Traditionally
sausage casings were made of cleaned intestines and when I originally
started to learn the trade with Bosworth's, the butcher's walk in
fridge would have a special deep plastic bucket with pig's intestines
sitting in a weak brine solution which would be washed and washed in
cold water until considered clean enough for being filled with the
freshly made sausage meat. Sometimes we would come across little
patches of green skin which had to be discarded. The cleaned pig's
stomach was also used in the case of haggis and other traditional
puddings. Nowadays natural casings are often replaced by collagen,
cellulose or even plastic casings. Some types of sausage, a sliced
sausage for example, are prepared without a casing.
The most
simple of sausage consists of meat, cut up or minced and filled into
a casing. Traditionally the meat will be from pork, lamb, beef or
veal. Most traditional types of sausage from Europe and Asia use no
bread based filler and are 100% meat and fat plus the flavourings.
However in the UK and other countries with English cuisine traditions
bread and starch based fillers account for 25% of the ingredients.
The filler used in many sausages helps them keep their shape as they
are cooked. As the meat contracts in the heat, the filler expands and
absorbs the moisture lost from the meat. Too much water in the mix
makes the 'bangers' explode in the hot fat.
I do like a nice sausage and remember with great fondness my mother cooking 'toad in the hole' (sausages cooked in a Yorkshire pudding batter) and even family sized sausage meat pies to fill up the six strong Lowe family relatively cheaply. My favourite English sausages are pork and chive, tomato sausages, Cumberland, peppery Lincolnshire and traditional pork chipolata sausages. Whilst growing up 'bangers and mash' was a popular dish and a trip to the local fish and chip shop could result in a battered sausage or two or a saveloy sausage with chips. Way back when, I used to love a saveloy, chips and curry sauce meal from the chippy! The saveloy skin was traditionally coloured with Bismark brown food dye giving the saveloy a distinctive bright red colour. After I left home and started to cook for myself a big part of my diet was home-made sausage casseroles made with big fat pork sausages purchased from the butchers I worked for and bulked out with baked beans, tinned tomatoes and fried mushrooms. The resultant sausage casserole was then enjoyed with mounds of buttery mashed potatoes. I also used to devour rather a lot of the black puddings sold in the shop sometimes cold and sometimes fried as part of a Sunday morning traditional fry up breakfast. Red rings of Polony never did it for me.
As a
schoolboy I used to go to my friend Stephen Gillett's house after
school and enjoy four or five boiled Princes' hot dog style sausages
from a tin along with fluffy white bread and thought this was
culinary bliss. We would often get that Colman mustard in a tube and
liberally spread the yellow mustard all over the sausages. Happy
days.
In my
travels throughout Europe I have tried various sausages including
Strasbourg sausages, spicy Toulouse unlinked sausages, Morteau and
Vienna sausages. In Germany I have had a Berliner Currywurst,
Dampfwurst, Brühwurst
(steamed sausage), a Thüringer
Rostbratwurst made with lean belly pork as well as a 'proud Henry' -
the Stolzer Heinrich. Smoky Frankfurter sausages with mustard are
very tasty and the Germans really go to town on the process of curing
and smoking sausages and other meats. In fact they have an expression
which goes something like “Not so much a sausage – more a way of
life” Everything revolves around the sausage and similar meat
products. German sausages are eaten for breakfast, as a snack, eaten
hot or cold for the main meal of the day or made into sausage salads.
Go to any minor or major sporting or music event and there will be
cooked sausage stalls galore! It has been calculated that there are
over fifteen thousand varieties of sausage in Germany alone! Believe
it or not they even have a popular theatre comedy and film about the invention
of the curry sausage called Die Entdeckung der Currywurst written originally as a novel by Uwe Timm..
Despite my
love of all things French I don't recall eating a massive amount of
sausages in France. However I do love the taste of dry cured
Saucisson Sec and could happily hang around the market stalls selling
this and other dried and cured pork sausage products. The aroma
drives me wild. I once tried the Merguez sausages at a cheap student
café
in Bordeaux and they went well with the fries, mustard and a few
beers. They are small thin link sausages that look innocent enough
but pack a punch as they are made using a generous proportion of hot
chilli paste harissa. They have a dense texture which makes them
ideal for barbecuing and go well with lentils
I have yet
to experience many of the Spanish sausages and their pimentón
and garlic flavoured cousins and would love to try some of the famous
Polish, Hungarian and Serbian sausages some day.
If I am
feeling really adventurous I might give the Chinese sausage types a
go. These are Lap Cheung and are wind dried pork sausages that look
and feel like pepperoni but are apparently much sweeter. From my
research I have discovered that sausages in South Western China are
flavoured with salt, red pepper and wild pepper and that the Chinese
often cure sausages by smoking and air drying them. They are
apparently nice steamed on top of rice. The Japanese have fewer
sausage varieties in their diet but do include some unusual sausage
made with ground fish and are often bought in their convenience
stores. They also have a type of chicken meat sausage called Tsukune
and are popular as a snack in bars where the hard working businessmen
go to get hammered after a long day in the office.
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