Friday, February 22, 2008

Cudhigi

Cudhigi, like a pasty, is not something that is easy to find outside the upper Midwest. If I ask someone here in Denver where I can get some cudhigi, I'm usually met with blank stares from anyone not so enlightened as to have lived in (or in close proximity to) the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It's a rare treat that I get to indulge in once or twice a year, usually at camp.

Sure, there are Italian Delis around Denver metro that serve a "Spicy Italian Hamburger", but they ain't an official "cudhigi". I couldn't remember truly is if there was an "h" in cudhigi. I assumed that the word had an h in it because that's how it sounds in my mind in the regional dialect that is yoopanese. But I wasn't sure, so after writing the haiku I googled "cudhigi", "cudagi", and "cudigi". The latter term turned up the most results, a whopping three pages with 36 hits, most of which are language variants of Yahoo! answers for "what is a cudigi"? "Cudhigi" turned up two pages with 21 hits and "cudagi" zero. That's five pages total with 57 hits, many of which are the replicated "what is a cudigi?" question.

Compare that to "Spicy Italian Hamburger" (579,000 hits) or "Spicy Italian Sausage" (1,760,000 hits), and you can see how truly special a cudhigi is. While I can get plenty of Spicy Italian Hamburger out here, I have not yet come across a place to get a cudhigi. It's one of those things where you have to know a guy who knows a guy, etc.

While my quick and dirty search engine study didn't get me any closer to the correct spelling of cudhigi, it did bring me closer to just how special the cudhigi is as treat that I get to enjoy when I come home to the UP.

Have a good weekend campers.

4 comments:

Chris said...

You make it sound like all we do at camp is eat (a lot of meat!)!!

CC said...

Local restaurants offer a "cudighi" sandwich.

CC said...

Here's a cudighi recipe that was in the church cookbook:
25 lbs. ground pork
1 T. black pepper
1 tsp. mace
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup salt
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. allspice
1 T. ground rosemary fennel
1 T. garlic powder
1 1/2 T. red pepper
Mix all ingredients together and let stand for 2 hrs. in stainless steel or glass bowl. Form into patties or put in 1-pound packages and freeze!

MJC said...

I usually write my entries at lunch time, so I'm thinking about food :).