All this talk of bangers* has got me wondering (and because I happen to have bought some of mine this morning). (And because I’m in a frivolous devil-may-care mood.)
My favourites are the Italian fennel sausages from Pennisi, Balaclava St, Woolloongabba (beat that for cultural diversity). Thick, meaty and no extraneous nonsense just like a good sausage should be (quiet at the back), and tasting delicately of fennel. You have to butterfly them for the barbie because if you don’t the outside is incinerated before they’re cooked in the middle. But boy, are they good.
What’s yours? Just to get you in the mood here’s an oo-er-missus song for you.
*Mysterious cultural divergence footnote: in Oz bangers are called snags.
mikethep says
http://www.businessinsider.com/australia-mandatory-voting-with-sausages-2016-11
dai says
Nothing fancy, not needed. A good quality pork sausage.
Podicle says
I used to love Penissi when I lived over that way. There was an Indian grocer next door and we did much of our shopping between the two. You could have risen to the occassion and fleshed out your sausage with a couple of Pennisi’s arancini balls for a more complete experience.
In terms of supermarket fare, the Mr Beaks beef sausages I believe are the finest to be found.
mikethep says
Me too. Think I’ll pass on the balls though…They now have parking, an exciting development.
Hawkfall says
I think beef sausages taste nicer than pork sausages. I remember being very disappointed with English sausages when I moved from Scotland where the butchers sell beef ones.
Basically, beef tastes better than pork. This can be confirmed via a controlled experiment here in Singapore. If you go to Ikea, they have two kitchens, the main one and a halal one. The main one sells pork & beef meatballs, while the halal one, obviously has beef ones. The latter are so much nicer! Full of beefy goodness. I order the beefmongous 20 meatball family size portion. I regret it later in the evening, but man it’s worth it.
mikethep says
Never really fancied beef sausages, no idea why, although I eat very little beef these days except for the occasional burger. I should give them a go.
minibreakfast says
A farm up the road from us sells lamb sausages (and burgers). Never fancied giving them a try.
davebigpicture says
I’ve had Lamb burgers, nice and we use Lamb mince rather than Beef mince for most things. We think it has a better flavour and isn’t so tough.
mikethep says
Lamb sausages can be a bit fatty though, if that doesn’t seem like a daft thing to say. We tried them for a while, then went back to pork.
davebigpicture says
Haven’t had Lamb sausages but we drain the mince before it goes into bolognese, chilli etc.
slotbadger says
There’s a Turkish grocery in Kreuzberg, Berlin, that sells huge Bulgarian spicy beef sausages. Dripping with fat, but soooo good under the grill and with a dollop of mustard.
retropath2 says
I love a sausage, but it has to be a big one and full of meat, so those awful thick irish recipe ones are definitely out, being chock full of slime and scrapings. The Toulouse style produced by many supermarkets are rather good. When in France I like me some merguez. Picked up some decent looking smoked venison sausages from the Galloway smokehouse on Sunday, as we returned south.
Freddy Steady says
Don’t get me started on those horrible pink Walls sausages…vile. I judge any establishment I stay or eat in by the quality of their sausage. If it’s a Walls I never return. A quality sausage makes a quality breakfast.
Sainsbury’s Italian or Toulouse are half decent .
I’ve got to go to work now sadly.
PS..and probably going to be late. I’ve lived in Germany for quite a few years…of course I love sausages!
mikethep says
Yes, your average Full English sausage is generally a bit of a challenge. Can’t bring myself to say, ‘Hold the sausage’ though.
GCU Grey Area says
Sausages are just wrong for breakfast, whether nasty, pink, teeth-squeaking jobs or not. Ditto baked beans. Even if they do thoughtfully come in a separate pot, for those fearful of an egg/bean interface.
Bacon, scrambled eggs, tomatoes. Yum.
davebigpicture says
“Looks at plate”
minibreakfast says
I once attended a New Orleans Jazz Breakfast at Center Parcs. The baked beans were BBQ flavour. I don’t recall the sausages, but I suspect the words ‘hickory smoked’ and molasses may have been applied to much of the menu as it was all rather sickly, especially for the time of day.
Moose the Mooche says
The only jazz that should be allowed at breakfast is stuff like Blue in Green. Any upbeat or boisterous tootleage at that sort of hour is not to be borne.
duco01 says
Yes, Borbetomagus’s “Barbed Wire Maggots” at 6.30 in the morning can be a little trying, even for a confirmed jazz-lover.
MC Escher says
A sprinkle of Tabasco sauce on your beans “lifts” them, as they probably say on Masterchef, giving them that authentic ranch style tang. I have never looked back.
