Snorkers for the Games.

British (Newmarket style) banger recipe.

In America if you say Banger or Chipolata, you're considered a British sausage expert. So when I read a tweet from Britain's leading sausage expert about about some folks selling snorker snacks in East Anglia, I put on my sausage detective hat to find out more about these little lovelies.



The Olympics and the Industrial Revolution.

Last weekend's Opening Ceremonies for the summer games had a narrative of the advent of the industrial revolution that started in the UK and spread around the world. This age of mechanization was not limited to steam engines and sweaters, it also included food. And of course one of the easiest foods to put on the production line was sausage.



While industrialized food has given rise to miracles like Modernist Cuisine, and imporved many foods that I love such as mustard, beer and Parma ham, the change in how food is processed and distributed has also caused some folks to stare at their plates and ask, what is real? This is especially true when it come to sauasges.

In the UK sausages aquired a reputation of being tasteless links stuffed with so many cereal fillers and water that they exploded upon cooking, hence the term bangers. American sausage maker Bruce Aidells wrote that it was the horrible sausages he had while living in Britain that inspired him to start making his own.

But as with all generalizations, this one doesn't capture the whole story. Before and after the Industrial Revolution small producers made quality sausages to little fanfare. And over the past few years seeking out these regional specialties has become a new pastime for many.

Great Britain a country of sausages.

Stephen Plume AKA the Sausage King, is one such person. Through his website SausageFans UK, the Sausage King documents his trips around Britain in search of the finest sausages. According to the King, there are over 500 different types of sausages in the UK. And indeed there are many unique sausages in the British Isles. Last November I wrote about the Cambridge sausage in honor of British Sausage Week. In that post I also noted the the Cumberland sausage had gained a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication). In May the King reported that another sausage The Lincolnshire, had failed to gain protected status. One of the reasons giving was that there were to many versions of the recipe.



Boosters of an East Anglia banger hope to avoid the fate that befell the Lincolnshire. In the town of Newmarket two rival butchers have agreed to a truce in an effort to gain PGI status for their unique link, The Newmarket Sausage. Sausage makers Powters and Musk's each claim to have made and continue to make the original Newmarket Sausage since the 1880's. Since I live nowhere near Newmarket, I can't say which purveyor makes the better link, let alone, who made the original. However I did find a PDF of the Newmarket PGI application, so I can try making my own.



Yeah but why? In a word, Snorkers.

Recently one of the Sausage King's tweets led me to the website of Big Skies Food Company. The organization does one of the most important services known to humanity, encasing meat in pastry. Among the products they offer is a Snorker Snack. Snorker, I soon read, is a slang term for sausage, maybe refering to its likness to a snorkel. Wikipedia reports that it may have originated in the Royal Navy. After an exhaustive ten minute search of the Internet I concluded that snorker reference is valid and Big Skies is the first and only going concern that sells a Snorker Snack.



I should mention that this toodoo unfolded because I was looking for a British themed nosh to take to an Opening Ceremonies potluck. Well I didn't dare try to crack the proprietary formula of the Big Skies snorker, so I looked for another sausage of the region. That's when the Newmarket Link dropped in my lap.

Newmarket (East Anglia) style Sausage

1000g Pork
16g Salt
4g black pepper
2g white pepper
pinch nutmeg
3g fresh thyme
15g fresh parsley
zest from half a lemon
100g fine bread crumbs
100g of water or ale

hog casings.

Cut the pork into cubes and toss with the salt, refrigerate as time allows, 2 - 24 hours. Grind through coarse plate. Using the paddle attachment or a big wooden spoon beat in spices then herbs and bread crumbs. Add the liquid as needed to keep the mixture going. Continue to mix until uniform, about a minute. Stuff into hog casings.



Now would someone from East Anglia spot this banger as a Newmarket? Probably not, But I did conform to the PGI description, except for the part about making it near town.

The PGI (find link above) states the sausage must be coarse ground, no smaller than a 3mm plate. The sausage may contain only the following ingredients:

Pork (only shoulder or belly)
Salt
Black pepper
White pepper
Thyme
Parsley
Nutmeg
dried lemon
Sulphites (as a preservative)
Sodium phospahte (as a binder)

Bread, rusks and water may make up no more than 30% of the product.

I think I nailed it.

For the Snorker Snack I found this lovely shortcrust recipe in the Guardian. It calls for mustard powder, I used ground brown mustard seeds.



Pork crackling top the Big Skies Snorker Snack, I was fresh out so I substituted sumac. At the party I served the snacks with a coriander chutney, but with the leftover bangers I grilled them and ran them through the garden, American style.



Cheers.

Cambridge Sausage and Mash

It's #britishsausageweek or British Sausage Week for my Twitter averse friends. Since Jamie Oliver is participating in the promotion of UK sausage, I figure I could do my bit from across the pond.

Americans have and odd relationship with British cuisine. On one hand we can't resist the urge to regurgitate the cliche of their food as heavy, tasteless and unimaginative. On the other I've lost track of how many gastro-pubs with English sounding names dot our fair city. But what about sausage?

Here in America we know only one British sausage, the Banger! Actually that's the nickname for about any sausage and what we call a banger would probably be the Cambridge sausage in the UK. The Oxford Companion of Food identifies no less than 10 British sausage varieties including one sausage, the Cumberland, which gained Protected Geographical Status, from the EU earlier this year. For my British Banger I chose to focus on the Cambridge sausage.



The Cambridge Banger

900g (2lbs) Pork Shoulder
100g (3 1/2 oz) Rusks or fine bread crumbs (see notes)
14g (2 t) Salt
3 g white pepper
1 g mace
1 g cayenne
4 g fresh sage chopped fine (see notes)
2 g fresh thyme chopped (see notes)

225 ml (1 cup) Ale (see notes)

Hog casings for stuffing.

