The Stubborn Goat is stubbornly good at sausage

The Stubborn Goat has had the Fire since the day they opened in 2013. The Hell Fire, that is (and all of the other kinds, too).

A member of The Goat’s opening team roster, the Hell Fire pizza inspired their hugely successful summertime special Hell Fire burger and their Sausage Fest contender the Hell Fire Sausage, which has done extremely well in the past two Sausage Fest events. It features again at Sausage Fest 2015 as a champion. If you’re Downtown and in the mood for a spicy, sausagey pizza, the Hellfire Pizza at The Goat will never disappoint.

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Like all of their pizzas the Hell Fire Pizza is woodstone oven baked, with a thin and crispy crust. It lets the ingredients do the talking. It features the Goat’s famous Hell Fire sausage (on sale at Pete’s during Suasage Fest), Jalepeno relish, roasted chilis, sriracha and sriracha cream, and cilantro. If you’re one of the 4-14% of people with the genetic mutation that makes cilantro taste like soap, A) I’m sorry, and B) surely you could ask to hold the cilantro. For the rest of us, it’s the perfect finishing touch. The Hell Fire pizza is a classic.

If you want a higher concentration of Hellfire Sausage, the Goat has you covered with the Hellfire Sausage on a Bun.

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Chilis and sriracha are mixed into the sausage itself. The dogs are topped with arugula, jalepeno relish, sriracha aioli, and house hot mustard. The buns are crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  It’s pretty spicy, and very meaty and savoury. The dogs are five bucks apiece and you can order them in whatever quantity you’d like. Buy a tray of them for your table.

You can never linger too long on the topic of the Hell Fire, but we have other matters to discuss. Namely, this chicken sausage plate with spaetzle, cream kale, and deep-fried sauerkraut. Have you ever had deep-fried sauerkraut? Make sure you have some deep-fried sauerkraut.

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As excellent as all of the Goat’s Sausage Fest plates are, this chicken sausage plate is my favourite. “We actually ran it a while ago as a special, but we served it as two bangers with the cream kale on the side,” explains Tyler Smith, the Goat’s general manager and chef.  “We thought, why not just throw it all together?” The flavours of this plate are truly unique — or if they’re not unique, at least they’re unique to Halifax. There is a sweetness to the deep-fried sauerkraut and a tanginess of the sauce that brings out the best in the chicken sausage. It’s really very special.

Smith got the idea of deep-fried sauerkraut from his girlfriend, who got it from another local restaurant where she was working as a sou chef years ago. Culinary creativity knows how to get around.

“This is the difference between a sausage and a burger,” says Smith. “Sausage is one of the most versatile meat products, you can pair it with anything and you can really start to pair flavours and start inventing.”

If you’re looking for something more shareable with the chicken sausage, try out the bread plate with arugula, red onion, parmesan cheese, avocado, harissa sauce, bacon, and balsamic.

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These Sausage Fest specials are only around until Sunday, so gitty-up to the Goat.

About the author

Brenden Sommerhalder