Trish retire.

I asked Dan if he would make any stipulations to ensure that a potential buyer adheres to their recipes. He said he would not, but questioned, “Would you mess with success?”

Let’s hope if the name is ever sold that the same effort and pride are put into the product as has been the case for more than a century.