The British Sausage

The British Sausage

Great Britain is definitaly what you would call a sausage eating country, with more than 400 different kinds of sausage, the British consume millions of sausages every day, one of the the most famous dishes being the English breakfast.

A English breakfast is just not traditional unless it contains at least two British sausages.

British Bangers

British sausages are also known as bangers, but the history of the reason why British sausages are called bangers is a little hazy and there are different schools of thought on the subject.

One school of thought suggests with great common sense that British sausages are called bangers because of their habit of exploding, due to the shrinkage of the tight skin whilst cooking and this makes sense to us, we have all seen this before.

The term 'bangers' was in use as far back as 1919, but British sausages started to be more widely called bangers during World War Two, when meat rations were scarce and sausages had to be made with more water and filler added to the mix, making them more likely to explode when cooked.

Regional Variety

British sausages are traditonally made of raw pork (or sometimes beef) mixed with a number of different herbs and spices, the recipes to make these British sausages are traditionally associated with specific regions of Great Britain.

The artisanal production of British sausages is a centuries old tradtion and various sausage producing regions of Great Britain (such as Lincolnshire) are seeking European Protected designation of origin (PDO) for their sausages so that they can be made only in the specific region and must be made to a specific quality and recipe.

Some of the most famous British sausages and British sausage producing regions include :

• Cumberland Sausage A local speciality for more than 500 years, the Cumberland sausage is commonly dominated by pepper, both black and white, there are traditionally no colourings or preservatives added. The distinctive feature is that the meat is chopped, not minced, giving the sausage a chunky, meaty texture. In 2011, the "Traditional Cumberland sausage" was granted Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status.
  
  
• Lincolnshire Sausage Commonly dominated by sage and characterised by their open, chunky texture, the result of the constituent pork being coarsely ground rather than minced. The city of Lincoln in Lincolnshire holds a competition everyear to see who can make the best British Lincolnshire sausage.
  
  Other famous British sausage producing regions include :
  
  
• Gloucester Sausage As the name implies, is made with Gloucester Old Spot Pork, nicely flavoured with sage.
• Manchester Sausage A herby sausage containing cloves, ginger, nutmeg, mace and white pepper.
• Marylebone Sausage Expect mace, sage and ginger in this traditional London butchers sausage.
• Oxford Sausage Sage and savory, a touch of marjoram, lemon pork and veal - a nicely refined sausage.
• Suffolk Sausage Coarse sausage similar not unlike a Lincolnshire.
• Yorkshire Sausage Expect a sausage flavoured with cayenne, a pinch of nutmeg, white pepper and mace. Delicious.
• Glamorgan Sausage  A traditional Welsh vegitarean sausage made of cheese, leeks and breadcrumbs.
  

British Sausage Dishes

Over and above the tradtional English breakfast, the British love to eat sausages in lots of different ways, some of the most famous being a tradtional dish called bangers & mash or even battered sausage, usually sold in fish and chip shops.

We hoped you enjoyed our article on the history of the traditional English breakfast, if you did, please show your support for the tradition by sharing this article with your friends. The English Breakfast Society thanks you for your support.