Kid Dynamite says
Hang on. I don’t have a dog in the sausage fight, but what on earth is wrong with an egg / bean interface? If I’m in a rush / lazy / home late, one of my go to meals is Beans Royale – essentially beans on toast with a dollop of something cooked with the beans – could be marmite, could be sriracha, all depends how I’m feeling, this is spontaneous stuff, man – with a lightly fried egg on top, lovely yellow yolk all ready to run out and mingle with the bean juice. Mmmmmm.
Kid Dynamite says
If you are that anti-egg, you could try Beans Deluxe – basically the same thing but without the egg. Not as good, really.
GCU Grey Area says
It doesn’t bother me, but I know a lot of people get quite anxious about the sauce from the beans reaching – or worse, touching – the egg; especially if the egg yolk had started to run.
My partner, for one, and several of my friends.
She constructs a dam from available breakfastry across the plate, to prevent co-mingling. I think she’d feel ill at the thought of an egg on top of beans.
minibreakfast says
May I recommend the construction of a ham dam?
Or perhaps a sausage barrage?
Mike_H says
Beans and eggs together are not a problem. It’s a potential beans and bacon interface that must be avoided. Ditto the tomato & eggs interface.
Beans. egg & black pudding on one side of the plate, bacon and tomatoes on the other side. With a good un-flavoured pork sausage or two to separate them.
GCU Grey Area says
A hash-brown bund.
Moose the Mooche says
Ham dam… pensioners screeching their way through Run For Your Wife?
Or did I misread that?
mikethep says
Dam, ham, I love a woman that, er, beans?
slotbadger says
“Use the sausage as a breakwater”
davebigpicture says
Beans Royale. Is that what they call beans on toast in France?
Neela says
A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.
mikethep says
😏
Twang says
My local butcher does a Hitchin Sausage. They are delish. We always buy local chipolatas in France when on hols and have them in a baguette with onions and Dijon mustard (and a bottle of 1664) which is as good as a lunch can be.
I agree the squidgy pink stuff sausages are not worth eating. Disgusting. I’ve been told to reduce my cholesterol so sadly sausages are off the menu at the moment.
Moose the Mooche says
A Hitchens sausage includes a fair amount of Johnnie Walker Black Label.
davebigpicture says
Hotel sausages are usually to be avoided unless I’m in a really good hotel. Current off the shelf favourites are Morrisons thick pork sausages. Good flavour, no superfluous herbs. We used to go to a local organic butcher when feeling flush but his (excellent) bangers worked out at nearly a pound each!
mikethep says
My faves work out at about $1.50 (90p) each, now I come to think of it, but they’re so chock full of meaty goodness that you’d be hard pressed to eat more than one at a time.
Junior Wells says
Bratwurst with sauerkraut from Vic Market. Was at a jazz club and talking to the drummer from New York. They were in residence for a week. He was unaware of the clubs proximity to Vic market. I told him about the snag stand. Arrive on Sunday and who is hopping into a bratwurst but the drummer. Told you they were good. Having a mouthful I got a thumbs up.
mikethep says
Had bratwurst with sauerkraut only last weekend at a school fete, as it happens. Very good. Took me right back to about 20 years worth of the Frankfurt Book Fair, where I lived on little else for a week. No sekt please, we’re British.
Junior Wells says
So you didn’t partake of frankfurts in Frankfurt?
mikethep says
Oh yes. But was more of a bratwurst kinda guy.
Twang says
Lidl do a stupendous bratwurst, and also pickled red cabbage and sauerkraut. Lush.
Droogie says
I actually went vegetarian after getting food poisoning from eating undercooked pork sausages ( those nasty cheap Richmond sausages from my local corner shop that are just tubes of pink slime). So these days it would be Linda McCartney red onion and rosemary sausages.
pawsforthought says
Could I suggest the Cauldron vege sausage range. They’re all good in a sandwich or casserole.
andielou says
Yep, it’s Cauldron all the way for me since I’ve gone back to my old veggie ways. Slight metallic tang but I don’t mind. Better than chunks of gristle.
minibreakfast says
Couldn’t find this on youtube, but here’s the painfully titled but magnificent sounding Sausage Scraper from Tubs and co. on Spotify.
Moose the Mooche says
Proctology-themed jazz? Whatever next?
minibreakfast says
Proctology? Where exactly have you been putting your sausage, mate?
Moose the Mooche says
Well, in the old days, if you’d caught a dose, there’d be… well, I’ll stop there, but you’d never look at an umbrella in the same way again.
And people get nostalgic about the 1960s!
minibreakfast says
Yebbut a proctologist is a bum doctor, not a sausage scraper.
Ure thinking of a urologist.
duco01 says
“Ure thinking of a urologist.”
Or maybe even an andrologist?
Moose the Mooche says
I try not to say or read or hear the word urologist. It’s one of those fingernails-on-blackboard words.
