A sausage fit for a king!.... Handmade pork & leek sausage.

Feel free to be outraged if you think I am wrong, but it seems to me as if there is a 'class war' when it comes to the sausage!
There are those among us who believe the sausage should only to be seen at breakfast or brunch, or maybe at a motorway service station where the lorry drivers 'fry' is the only substantial meal on the menu.  Never would these people dream of serving up sausages as their main meal of the day and those that do are, 'NQOUD'...'not quite one of us dear'.

The misunderstood sausage has for generations been viewed, that is when eaten as part of dinner or at tea, as a working class dish, probably because during the war years when meat was not only in short supply, it was expensive, and those who couldn't afford the 'superior' cuts of meat we take for granted today, were left with little choice but to use offal or the butchers house made sausages which never had much actual meat in them! Fast forward 70 years and from what I can see in the supermarkets, little has changed when it comes to meat content in what is a frequently eaten food.....apparently a few million sausages are consumed every day!

The sausage is hugely popular across Europe, from the German bratwurst, to the Polish kielbasa, the Spanish chorizo, to the Italian and French salamis and smoked and cured sausages, to our own pork or beef sausages. Sadly Ireland falls short when it comes to the general standard of ingredients and there are things in our sausages that might surprise you, and real meat isn't high on the list of ingredients! When we eat our supermarket bought sausage, we are consuming a mixture of gristle, colours, preservatives, fats, soya flours, rusk ...do you even know what rusk is?, then there are the nitrates, polyphosphates, artificial flavours, and then comes the meat...all 41 to maybe 67% of it if you are lucky!.....rusk by the way is a wheat based food additive...it helps bulk out the product so the buyer thinks they are getting more meat for their money. And I'm not telling fibs about your sausage only having 41% of it that is real meat, check the label on your own favourite sausage to see the meat content, you might be surprised.....or shocked.

But putting mass production aside, there are, thank goodness, a few small producers here in Ireland that are making inroads into improving our sausage lot. Not only are they making their own sausages albeit on a small scale, but they are also rearing their own meat under free range and organic conditions for their products. These artisans can be found in your local butcher shop, at the various farmers markets around the country and you can also find them online, some even deliver!

Many small family artisan butchers have turned back the clock and are now creating their own delicious sausages with probably a good 90% plus meat content, this is a great step forward but you might get a shock at their price! But here again is the psychological sausage effect....people have it in their heads that sausages are a cheap food when really they shouldn't be. A quality sausage made well should be the equivalent price per kilo of say a nice roast, and that's the standard we should be aiming for.

However, if you feel that their high price is beyond you at the moment, why not try making your own sausages. 'Surely I need a sausage machine for that' I hear you cry! In actual fact you don't, and it's not necessary to have the skin that the meat goes into either.

Making an effort to make your own sausages has it's advantages.....

1. you know exactly how much and what sort of meat you are getting in your sausage
2. you can add a multitude of flavours to suit yourself...e.g herbs, onions, spices etc.
3. it's the perfect solution for those who may have gluten intolerance issues yet still want to enjoy sausages...they will definitely be rusk free if you make them yourself
4. you can make large batches and freeze them exactly as you would shop bought ones

For this recipe I have used pork as I prefer a pork sausage but you may choose to use beef. You can buy minced pork or ask your butcher to mince some for you, I would recommend pork shoulder as other cuts tend to be much drier and therefore have less flavour, but if you want a leaner sausage then use pork fillet or loin. 

per 500g of minced pork....makes 6 sausages

3 cloves of garlic

50g mild onion

70g green of leek

40g porridge oats   (you may leave these out if you wish)

1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 beaten egg (optional)

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper
butter

olive oil

you will also need cling film

How to....

Slice the leek nice and thin, rinse well in cold water and drain,

dice or grate the onion as finely as you can, mince or finely chop the garlic

melt a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan and cook the onion, leeks and garlic gently until soft, be careful not to overcook them as we want to keep that nice vibrant green colour in the leeks, 

turn out onto a plate and allow to cool a little

place the minced pork in a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper

add the porridge oats, mustard, beaten egg, cooled leeks and onions

mix everything together gently either by hand, or on slow speed using a 'k' beater on an electric mixer, until everything has come together and the meat has begun to smooth out

roll out a piece of cling film about 12 inches long and place on a flat surface, your kitchen counter top or table will do

place a couple spoonfuls of meat mixture in a sausage length at the centre of the clingfilm

fold the clingfilm over the meat and enclose it, then roll the whole up into a shape like a christmas cracker pressing the meat into the sausage shape. Twist the clingfilm tightly at each end.

you can either tie a knot in each end or bring the two ends together and secure in the centre,

repeat until all the meat is used up. Make your sausages as thick or as thin as you like, I like to make them quite chunky and give 1 per portion, you may like them thinner and allow 2 per person

take a deep saucepan, fill with enough water to be able to float your sausages in, bring the water to the boil and drop in your sausages 

cook at a simmering boil for 10 minutes then lift them out and allow them to sit for a few minutes

At this point you can allow them to cool fully still wrapped in the cling film, then refrigerate or freeze them until needed. 

Browning and serving the sausages......

pre-heat the oven to 200oC

remove the clingfilm from the sausages

heat a little olive oil in a frying pan, brown the sausages lightly on all sides then place on a roasting/baking tray

roast in the hot oven for 10 minutes or so until heated through and browned all over then serve immediately