Sausage King Goes Beyond Grind
When organizers of the fundraiser for St. Joseph Catholic Church School went looking for a tube steak worthy of star status 16 years age, they turned to Kendig and his Original Oktoberfest Sausage for a sure-fire hit.
Kendig and the sausage-making operation on his family's farm in Milwaukee, Ore., were waiting in the wings. Kendig didn't disappoint them.
That first year, Kendig and his family worked overtime at their small meat plant to produce 600 pounds of handmade sausage for the festival, he said. Hungry festivalgoers chewed up the Oktoberfest links with relish and the festival was a success.
Fifteen years later, the annual festival has grown huge, but the star remains the same. Friday through Sunday, more than 90,000 festivalgoers are expected to visit the grounds at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 6600 Highland Drive. Organizers have ordered 7,000 pounds of Kendig's sausage. They expect to sell it all.
"A lot of people think you grind up a bunch of meat and throw it into a casing,and that's all there is to it," Kendig said. But without good meat, the right spices and careful cooking, the result is a sad sausage.
"If you ever buy sausage in the stores,why,you know there's a lot of rotten stuff," he said.
Kendig, 82 no longer makes sausage himself, but her and his wife, Adele, still manage a business that sells Oktoberfest links to grocery stores, delicatessens and parish festivals throughout the Northwest.
The recipe for Kendig's Original Oktoberfest Sausage is more than 100 years old. Kendig got the recipe fromm a German meat cutter with whom he worked, he said.
Even the workers at the Lake Oswego plant that now manufactures Kendig's sausage don't know all the ingredients, he said. Kendig ships special packages of premixed spice to the plant and workers add the spices to the meat. The meat itself is bought especially for the sausage.
"We don't use any scraps," he said.
"All good sausage is made with pork," said Kendig, who is old fashioned and no-nonsense as his products. "Pork is tender, jucier. It leaves a better taste in your mouth. Beef has tallow and it doesn't melt as well."
Kendig brought years of experience to the family meat business when he first opened its doors more than 25 years ago.
At age 12, Kendig landed his first weekend job at the Palace Meat Market in Southeast Portland. On Friday nights, he had to kill chickens and on Saturdays he pedaled around the streets making meat deliveries on his bicycle.
Kendig learned the meat trade by working at several other meat markets in the Portland area before settling into a meat cutter's job at a Southwest Portland grocery store. He stayed there for 15 years.
When Kendig opened the small shop at home, Adele and their son, Timothy, pitched into help with production. The first year the Kendigs mostly processed game for hunters, but over the years the business grew and prospered until the small plant produced varieties of meats as well as the Oktoberfest sausage.
Kendig sold his products mostly by work of mouth, he said. One of his customers, a delicatessen owner, suggested to a Vancouver Sausage Festival organizer that he try Kendig's sausage. The connection netted Kendig the festival's business.
Since then, Kendig has sold Oktoberfest sausages to parish festivals in Seattle, Everett, Mt. Angel and Estacada, Ore. The Vancouver Sausage Festival, however, is still the biggest single event for business.
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