Essential ingredients!

[Boycebangers]

I am on the verge of ordering a sausage making kit from Franco.
On the shop site it lists Rusk as an essential ingredient in sausage making but I keep finding recipes that do not require it.
So do I need it or not? Even a 2kg bag will be astronimical on postage...Finland at present, Falklands next month!
The sausage making kit lists a recipe/user guide that comes with it. Can anyone give me a bit more info on how useful it is or not and what sort of recipes it contains? And whether they require rusk?

[Wohoki]

Rusk is essential for British style bangers, it retains moisture and improves the texture and bite. However, given your circumstances, I would either find a recipe to make your own (there is one somewhere on this site, if anyone can remember where it is?) as it is just a flour paste biscuit crumbed or just use bread-crumbs (try to have a word with a local baker to see if you can buy up day old loaves if you need a lot) which work fine.

And best of luck in the Falklands!

[tristar]

I more often than not produce ruskless sausages, but when needed I have found that cheap own brand cream crackers from the local supermarket are an eminently suitable substitute for rusk if you want something quick and convenient. With the quantities of sausages I produce it is not worth my while to order rusk in bulk, and for what the cream crackers cost it is not worth the effort of making my own, I have also used crispbread crackers with similar satisfactory results.

Regards,
Richard

[aris]

Oatmeal ground finely in a food processor works well too.

[Boycebangers]

Thanks for all the tips, as I will be living a 3 hour drive from the nearest bakery that is not really a feasible option! The same goes for crackers and whatnot and I fear my days will be busy enough without making my own! But I do make my own bread daily so I could just make a bit extra and allow it to age a day.
Do I use the same quantities of bread crumbs as rusk?
And how fine does the crumbs need to be? I have a magic bullet, I assume that this will do the job fine.
Coward that I am and being very new to sausage making I think I will still buy a small bag of rusk...if nothing else just to experiment with.

[aris]

Rusk is slightly different to breadcrumbs in that rusk is yeastless.

Depending on the type of sausage you make, rusk isn't really necessary. I never use it, but I don't make british style sausages.

Oatmeal can give you similar properties to rusk - surely you can find oats there?

[Boycebangers]

I don't think finding Oatmeal will be a problem, it's just the logistics of a 3 hour journey when I don't drive!
The idea of home made sausages really appeals and to keep them as home made as poss I will be using home reared meat, home grown herbs and home made bread crumbs.

But it is a good tip to store in the recesses of my old grey matter.....thanks!

[Wohoki]

Bread crumbs are very traditional, commercially made rusk is a modern thing.

[Rik vonTrense]

When I was a butchers boy during WW2 it was my job to chop up the stale bread from the bakers next door to go into the sausages when we made them once a week....

sometimes the sausages were half breadcrumbs it depends how much meat and trimmings we were allowed to use....you would be surprised what went into the sausages,,,even the scrapings off of the chopping blocks went in......but meat was scares and the allowance was about 12 oz per person per week so any sausages were a luxury bonus....again offal was off ration but hard come by.....I think everything except the liver and kidneys went into the sausage machine.

But boy did they taste great.

So you can safely use breadcrumbs from your own bread and if you want any tips on making a good loaf of everyday bread just ask as I have been making my own for over forty years and have it off to a fine art. There are a few tips I have learned through experience that go to make a better loaf.

If using breadcrumbs like 20% of the meat then give a very good mix and this makes a nice sticky filling that holds together nicew as a cooked banger.

All the best in the Falklands.......hope you can get some decent bread flour about 13% protein.

.

[Boycebangers]

Thanks for all the advice and a really decent bread flour is actually very easily come by in the Falklands.....ask no questions, be told no lies!!!

I love making my own bread and now my 6 year old son is getting into it helping with the kneading and shaping etc. So it's great that I can incorporate one hobby with another and hopefully as sausages are my sons favourite food he will happily get involved with that too!

[jenny_haddow]

Hi Rik,

Interesting, your account of WW2 sausages. Last year I did a series of workshops to accompany the Imperial War Museum's travelling exhibition on everyday life during the war and sausages were a big part of the cuisine. I even made a mock duck recipe where a layer of suasage meat was moulded to look like a duck and laid over a stuffing ( the pottery skills came in handy there), the stuffing recipe was to die for. I thought wartime sausages would be b.awful, but everyone I spoke to reckoned they were the best ever, hunger may have had something to do with that finding though!

By the way, meat was rationed by money not weight, about�1/10d a week, so you could blow it all on a steak or have loads of bangers.

Cheers

Jen

[Rik vonTrense]

Jen......for that money you would live like a lord on meat.

this is an excerpt from the time....

March 1940 - 1s.10d worth of meat allowed per person a week (9p today). Sausages were not rationed but difficult to get; offal (liver, kidneys, tripe's) was originally un-rationed but sometimes formed part of the meat ration.

For your information a full leg of lamb was 7/3d to 7/6d that is seven shillings and three pence.and to get one of them you would have to have the meat ration of four people but that is all the meat you would have for a whole week. Our sausages were not on ration nor was offal but only one pound per family of four and the offal came as it came but you never got more that a taster.

.

[jenny_haddow]

I've got my shillings and pounds muddled up, I meant one and tenpence! Long time since I thought in 'real money'

Jen

[aris]

Got any good wartime recipes that use offal (the type of offal you can still get today if possible!)?

[jenny_haddow]

Yes, I've got quite a few, Tripe Mornay springs to mind! The mind boggles!
I'll get the files out and see what I can find. Interestingly, I cooked a brisket in a hay box overnight, best damned brisket I've tasted, and free cooking, can't be bad.

Cheers

Jen