I don't beeeliiive it! - I don't often have sausages but when I do I like a 'proper' one, I've just gone to buy my goto supermarket sausage which is a pack of Waitrose No.1 Free range pork sausages but thought there was something odd about them...
Got them home and they've only gone and replaced the sausage skin and covered them in a substance called a 'calcium alginate casing'.
Cooked them and they just aren't the same - dry and chewy - not for me.
Look like the hunt is on for a 'traditional' plain pork supermarket sausage - or maybe all sausages are going to go this way?
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 15 Jun 24 at 21:31
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Daughter worked in her halls of residence one year at uni as a gopher, when the rooms were let out as hoilday lets between terms. Serving breakfast one morning an Aussie referred to sausages as 'little wonders of mystery'.
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Remember the emulsified high fat offal tube?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPwQ0PmK9lw
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A proper butcher is the best place for sausages.
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I used to have these bangers once a week, but y'all can't seem to get 'em now in godforsaken Cornwall:
www.theblackfarmer.com/product-category/butchery-bbq/sausages/
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Best I've had recently were A D Munro in Tarbert, Harris. Beef rather than Pork and too far to go every week!!
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My point being that the traditional sausage skin is integral to the make up of a good sausage and how it cooks in the pan.
Theses new alginate covering just don't perform in the same way - as soon as the sausage hits the pan they disintegrate and let the meat dry out.
I can't believe they got past the teams of taste testers - unless there is a shortage of skins or more than likely they are cheaper to produce?
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I'd go with the cost thing!!
Mrs B is vegan and some vegan sausages are OK (eg Richmond) but the drying out thing is a huge issue probably due to the skins.
Amongst the supermarkets some of the best I've had are Aldi. Do you have a branch near you?
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Not really - more Lidl's, I'll have a look in there when I go for my stock-up shop of European goodies.
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We usually buy the Sainsbury's TTD or Tesco finest Cumberland jobs. The Tesco cook a bit better but for some reason the Sainsburys are only about 2/3 the calories, and exude very little fat on cooking.
No idea what the skins are. Caseinate I suspect, neither swell up like balloons and pop like the emulsified high fat offal tubes of old. Both are "high meat" which is nothing like those old "Papworth Special" butchers' sausages.
I bung them in the air fryer until they are well maillarded.
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i thought you would have the costco sausages. caramelised red union. yummy
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i thought you would have the costco sausages. caramelised red union. yummy
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Get used to it, this is the modern era. We have all been brought up on British sausages, filled with who knows what (best not to know) covered with BSE riddled animal guts. The only way we are getting the old tastes back is if they are filled with minced vegans.
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“red union”
Aren’t they all?
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Have to say, the airfryer makes a cracking job of cooking sausages. The even all round heat seems ideal.
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We gave up frying sausages in a pan and cook then in the oven.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Fri 14 Jun 24 at 09:16
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>> Have to say, the airfryer makes a cracking job of cooking sausages. The even all
>> round heat seems ideal.
>>
And you don't need a prick with a fork.
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"And you don't need a prick with a fork."
Apart from the person eating them.
Sorry. Just leaving...
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>> I used to have these bangers once a week, but y'all can't seem to get
>> 'em now in godforsaken Cornwall:
Have you tried Sainsbury's? (or has the other half, as IIRC, you don't do the shopping). They've got them in all the local branches near me.
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>>Have you tried Sainsbury's?
Probably unique to my wife? .. she buys our weekly shopping from 3 supermarkets, all on the same day!!
Sainsbury's, Morrisons, and ASDA. She reckons none of them here stock Black Farmer now.
Tesco in Launceston do 'em I think. she could have got them on Wednesday when she was having 'er hair cut.
Nearest Waitrose is in Holsworthy in Devon, or Saltash = too far out, man.
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Lincolnshire is just over the border and quality bangers can be had.
Done in the air fryer. However when you see the actual amount of fat that remains the heart starts to palpitate.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Fri 14 Jun 24 at 11:08
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Remember what cook Fanny Cradock advised...." Try and make your sausage skins look just like Johnny's "
Ted
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I have the mincing attachment for the KitchenAid with a sausage filling piece. Skins are available from Amazon, just have to pluck up courage one day.
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The best sausages are Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages:
Rehydrated Textured Soya Protein (52%), Water, Rapeseed Oil, Soya Protein Concentrate, Seasoning (Sulphites) (Dextrose, Flavourings, Salt, Onion Powder, Yeast Extract, Colour: Red Iron Oxide), Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Bamboo Fibre, Stabiliser: Methyl Cellulose, Tomato Purée, Salt, Raising Agent: Ammonium Carbonates.
Yum yum!
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Yuk yuk.
Fortunately I’ve always had access to a good butchers, or three.
Never bought sausages from a supermarket, although someone I know buys Heck sausages from Booths.
My favourite butcher sausages are Toulouse. I love opening the fridge door and being hit by a blast of garlic…
Good butchers in Settle, Gargrave, Skipton, Kirkby Lonsdale so I’m spoilt for choice
Last edited by: legacylad on Fri 14 Jun 24 at 20:51
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LL "My favourite butcher sausages are Toulouse."
I assume that you are not talking about andouillette which are a favourite of the region.
www.foodandwine.com/lifestyle/andouillette-french-sausage-association
The website does a pretty good description, but not as true to life as my "Gonads in a condom".
Not what I actually said, but the swear filter deleted the whole paragraph!
