Sausages4Ever

me with chorizo

2005-07-04T16:21:00.000+01:00

IMG_1865
Originally uploaded by ambrose.

heres me, courtesy of roberto, in la champanyeria in barcelona, with some delicious chorizo. i look ratehr disturbingly pleased about the situation. the tapas there was very nice, and drinking lots of cheap cava whilst eating great chorizo alongside thick cubes of ham and *fuet* which is a catalunyan type of sausage, is a very pleasant way to spend an evening. but my smile feaks me out...

wurst suitcase

2005-07-04T15:35:00.000+01:00

thanks to tracer hand.....

this seems to be the ultimate accessory for all sausage enthusiasts...

clifton sausage restaurant review

2005-05-12T11:45:00.001+01:00

received in the (e)mail today!:

"Ambrose,

I thought I might as well give you a little review of the Clifton
Sausage Bar and Restaurant since you did recommend it to me. Read it,
enjoy it, and perhaps add it to your sausage blog if required.

The experience began on Sunday morning. I required a Sunday lunch
food serving establishment that was good enough to take my girlfriend's
parents to. We decided to experiment with the Clifton Sausage Bar and
Restaurant (Clifton Village, Bristol), as recommended by sausage lover
Ambrose, and that had been previously avoided on the grounds of it not
being particularly vegetarian friendly.

Booking is most certainly advisable - and it turns out it is
vegetarian friendly.

The Sunday menu is pretty big, starters, traditional mains (e.g. rib
eye beef and yorkshires), speciality sausages with a choice of mash or
champ, and a selection of deserts.

It is a fixed price menu £11.50 for 2 courses and a bit more for 3.

I went for the smoked salmon salad with horse radish (mmmmmmm), Clare
went for the parsnip soup which was very tasty also.

For mains I had to sample "the Clifton", pork, wholegrain mustard and
cider, accompanied by champ. Very very tasty indeed. Three big
sausages on a bed of champ with onion gravy.

Clare had the leek and cheese sausage option which apparently was
most satisfying.

Going back next Sunday, may try the pork chilli and coriander option.

All in all a very pleasant venue, delicious food, good choice,
reasonably priced for the quality and area of Bristol I guess, good service,
tasty accompanying cider, worth booking on Sundays.

Thanks for the tip.

Rob

Well, thanks so much Rob! a great review, now I need some sort of excuse to go to Bristol and try this place out. I wonder what Rob's cryptic remark about "the area of Bristol" means....maybe everywhere else in Clifton is very overpriced. I will shamefacedly admit that I just had to google "Champ", it appears to be a sort of leek mash.

I previously linked to the Clifton Sausage Restaurant, or posted about it, but I've lost it....(and thanks to Jack for the original heads-up!)

the return of SAUSAGE

2005-03-18T13:51:00.000Z

ok im gonna break radio silence and do an ew report, as there is important exciting SAUSAGE NEWS to bring.

the Co-Op has a new range called "Smithfields". This is supposedly in partnetship with traders from Smithfield market. So they have roped in the Guy from Simply Sausages, an old haunt of mine, to produce these sausages. I dont know how far his role extends beyond delivering a quote on the packaging, but the suasages are excellent! a whopping 89% meat content, they cook well and ae very tasty. The meat isnt ground so fine as to be some sort of dry dense brick, its fairly chunky, and they overall perfom very well. Especially good is the fact that good sausages come to random partso f the country and leave the areas where people have acess to farmers markets, good butchers, waitrose or some other form of good sausage vending. Eg, Leeds.

Hooray for Co-Op!

they are of course, pricey. about 2.60 i think for 6.

The North

2004-10-24T15:51:00.000+01:00

well, now i am up north in leeds, i have cme face to face with the titanic MORRISONS. It is difficult to escape Morrisons in leeds, i think their HQ is in nearby Bradford, and they dominate the student supermarket er...market here. there is nothing else in the West leeds(where 40% of all sutdnts in leeds live) really. Anyway, i bought some morrisons sausages the ther day, and made a sandwich sharpish. Curiously, Morrisons dont seem to offer an own brand, mid-range packet of sausages, so unless you want budget stuff, then you either can get a 6 pack of 'gourmet' (eg "outdoor reared pork") sausages, but it works out cheaper getting them from the dude at the meat counter. got 8 for £1.74 or something, didnt seem too bad. anyway, i've got to say i was quite impressed, flavoursome, and held together well, although that may indicate some sort of badness maybe, i dont know. I went for Lincolnshire, but they had some nice looking Toulouse, wehich i havent tried before. I have made disparaging comments about Morrisons elsewhere, but the sausages are definitely contenders. Also they come in a handy paper bag (if from the counter), which is good for storage once opened.

nottingham shocker

2004-10-15T13:26:00.000+01:00

caustic review from will

sorry about the hiatus, a certain amount of upheaval has been occurring. back up to speed when i get full internet access and sausage sandwich places! (anywhere people know in leeds, please let me know!)

