British Expatriate Network

Just wondering if anyone has a good Basic British Banger Recipe? Actually how to make the Sausage itself?

If anyone has and wouldn't mind sharing it with me I would be most greatful! razz

Hi there,

My name is David Whittall, and I make 'Whittall's British Bangers here in Cebu, Philippines.

I started this because genuine authentic 'British Bangers' were not available here. My Dad was a Master Butcher and had his own 'Family Butchers' business in Bournemouth (Malvern Road, off west Way). Trouble was I was not interested in taking over the Family Butchers, nor were my two younger brothers. We all became engineers instead - (better working hours and proper holidays!).

I used to help my Dad make his own recipe Sausages when I was a teenager. He actually entered his sausages int the National sausage Competition, and got to the Finals in 1972, 73 & 1975. I think this means his recipe was not too bad.

My Dad's sausages as used in this competition was a traditional British Pork Sausage (aka 'Banger' from WW2, when rationaning meant less meat and more water, and sausages would go 'bang' when steam caused them to 'explode').

This sausage contains 'Rusk' - a toasted wheat bread crumb. This modifies the texture and the taste making the unique British Sausage. 14% of the sausage by weight is dry 'Rusk' ingredient in my Dad's Award Finalist British Sausage recipe.

The 'Rusk' absorbes the pork fats that melt when cooking, keeping the taste inside the sausage. The pork fat is what makes a Pork Sausage - try a comparison with so called 'lean' sausages. I think most will prefer the improved taste of the one with pork fat. My Dad used 25% Pork Fat to 75% Lean pork meat, and this made up 65% of the total sausage weight.

Water is added to the rusk (20%) and after the Rusk absorbes this and swells in size it is throughly mixed and the Seasoning added. My Dad did not bother fiddling around miixing different spices, herbs and seasonings, together with some preservatives to give longer shelf life. He found a supplier (LUCAS) that produced the right combination giving him the taste (fairly mild spice/herb), he was after.

This company has gone out of business so I needed to find another supplier, or make my own seasoning. The Rusk Supplier I went with produced some seasoning, but the first sample was too highly peppered compared with my Dad's (still had small quantity of his original 'Lucas' to compare with). The 2nd sample was closer - so used that.

The other 'ingredient' you will require is the sausage skins. I use natural pork Hog Casings (imported from USA supplier, Dewied International). I experimented with 'Collogen' casings, but found them not so suitable for traditional British 'Linked' Sausages.

You ideally need a Meat Grinder, and a Sausage stuffer!

When I 'experimented' with making sausages here in Cebu, I just used ready ground pork and mixed 'lean or 'Special' (under 10% fat conmtent) with 'normal' (about 50% fat content), to achive that 25% by volume fat content.

I bought a 3lb capacity reconditioned manual sausage stuffer made in Czech Republic for US$50 to start with, before buying a professional manual crank sausage stuffer. One can manage with relatively low cost (US$9) ' gun stuffer' also.

Kenwood Chef owners can buy the mincer (including sausage making attachment) for around £35. A hand cranked machine will cost around £40.
Sausagemaking.co.uk sells all you need to make home made sausages, including mincers, skins and a stuffing machine.

Since this 'commercial' sausage seasoning will be difficult for you to obtain, here is a home made version that should give reasonable results:-

British Bangers - Recipe

BANGER SEASONING
5 teaspoons Ground white pepper
2 1/2 teaspoons Mace
2 1/4 teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Ground ginger
2 teaspoons Rubbed sage
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

SAUSAGE
2 1/2 pounds Boneless lean pork shoulder, cut in cubes
1 pound Fresh pork fat,cut in cubes
1 1/2 cups Dry bread crumbs
1 1/4 cups Chicken broth
3 1/2 teaspoons Banger seasoning (see above)

METHOD
Grind pork and fat together using fine hole disc of meat grinder. Add Banger Seasoning. Mix well. Grind again. Force mixture into casings and tie in 4-5 inch lengths.

Without the right 'Rusk', 'Casings' and 'Seasoning' it would be difficult to make a British Sausage like the 'Whittall's British sausage' that I prodice like my ol man. Having said that it is possible to make decent sauasages at home with some basic equipment and the tright ingredients.

Check out these Sausage Making 'Tutorials' etc:-

http://www.sausagemania.com/tutorial.html

http://www.sausagelinks.co.uk
http://sausagefans.com/recipes.php

http://www.westonsupply.com

I hope this 'British sausage' info helps and if you are ever in Cebu, Philippines be sure to contact me to try some of my 'Whittall's' British Bangers'.

Cheers

David Whittall

There are many British sausage recipe threads already posted here. Please conduct a search before posting in future, then continue on those threads if you have further questions. The search button is towards the top of the page, next to the FAQ button. The keyword "sausage" and restricting the search to the the food forum would have been more than ample in this case.

http://forums.british-expats.com/viewtop...age+recipe

Like this you mean?

David..thank you very much! this is the first time your recipe has been up on the forum!!! wink

I enjoyed reading David's recipe and the background behind it.

Hope the Phillipinos appreciate them.

yes.

Get cookin' Midge.

Sorry, but I am new to this Forum and did not have time to trawl through the archives to see if a question someone asked has had a similar question asked previously, and a suitable answer given.

The message post I responded to, asked if anyone had a recipe for British Banger Sausages - which I supplied (along with some other background information to establish some credability that I do know something about making genuine British Banger Sausages. Sorry I could not give the exact recipe for my Dads UK National Sausage Finalist, but without the same seasonings and Rusk, it is difficult to replicate, so I came up with an easy DIY alternative.

Why did you not reply on the poster of the question - perhaps because there are no decent recipe for British Banger Sausages nor any detailed information on how to make them?

Having done a search, I find there has been a recipe for sausage patties, and one for sausage rolls (which incidently the poster of this message thread started). Neither of these is a Recipe for proper 'British Bangers', and did not really say how to make them.

I hope my reply at least satisfied the original poster of this message thread?

Cheers

David Whittall


[img] http://www.cebuliving.com/david/files/wh...usages.jpg [/img]

'Whittall's British Banger Sausages'
Cebu, Phillippines

David, it's not all about you, the comment was aimed at the original poster. Your response was fine, appropriate and much appreciated by many. However, had the original poster resurrected an existing topic, then all the sausage recipes would be in the same place and it would be a much easier search for the next person who wants to know about British Bangers......... Plus if every poster interested in sausages started their own topic, the forum would have few other topics available on the first page to view.

Every time this (or any other recipe) topic is started, it's not only boring to those who have been here a while and see it every couple of months/weeks, but unproductive to those who seek a variety of recipes -people who have already posted in earlier topics are often unwilling to do so again. Much better to find an old thread and resurrect it, asking if anyone has anything else to add, no?

Likewise I looked first but didn't find anything, hence I ask the question. Sorry to the Brit members.