*shudders*
mikethep says
Well, I’ve enjoyed all this bant, but what exactly is sausage scraping?
minibreakfast says
Dunno, but the audience in Ronnie Scott’s seemed to find it amusing.
Moose the Mooche says
Semi-serious answer: it’s probably when you’ve totally immolated them under the grill and are trying to get away with it by removing some of the carbon before serving. See also: toast.
minibreakfast says
All this chat is making my mouth water. I might have to attend the local sausage fest this year: http://www.framlinghamsausagefestival.com
Moose the Mooche says
Surely, “Mojo Editorial Meeting” ? 😉
mikethep says
👏👏👏
minibreakfast says
Moose the Mooche says
“I respect the importance of Australia’s laws for making sausages”
Moose the Mooche says
The OP title keeps reminding me of this.
OooooooaaaaaAAAOWW!
What’s your favourite sausage baby?
– Living sausage.
Well, it’s on my mind, why should you get away with it?
bungliemutt says
My own really. I’m quite attached to it.
Oh, I see.
attackdog says
Back to sausages.
A sausage maker in my local village works for an independent butchers in Skipton, N Yorks. They make a select and limited choice of sausages with locally reared essential ingredients – producing perhaps six varieties in total.
One of these is their pork, bacon and black pudding sausage. They are fab. Hand made and taste slightly different each time as ingredients are combined by rough, hand- sized guesstimates.
The fascinating thing about these sausages is that they expand in size when cooked whether baked, fried or stewed.
Did I mention that they taste fantastic.
Hawkfall says
There’s a butcher in Royston Vasey in Yorkshire, called Hillary Briss and Son that does really good sausages. Ask him if he has any with the “special stuff” in them. He’ll know what you mean.
Baron Counterpane says
I once hosted a Beer and Sausages New Year’s Eve party. Many sausages were tasted and scored. The guests were found to form two distinct groups. The larger group clearly favoured the plain pork from Crawford’s butchers in Hillsborough Barracks (Sheffield) whilst the minority plumped for Sainsbury’s Dusk and Orange sausages.
Incidentally the duck-fanciers were predominantly LibDems.
Twang says
Has anyone made / eaten the American staple known as franks and beans? I think this is some sort of sausage and bean casserole?
Supplementary – how do you like your sausage cooked? Ooo er. I am a fan of toad in the hole. With onion gravy and a pile of steamed broccoli to keep the guilty conscience pinned down. And a large glass of something red and spicy.
Rigid Digit says
Toad In The Hole – wrap the sausages in streaky bacon for an added treat.
A Sausage Casserole is a fine thing – plenty of onions and at least one tin of Heinz Baked Beans.
Cook the sausages off in the oven first (Cumberland or Limncolnshire work particularly well) , and leave to cook on a low heat for about an hour (or so), and serve with a huge mound of mashed potato
Twang says
Another Twang Towers fave is Bangers and mash with a mound of steamed cabbage liberally showered with freshly ground black pepper.
mikethep says
The aforementioned Italian sausages make a fine Tuscan sausage and cannellini bean stew with carrots, tomatoes, chard and whatever else you feel like chucking in.
Mike_H says
Waitrose recipe: Midweek Sausage & Bean Stew.
http://www.waitrose.com/shop/OfferDetails?bundleId=EssWR6&utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20170920&utm_campaign=myWaitrose
If I was making it for myself, I’d cut the sausages up into chunks before adding them.
Twang says
We do a variation on this with Waitrose Toulouse sausage which is lovely.
Rigid Digit says
Chicken Sausages are just wrong, and I’ve never found a beef sausage that is that great.
Sausages should be Pork, and a high meat content at that (although I accept that a certain amount of rusk, fat and general “kack” (technical culinary term) is required to aid the cooking and the flavour.
Porkinsons used to make a prime sausage – but they have long since vanished from the shelves.
Heck or Debbie & Andrews are my current prime choices
I just say “no” to Walls, Richmond or Tesco Value
mikethep says
Strange, I like chicken, I like sausages, but I’ve never once felt like eating a chicken sausage.
Blue Boy says
I love a good sausage, me. My local butcher does a pork and black pudding sausage which is magnificent.
Baked beans with eggs are, however, a crime against humanity.
count jim moriarty says
Nothing better than a good, authentic Cumberland sausage.
Moose the Mooche says
….said Lady Bragg.
count jim moriarty says
Fnar fnar…
retropath2 says
Unless you are eating at Culloden House, now a hotel, as I was a few years ago, supposedly where Bonnie Prince Charlie spent the night ahead of the battle. They seemed to have no idea that it might seem a bit disrespectful to advertise their full scottish as containing such a sausage……. Maybe they misread the wiki for the butcher of Cumberland.