"Location >Sherwood Park Canteen, Annesley, Notts

Product>Sausage cob, 90p

Review>Roll contained 2 sausages; overcooked, with a very tough plasticy skin.

They tasted like hot dogs + were slightly burnt around the outside.

White roll was thin and soft, not fat and crispy like a cob should be.

There was also too much margarine, I had to use a substantial amount

of ketchup (no mustard available) to make this breakfast snack bearable"

90p is cheap though. you gte what you pay for. to a certain extent.

anyway, thanks will.
keep em coming!

Supermarket trial....

2004-09-09T15:46:00.000+01:00

Zak weighs in with another heavyweight review:

"tesco's finest pork and granny smith sausages - hm, not bad, not great. probably not worthy of the 'finest' tag, but then again i guess they're finer than tesco value sausages. nice and meaty, the apple gave a sweet finish which was quite pleasing, overall 6 out of 10 ."

well personally i rate this brand of sausages (tescos finest). good solid MOR jobs. the ordinary tescos sausages arent really much cop thpough, very bready, rather small and for some reason, come out squared off rather than round?! never had the value ones.

yet more reports...

2004-09-06T11:10:00.000+01:00

Claire writes to my gmail account (hence why i picked it up so late). to give me some more insights....

"I like the blog - I had no idea you were such a sausage fan! I am also a sausage fan but not so much in a sandwich............ although you can't beat a Scottish sausage sandwich. Slightly different to a 'southern' sausage sandwich in that they use 'square sausages' AKA 'Lorne sausages' (basically pork/beef sausage meat formed into a flat square) and it's usually really greasy but lovely! Of course it needs to be in a proper white, buttered breadcake just to add to the unhealthiness.....

And Glasgow (or pretty much anywhere on the West Coast of Scotland) is an ideal place to try out this little cholesterol-raising treat"

well well well. in fatc word had reached me previously of this square sauage, but i'm still yet to witness it with my own eyes. i will go up to Oban sometime so myabe i will get a chance then, but i doubt i will be brave enough....sounds pretty fearsome. thanks claire!

Letter from America

2004-08-31T19:36:00.000+01:00

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.......

the great sausage test

2004-08-31T15:20:00.000+01:00

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!

2004-08-24T14:58:00.000+01:00

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.

-

2004-08-17T14:26:00.000+01:00

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....

indy sausage

2004-08-16T12:40:00.010+01:00

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

sausage fact no1

2004-08-14T15:32:00.000+01:00

picked up on a recent holiday:

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

justification for the blog pt1.

2004-08-02T15:40:00.000+01:00

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.

in an ideal world....

2004-08-02T11:11:00.000+01:00

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.

reviews arriving thick and fast........

2004-07-30T16:21:00.000+01:00

hmmm my first review:
"hi ambrose, great website

here is my review

the greasy spoon cafe ("central cafe" ed.) on cowcross street, ec 1 - greasy cafe, good value - you get a great sized portion for you money, the bread, i had cibatta, was a tad dry and the sausages, i had bacon instead, a little streaky but overall a fantastic experience. my tastebuds were treated."

thanks zak, pity i wasnt actually related to sausages but you can't be too picky i guess. anwya, its an encouraging sign that news of my wonderful site is spreading far and wide. keep sending 'em in!

chorizo and rocket

2004-07-30T15:37:00.000+01:00

ok lets kick it off with Smiths Catering Chorizo and Rocket sandwich. Check Smiths caterin in Cowcross st, Farringdon, London. Gorgeous homemade chorizo sausages, not wussy little slices of chorizo but a full on sausage, with loads of rocket.. Doesnt need any butter cos its pretty damn fatty, but for £2.50 it is a steal!

Smiths Catering

lets keep it clean

2004-07-30T13:40:00.000+01:00

hello, and welcome to my new blog, slightly unfortunately named...hopefully we can leave the innuendo aside, for this blog is dedicated to the serious APPRECIATION OF SAUSAGES. That is to say, the sort of sausages you might find at a butchers, or in, say, a sandwich. None other. Any sort of lame-ass jokes are not tolerated. The primary function is to alert you to good places round London for Sausage Sandwiches, this being a real favourite of mine. I say London, just because that is where I work, but there is certianly no ideological restriction in place here, its just a matter of limited scope for research. To that end, I welcome and suggestions of comments about fine sandwiches involving sausages from every corner of the world!

so why not email me at ambrose.white@gmail.com with yr reviews etc.