Grind the pork shoulder twice, then using a mixer with a paddle attachment or a big wooden spoon beat in the rusks and then the remaining ingredients. Continue to mix until you get a uniform pate. Stuff into hog casings.

Notes:

A word about rusks. Many different food products are called rusks. The rusks for sausages are superfine breadcrumbs. Sausages in the UK have a long tradition of containing cereals of one kind or another. It probably started as a means to extend the meat, first for necessity, later for profit. Nevertheless adding bread crumbs changes the texture of the sausage in such a way that it must considered as part of the recipe. That said, I'm not a huge fan of it.

Try to use fresh herbs. Thyme and sage are ridiculously easy to grow. If using dried, use half the amount.

Ale: The alcohol in the recipe enhances the flavors from the herbs and spices. After cooking for 1 1/2 years in a brewpub, I have come to appreciate the properties of beer in recipes. Give it a try, if not use water.

Cooking:

British sausages got their nickname "banger" due to their propensity to explode during cooking. Do not blow up your banger. All sausages, especially ones without added fat, must be cooked gently, and not too long. I cooked these bangers (pictured above) in a 300F oven for 15 minutes.

So we have a banger, some mashed tatties, how about some sauce.



This piquant banger sauce is a pound of sliced onions caramelized then pureed with 3 ozs of Worcestershire and 3 ozs of butter. Wicked good, as the kids say.

Bangers and mash for British Sausage Week. Make it yours.

Cheers.



Sources (Book links to WorldCat)

British Charcuterie by Reekie

The Oxford Companion to Food by Davidson

Lorne Sausage and the Full Scottish Breakfast

"Gotta eat a breakfast...I'll fix ya some eggs."

Pure poetry. I love fixing breakfast, during the week it's a disperate but constant affair; Henry eats Cheerios, Bonne Femme and Emmet have granola and yogurt and I start the day with and an egg, toast and tomato. But on the weekend the guns come out: Cinnamon rolls, huevos rancheros, hash, stratas, benedicts of any type, just give me a reason.

Last week I made up a reason of sorts because of a comment left by Andrew* on the St, Paddy's Day Post. Yeah, I got all Bobby Flay on him because he was lamenting that he hadn't made the time to make Lorne sausage and potato scones. Zero hour has arrived buddy, time to unfurl your Saltire and get grinding.



I had never heard of Lorne sausage, and I couldn't find any reference in my usual books, but on the internet, site after site lists it as an essential component of the Full Scottish Breakfast. The Lorne is described as a minced meat that's formed into a square loaf,sliced and fried. Apparently you can buy this in any store in Scotland, but here I have to make it up as I go along.



For mincing all you really need is a big sharp knife, but my mom found this grinder in my grandma's basement, and I figured why not go a little old school:



Lookin good.

As I far as I could determine the Lorne is spiced with pepper, coriander and nutmeg. Bonne Femme isn't crazy about nutmeg so I'll let the coriander take the star roll. I used oatmeal as the rusk.

Oh boy I'm getting hungry. I got a couple of Scottish cookbooks from the library. The Full Scottish Breakfast is coming into focus: Fried tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, potato scones, and bacon...oh no, I need to make some bacon...



Bonless pork shoulder was on sale for 89 cents a pound I couldn't pass it up. It's not what I really wanted but I cured it, like I would a ham, rolled it and smoked it (ja mon).



It turned out ok, I'm interested in working on this bacon, I like the look of a wide streaky slice that I can get with pork shoulder, but I going to have to get a better roast. I'll report back soon.

Now back to the program.



I have my meats sorted out, how about that potato scone? As opposed to a crumbly biscuit block one might get at Stardunkin or DunkinBuck's, the Scottish Tattie is more of a griddle cake or even a tortilla. It's flat, round and cooked on a hot skillet. I used a recipe from the book, Classic Recipes from Scotland, by Tom Bridge, and his version he adds some cheddar. I made them as I would a corn tortilla, I portioned them then pressed them with a plate. Here's Bridge's ingredient list:

450g/1lb mashed potato, still hot
50g/2oz / 4T butter
100g/4oz A P flour
50g/2oz Cheddar cheese grated

combine ingredients, mix well. Divide into eight balls. Place a ball between pieces of plastic and flatten with a plate or pan. cook on hot oiled griddle.

Here's what I did for the Lorne Sausage

225g/8oz Beef chuck
225g/8oz Pork Shoulder
15g Salt
5g Black Pepper
5g Coriander
1g Mace (I like this instead of nutmeg, but use either)
2g Mustard seed (I like this as an emulsifier)
5g Milk powder (Helps retain moisture)
60g/2oz Rolled oats

I diced the meats, and processed the salt and spices in a spice mill then mixed them together along with the milk powder. The mixture rested in the fridge for an hour. I minced the mixture with a meat grinder fitted with a large die. I pulsed the oats in a cuisinart then folded them into the minced meat. I kneaded the mixutre adding a little cold water until it came together. I lined a small loaf pan plastic and pressed in the sausage. I let it sit in the freezer for an hour, then I took the mostly frozen loaf and cut 3/8 slices. Fried in pan.



I got about 16 or so slices out of my loaf and I guess you just keep them in the freezer until you are ready to fry.



Bonne Femme made a sammie with her Lorne, everybody loved their Full Scottish Breakast. Now if we only had a bit of Broon sauce.

Cheers.


(P.S. for those readers who know my Secret Code Name, please don't be confused, the Andrew referred to above writes the blog Slim Pickins'Pork. What a coincidence huh? Anyway, Andrew gets a few days grace since his weekend was booked with trip to Jungle Jim's, but it's never too late.)