LouieNep Food

Let me just say that- at the risk of sounding cliche- I love how the Internet puts you in touch with people all over the world. Today I received an email from one William T., an English expat who so kindly sent me his recipe for traditional english bangers.

I’m reprinting his email for your reading pleasure:

Dear Louie,
I really love your site. People say that if Europe was to become “hell”, the English would do the cooking! In riposte, as an English expatriate living abroad, I yearn for the traditional “Bangers ‘n Mash” dinner- something the English can claim to be their own recipe and be proud of ! So I am sending you a recipe for the best savoury sausages on the planet….
After you thoroughly wash and rinse the sausage casings, soak them in pineapple juice for 24-36 hours (in the fridge) and then rinse them again prior to stuffing them. This process softens the casings and makes them much more tender and palatable!
1/2 lb ground lean pork
1/2 lb lean ground veal or lamb
6 ounces suet
fresh breadcrumbs, made from 3 slices of white bread,including crust
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon mace
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon dried majoram
2 teaspoons dried sage
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon finely grated rind of lemon
1 large egg
prepared hog casings (can’t get sausage casings, shape the sausage mixture into patties instead of link sausages) (optional)
1. Knead together the pork, veal, fat, and bread.
2. Stir the salt, pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, mace, thyme, marjoram, sage, onion powder and lemon peel into the egg, and then knead into the meat mixture.
3. At this point, I fry a small sausage patty and taste it so that I can adjust the seasonings, because the recipe so far is fairly mild.
4. Firmly stuff the mixture into the prepared hog (sausage) casings.
5. Prick any air pockets with a pin.
6. Poach, broil, grill, or fry them before serving.
7. Serve the bangers, drowned in nice thick onion and mushroom gravy, with a heap of mashed potatoes.
8. The raw sausages can be refrigerated for 3 days, cooked sausages for 1 week.
9. They can also be frozen (raw, poached, or broiled) for 3 months.
All the best, William T.

Thank you, William!