The definitive sausage recipe for my butcher

[wheels]

You ever thought of joining the Diplomatic Corps?

[johnfb]

I agree with Dave.
Seriously though, anyone can go through the recipe section and find many blends, one as good as the next, depending on your taste. I have seen some with garlic and red pepper flakes under the heading of "breakfast" sausage. I wouldn't eat one of those in a million years for breakfast, but that's me.
We eat a lot of the merguez blend in this house for dinner, wheels for brekkie and the lamb ones when we have some spare lamb for mincing.
The Ian blend is good too and has good reviews in my home, but not the Gloucester blend as we find it wayyyy tooooo herby.
So there ya go, for anyone who is new to this: try them all in 1kg batches to find the one you like...and even if you make some that are not to your liking...I can guarantee you that someone you know will wolf them down.

[Pork Pie Eyed Dolly]

@ the bread rolls. I was looking at Wheels' blog today and showed my boyfriend the floury baps and we both commented they they looked REAL.

[NCPaul]

melb - I would think that if I had the meat from 4 pigs, I would want at least 4 types of sausage for some variety (it's the spice of life). I'm sure you could get some opinions.

[wheels]

I agree with Dave.
Seriously though, anyone can go through the recipe section and find many blends, one as good as the next, depending on your taste. I have seen some with garlic and red pepper flakes under the heading of "breakfast" sausage. I wouldn't eat one of those in a million years for breakfast, but that's me.
We eat a lot of the merguez blend in this house for dinner, wheels for brekkie and the lamb ones when we have some spare lamb for mincing.
The Ian blend is good too and has good reviews in my home, but not the Gloucester blend as we find it wayyyy tooooo herby.
So there ya go, for anyone who is new to this: try them all in 1kg batches to find the one you like...and even if you make some that are not to your liking...I can guarantee you that someone you know will wolf them down.

John, that was my point - there is more than one type of typical English sausage - but the most common (and therefore presumably 'more' typical) contain rusk.

PPED

Thank you, I think!

Phil

[Ianinfrance]

HiPhil,

Ian's interpretation, although no doubt an excellent sausage, would not be seen by many people to be the typical (most common) type of sausage on sale in England. Most of those would contain some proportion of rusk or breadcrumbs along with water.

Perfectly fair comment. I wrote this recipe about 10 years ago, before I knew the benefits of using rusk. At the time, I thought it was merely there to bulk out the meat! As I said in my original reply to Melb, I like a fairly highly herbed/spiced sausage and this one certainly fits that bill. I've not tried yours yet, and it is perfectly possible I'd prefer it to mine. I might also try modifying mine to use about 2% rusk and 2-3% ice/water and try making it differently using the techniques I've learnt from this forum.

My main reason for involving myself in the thread was because the British Barbecue Society (or whatever the gentleman is using as his trade name) has used a recipe I created verbatim and without attributing it to me, which somewhat riles me. Anyone's welcome to put it on any website, BUT I do expect it to be credited to me.

[johnfb]

Hear hear Ian.
I think if you put something out on the net or whatever you expect it to be used and reused by others but at least they should have the MANNERS to credit the author of it.

[wheels]

I agree Ian. I was just trying to assess what is typical - it looks like Melb was looking for one without rusk anyway!

Original recipes/ideas should be credited, I couldn't agree more.

Phil

[vagreys]

I am with wheels on this after reading the thread I looked at my books and found a mention in one coming from a cook book from King Richard II (1367 - 1400) in which it states that grated bread should be added...

Perhaps. Here is the original recipe:

Sawge yfarcet. Take pork and seeth it wel, and grinde it smal, and medle it with ayren & brede ygrated. Do therto powdour fort and safroun with pynes & salt. Take & close litull balles in foiles of sawge; wete it with a batour of ayren & fry it, and serue it forth. - Forme of Cury - BL Additional 5016, recipe #161

My elaboration: Stuffed Sage. Take pork and cook it well in water (at a simmer), and grind it small in a morter, and mix it with eggs and grated bread. Add to the meat mixture strong spice powder (a blend of strong spices, often including black pepper, cloves, ginger, cassia, nutmeg, and sometimes grains of paradise, cubebs, or long pepper) and saffron with pine nuts and salt. Take and wrap little balls of the spiced meat mixture in sage leaves; dip it in a batter of eggs and fry it, and serve it forth.

Typically, farces (forcemeats) like this were either formed into little balls and fried, or formed into larger loaves and baked in a dough crust. Sometimes, as in a recipe from Platina's cookery manuscript (Italian), they were formed into balls about the size of a walnut, stuffed into short sections of intestine, painted with egg yolk, skewered, and roasted by the fire.

I love Scotch Eggs, and while we don't have any evidence that they had them in Richard II's kitchens, I feel certain that if they'd thought of it, they would have!

[Ianinfrance]

Hi Tom,
[nitpicking om]
Can I clarify something please?

Do therto powdour fort and safroun with pynes & salt.

[snip]
cubebs, or long pepper

I hope you don't mind me saying that as phrased, someone might miss the significance of the comma and think that cubebs and long pepper are the same. Cubeb is a tailed pepper,

while long pepper doesn't taste anything like it, really. It's err... long


I'm sure you knew that, but others might not!
[nitpicking off]

[wheels]

Wow, I'd never heard of either!

[vagreys]

Hi Tom,
[nitpicking om]
Can I clarify something please?...I hope you don't mind me saying that as phrased, someone might miss the significance of the comma and think that cubebs and long pepper are the same. Cubeb is a tailed pepper, while long pepper doesn't taste anything like it, really. It's err... long. I'm sure you knew that, but others might not!
[nitpicking off]

I don't mind, at all, Ian. Those were good pics of the two. I keep a jar of cubebs and one of long pepper in my herb cabinet, all the time. I'm afraid I got spoiled - one of my Indian programmers brought me back a pound of long pepper, and a big jar of wild cardamom from a trip to India. The wild cardamom is so different from our regular cardamom. Quite a treat. Instead of the usual black pepper, I sometimes grind cubebs into my sausage, for a change.

[Ianinfrance]

As for your Shepherds Pie !! simple Shepherds Pie = Lamb: Cottage Pie = Beef

Forgive the pedantry, but actually I think you'll find that mutton is even MORE traditional than lamb for Shepherd's pie.

I meant to say earlier... very impressed by your tactful comment re authentic "English Sausage". I would make a further suggestion. Try my recipe with Wheel's proportion of rusk & water and try his without the rusk and water. Compare them for taste, but above all for mouthfeel. As I said earlier, I devised that recipe when I thought rusk was purely used to save money. I do now sometimes use rusk when making English sausages, and would say that it's biggest effect is on the "bite". But the converse applies, I'd not dream of using rusk (despite what Franco says) in a bratwurst, or a chorizo or a thai sausage. I tried it and it gave a "german flavoured", "spanish flavoured" or "thai flavoured" english sausage.

[wheels]

Exactly, Ian - it's 'horses for courses'!

[duames]

Forgive the pedantry, but actually I think you'll find that mutton is even MORE traditional than lamb for Shepherd's pie.
.[/quote]

mmm mutton !!!, but it is so hard to find in the uk these days