UK National Sausage Week

epicuric

epicuric

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Started yesterday. Personally, I always think of sausages (as in the standard pork variety) as breakfast food and wouldn't usually eat them for an evening meal. However, tonight I am going to make an exception and celebrate good old bangers and mash with onion gravy. How and when do you eat sausages, and what types do you favour? How do you cook them - oven or pan?
SQ-Sausages.jpg
 
We eat quite a lot of sausages - we're lucky that there's a local smallholding that make their own :hungry: For breakfast I prefer a plain pork or a cumberland sausage, but for dinner I like to have something with a bit of added flavour. The local farm's medieval sausages (with a hint of mace) are lovely, so are their toulouse style, pork and black pudding and red onion marmalade ones.

Sausage and mash are a regular quick and easy dinner in this house and toad in the hole is also a favourite. We sometimes buy sausages from supermarkets but they can be a bit hit and miss so if I have some not so great sausages to use up then I make them into meatballs and serve with a sauce, or use them in a sausage casserole.
 
I like them in a full English breakfast but not any fancy sorts - plain pork bangers please! If for dinner its sausage, mash with onion gravy. When the kids were young I used to make toad in a hole - again, that needs a good gravy.

A cassoulet would be one of my favourite ways to use sausages.
 
epicuric said:
Is this of Eastern European origin?
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Yes...Kielbasa is a Polish sausage, and pierogies are a Polish sort of potato-stuffed ravioli. Unless she was talking about children, brats = bratwurst, the German equivalent sausage, and traditionally served with sauerkraut.

This is making me hungry! :hyper:
 
Since deciding to Get Healthy, I've mostly been having chicken sausage that I make myself (i.e., incredibly lean). Because it's so lean, I end up cooking it in a little bit of oil, or sometimes some bacon. This may sound like I'm defeating the purpose of making it so lean, but this seems to give me what I want in terms of taste while not being a mouthful of dusty sausage.

But, I have also made pork sausage recently. I also trim the fat out quite a bit, but the natural qualities of pork seem to be more forgiving when I try cooking it.

It is a strange sight to have a clean pan after cooking some of the sausage I've made: I can't buy commercial sausage anywhere (including chicken sausage) that doesn't leave a pool of grease in the pan.
 
morning glory said:
...and I grill (broil) them usually.
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Me too - I never fry sausages, always grill them.

At home we tend to stick to British style sausages as I'm not a huge fan of German/Eastern European style ones. I do like them, but I just find them a bit boring. Having said that, I do like an Austrian Käsekrainer - there's just something so satisfying about biting into a sausage and getting a burst of cheese (is there any meal that isn't improved by cheese?).

And I also have a bit of a weakness for a Münchner Weißwurst - traditionally they're eaten for breakfast with sweet mustard so most places won't serve them after midday, but you can buy reasonable ones in the supermarkets in Germany and then you can eat them whatever time you like :okay: I think I like them because they're very different from other types of Germanic sausage because they're made from veal and are a very light texture, almost moussy texture. Also they are simmered rather than grilled and you don't eat the skins (very difficult to eat elegantly *lol*)
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
Since deciding to Get Healthy, I've mostly been having chicken sausage that I make myself (i.e., incredibly lean). Because it's so lean, I end up cooking it in a little bit of oil, or sometimes some bacon. This may sound like I'm defeating the purpose of making it so lean, but this seems to give me what I want in terms of taste while not being a mouthful of dusty sausage.

But, I have also made pork sausage recently. I also trim the fat out quite a bit, but the natural qualities of pork seem to be more forgiving when I try cooking it.

It is a strange sight to have a clean pan after cooking some of the sausage I've made: I can't buy commercial sausage anywhere (including chicken sausage) that doesn't leave a pool of grease in the pan.
Click to expand...

As I recall, I've seen several different flavors like chicken, apple & sage sausage, etc., but have not tried them.
 
For bangers and mash or hot dogs then we tend to go pork with herbs, mostly because we find it difficult to find beef sausages.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
Since deciding to Get Healthy, I've mostly been having chicken sausage that I make myself (i.e., incredibly lean). Because it's so lean, I end up cooking it in a little bit of oil, or sometimes some bacon. This may sound like I'm defeating the purpose of making it so lean, but this seems to give me what I want in terms of taste while not being a mouthful of dusty sausage.

But, I have also made pork sausage recently. I also trim the fat out quite a bit, but the natural qualities of pork seem to be more forgiving when I try cooking it.

It is a strange sight to have a clean pan after cooking some of the sausage I've made: I can't buy commercial sausage anywhere (including chicken sausage) that doesn't leave a pool of grease in the pan.
Click to expand...

We eat a lot of chicken and turkey sausage as well. It's surprisingly good if seasoned well enough. By seasoning, I mean herbs, spices, and flavorings like cheese to go along with s&p.

And, of course, extra fennel to make sausage more Italian. lol. ( we had a discussion once about American "Italian style" sausage.)

But Turkey Kielbasi is also really good. Less aggida afterwards than the authentic, greasy stuff.

And, as heretofore mentioned, all of those artisnal chicken sausages with herbs and dried fruit, or hot spices, and so on are good as well.
 
Although, I would kill for three things: A good, oat-y white pudding; a deep, mineral-y black pudding; and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Just kidding on the latter.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
Since deciding to Get Healthy, I've mostly been having chicken sausage that I make myself (i.e., incredibly lean). Because it's so lean, I end up cooking it in a little bit of oil, or sometimes some bacon. This may sound like I'm defeating the purpose of making it so lean, but this seems to give me what I want in terms of taste while not being a mouthful of dusty sausage.

But, I have also made pork sausage recently. I also trim the fat out quite a bit, but the natural qualities of pork seem to be more forgiving when I try cooking it.

It is a strange sight to have a clean pan after cooking some of the sausage I've made: I can't buy commercial sausage anywhere (including chicken sausage) that doesn't leave a pool of grease in the pan.
Click to expand...
Have you tried venison sausages? They are probably the leanest (and tastiest!) of low fat varieties.
 
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