Last edited by: sherlock47 on Sat 15 Jun 24 at 07:37
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>> LL "My favourite butcher sausages are Toulouse."
>>
>> I assume that you are not talking about andouillette which are a favourite of the
>> region.
>> www.foodandwine.com/lifestyle/andouillette-french-sausage-association
>>
No, I’m familiar with andouillette and those I’ve eaten in France were ok. Once a year I spent a week walking with a group who lived and worked in France & Belgium...unlike myself, they were ‘foodies’ and they introduced me to andouillette.
They also introduced me to the worst sausages ever on a walking trip in either the Vosges or Jura. Open air restaurant terrace, by a small river, warm late summer evening, and chitterling sausages on the menu. Forced meat and intestines n a skin. Sticks in my memory, as it did in my throat.
www.google.co.uk/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitterlings&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjzvOLth92GAxW5QkEAHaxaCDUQFnoECAwQAg&usg=AOvVaw2WObUX0Md613KQghA8i9OJ
Last edited by: legacylad on Sat 15 Jun 24 at 08:16
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Sheep’s intestines are also an ingredient of haggis so not so different.
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>> Sheep’s intestines are also an ingredient of haggis so not so different.
Heart, liver and lungs and encased in the stomach but it does not, as far as I know, involve intestines.
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LL You northerners are are made of of strong stuff!
I cannot think of any of my friends down south who can even contemplate the look of andouillette, let alone the taste. Once ordered , seen or tasted never forgotten. Although I think that there are significant regional variations on contents.
For those unwilling to click on a link, a copy and paste,
'The Telegraph writes that it "looks, smells, and tastes as if it should be in a lavatory," while CNN reports it has "an easily identifiable aroma of decay."'
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>> I cannot think of any of my friends down south who can even contemplate
>> the look of andouillette, let alone the taste. Once ordered , seen or tasted never
>> forgotten. Although I think that there are significant regional variations on contents.
There are definitely variations in flavour. I ate it once or twice in small café/restaurant places in Paris and it was tasty and chewy but the origin of the ingredients was not evident in either taste or smell.
On another occasion I ordered it for lunch in a Relais Routiers place between Cherbourg and Tours. Madame looked askance and said vous connaisez Andouilette? to which I truthfully answered yes.
This one was much more strongly flavoured; the taste and aroma of pigs droppings. I manahed about half of it...
Friend of ours call it 'bottom sausage'.
EDIT: a bit of research suggests some use the colon giving a much stronger flavour than if the small intestine is subsituted.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 15 Jun 24 at 13:40
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We are going to France in a couple of weeks but I shall have nothing to say to andouillettes or any other charcuterie of unknown content which excludes most of it. I respect the traditions and the necessity in earlier times perhaps to force down every scrap of the animal, but as long as there are alternatives to assorted gristly bits I'll leave them to the enthusiasts.
I'll take a proper Cumberland over anything sausage-wise. I don't trust any sausage made of pulverised pink mush.
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The problem with andouillette is they do not pulverised it! Nothing is left to your imagination.
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On a caravan trip to Brittany we brought home a chubby sausage, packed in plastic.
Opening it ready to cook, we found a nice big piece of skin, complete with rough hairs. Translating the ingredients threw up the word 'donkey'.
Even our two voracious Border Terriers turned their noses up at it.
On the same trip, I had a local cheese which smelled so bad I had to relegate it, in it's sealed Tupperware box to the tool bin under the bonnet of the Patrol. We were held at customs in Poole and well turned over by them. When he asked me to open the bonnet, I told him there was something under there he wouldn't like. His eyes lit up, but not for long, He even took the top off the air filter, probably thought we, a reasonably respectable family of five, had a stash in there...certainly wasn't looking for a bottle of Scotch ! Even threatened to strip-search the kids, I told him he'd have to get a magistrate out of bed.
In the next lane, an old coach, painted green and covered in flower pictures, poted plants in the windows, was waved through....funny old world !
Ted
Ted
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>> The problem with andouillette is they do not pulverised it! Nothing is left to your
>> imagination.
Quite. It gets a very wide swerve from me.
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>> The best sausages are Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages:
I had a couple (with mustard) today in a lunchtime sandwich.
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>>I had a couple (with mustard) today in a lunchtime sandwich.
We also had two each on Thursday, fried in sesame oil, served with wholegrain mustard between two slices.
Gonna try some 'This Isn't Pork Plant Based Sausages'.
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Butcher in nearest town to where I lived in Yorkshire used to make their own sausage, pork pies and black pudding. It was a small family business that now does nationwide delivery. They still make the tomato sausage that I haven't had for ages.
johncrawshaws.co.uk/collections/sausages-bacon-burgers-1
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We seem to just have Heck sausages now. They're okish but they seem to me to be a bit too well packced and hard. I think she buys them 'cos of Slimming World requirements.
We had a small, long established butcher nearby whose homemade bangers were the dogs ! We always had them with Christmas turkey and if they were left out before dinner, you could guarantee that half of them would have been snitched by people passing the tray. Sadly no more...another damn winebar !
Ted
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Being brought up on a farm in the north in the 1950's, we would slaughter and prepare a pig on the farm.
No sausages I have ever found match the taste of Cumberland sausages made by my mother.
We have a local butcher in Horsham called Bangers Galore who do a pretty good Cumberland sausage.
Best ever not made by my mother was a South African sausage at my SA neighbour had at his barbecue a few years aho, apparently from a Butcher in Victoria south London.
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Sauages - bathtub tom
