Sausages4Ever

My brother Gabriel writes from LA:

"american sausages are disappointing. gelsons has a better selection than most but selection very limited. Mainly turkey based, few pork based. dont indicate meat percentage
though dont include bread and rusk like many uk sausages
largest sausage spotted is probably one over a foot long bratwurst at a street festival on sunset"

terse, pithy, withering. The american sausge industry is on the ropes. can some one stand up for 'turkey sausages'? is there a defense? keep the reports and reviews flooding in.......

review just in!

we all (well some of us) went to the Bishop's Finger. Its billed as "the best sausage pub in town"...heres the results....:
(some notes: a) everyone had sausage and mash, except me. b) participants were Yuri Geen, Zak gollop, Natalie Steiner, Alice Clark. c) all opinions expressed by individuals are not necessarily those of the editor ie me)


Zak: "nice meaty sausages, with the apple after taste proving a 'winning streak'. mash was okay too, if a little heavy i prefered the french mustrad (sic)"

natalie: "leek and pork very tasty, thought mash quite plain, also think it was pricey and they could have served it with a few veggies. Quite like the pub, with music suddenly switched on once it became empty."

yuri: "guinea fowl and giner: very nice, slightly different from normal pork and herb sausages, but very tasty. Mash is nice, but I guess not staggeringly good. The onion gravy however is quite delicious. Slightly pricey at over 7pounds"

my own: disappointed by sausage sandwich. should had mash. Sausages were good, but minimal amount, bread uninspiring. Overall too expensive, at 4.75. Should take a leaf out of SOS's book, over the meat market."

but overall, a good experience. could be one to watch.

thanks for eveyone for their participation!

coupla reviews up now:

Steve says: "The White Bear, St. John Street. Sausages look a bit like willies. Too much for my liking. Pretty good taste, could have been cooked a bit more. Well cooked onions.". But bear in mind Yuri also gave a somewhat disparaging review to the same sandwich. Personally I don't rate it. But give it a go, i suppose.


My own review: Smiths of Smithfield. Charterhouse St. "Double Sausage and Mustard".
Now this is more like it, Thick spongy white bread, soft but tasty, with the mustard infuseds into it, not too much to be overpowering. Two sausages (obv) put in whole, thick v good quality sausages, high meat content. Filling, v tasty and wholesome. Pricey at £3.50, but as with most things at Smiths, you pay for what you get. Recommended.

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jack writes in to say: "Incidentally, you should make a point of visiting the Clifton Sausage restaurant".
so that sounds pretty good. If you are in the Bristol area, then check that.

I realise that i haven't posted many sausaae snadwich reviews yet. Recently I have been eating Steak Sandwiches! SO after that blip, hopefully i will get in the swing.

We had burnt Co-Op sausages At Wang in Thetford Forest, fearful of ravers nicking them. They tasted of Chemicals and Carbon (instant barbeques + darkness). But they were ok. I dont see the point of buying expensive sausages when you know that the circumstances of cooking them will not be amenable to perfect taste....

loads of good facts in the independent this weekend, in the food and drink supplement i was gonna throw away.

picked up on a recent holiday:

amongst the cargo for the Titanic's maiden voyage, 40,000 sausages.

hmmmm doing a google image search for "Sausage Sandwich" reveals all manner of bizarre and horrid things, almost none of which look like a sausage sandwich i might want to eat. In light of that, it seems as though this blog might have a purpose, if only to spread a bit more knowledge of what sausage sandwiches should REALLY be like. at least, according to my world-view.
maybe i need to take some photos.

i'm gonna try and restrict myself to one sausage sandwich a week, to avoid fatigue. So, in the absence of any review today (although under normal circumstances i would be repeating the aforementioned chorizo wonder on a monday), maybe a few words on what makes a good sausage sandwich, maybe even my ideal. Well a good start is some nice thick bread. Decent wholemeal would be my preferance, but you cant have everything. There are few things better than thick, imperfectly sliced hunks of bread (ie not sliced by a mchine). Ok so on the bread i want some butter, fairly thinly spread. In terms of some sort of filling then less is often more. Personally, I love a bit of rocket, maybe some fresh tomato. Obviously, you need some sausages. Now I'm not going into detail as regards my favourite ypes of sausage, but suffice to say I want some decent quality sausages in a sandwich. More importantly, the sausages should be, for practicality, sliced in half and laid flat. I would look for 2 sausages per sandwich. There is something utopian about a sandwich stuffed full of rounded whole sausages, but as you and i know, this must remain a dream. Finding half your sausages falling out due to the instability of the sandwich is certainly a nightmare scenario.
another important thing is what sort of sauce/dressing to use. persanlly, i love a bit of honey and mustard dressing, althought that is really meant to be used for salad. It works well with many different types of meat. More recently, i have been learning about other things, such as onion marmelade, which Ed alerted me to. Following extensive research however, i find most shop onion marmelades to be far too sweet (i know, i know, its 'marmelade', but i just cant hack it), so prefer my own homemade version. This is by no means the only alternative however. A trip to Wales where i met my cousin in law, Jimi Mistry, opened my eyes to all manner of chutneys, of which he is a great fan. particularly good was pear, and shallot, although i dont think the former would go well in a sausage sandwich. However, some fruit based chutneys work well in a sandwich, eg Plum.

Finally, i suppose the sandwich should be cut in half, although i am only half-heartedly endorsing that, as it is awesome to pick up a whole sandwich in both hands and eat like a pig.

serve with ginger beer.