Meat consumption per capitas.

According to research by the British Sausage Association Society, 81% of Brits agree that sausages provide a good value family meal, 85% of Brits agree that sausages are a convenient meal choice, 86% of Brits agree that sausages are suitable fora variety of different meals from breakfast to dinner. The peak day for sausages to be eaten is Saturday. The majority are eaten as an evening meals. There is only one thing more British than the banger (= sausage, to non-Brits): tea. Bangers occupy the number two spot Brits miss when they travel outside the country. I fact, wurst is Britain’s single most popular choice for dinner: 864 million meals eaten in a year feature the mighty sausage, translating to 2.3 million people devouring sausage for their dinner each day The English wurst beats even such traditional bastions of English cuisine as curry and fish and chips! As British comfort foods go, weenies come in third behind chocolate and ice cream. The most popular type of sausage is the plain pork sausage, which accounts for over 40% of sales, with the Cumberland sausage (13%) finishing second. In a year, almost 200,000 tons of wurst are eatenin in England, about 4x the weight the RMS Titanic!

English sausages.

There are more than 470 types of bangers in Britain. The nickname "banger" dates back to WWII, when English sausages were made so full of water that they would tend to explode when fried. 470 varieties of bangers sounds high, but compare that to the 1,500 varieties of wurst produced in Germany). In all, in the U.K., Ireland and Germany, and to a lesser extent in Austria, Hungary, Poland or the Czech Republic, the wurst isn’t just a national dish; it is a way of life. A good English sausage should be made with at least 70% high quality meat, usually beef or pork or a mixture of both. The remaining content is seasoning and breadcrumbs. Across the UK there are many regional varieties of sausages:

• Cumberland Sausage - a hefty, chunky sausage easily identified as it comes in a continuous spiral, seasoned with pepper
• Gloucester Sausage - made with Gloucester Old Spot Pork, flavored with sage
• Lincolnshire Sausage - herby and meaty, often heady with sage and sometime a little thyme
• Suffolk Sausage - coarse sausage similar not unlike a Lincolnshire
• Manchester Sausage - herby sausage containing cloves, ginger, nutmeg, mace and white pepper
• Marylebone Sausage - traditional London sausage, seasoned with mace, sage and ginger
• Oxford Sausage - sage and savory, a touch of marjoram, lemon pork and veal - a nicely refined sausage.
• Pork and Apple - pork sausage with apple, a lovely moist sausage
• Yorkshire Sausage - a sausage flavored with cayenne pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, white pepper and mace

Cumberland sausage.

Cumberland sausage is a sausage from the historic Cumberland County in northwest England. It is made of pork and traditionally made very long (up to 50 cm), and sold rolled in a coil. Sometimes they are made shorter, like ordinary British sausages, and sometimes they are coated in breadcrumbs. The meat is pork, chopped instead of ground, , giving the sausage a chunky, meaty texture. Seasonings are dominated by pepper, both black and white, in contrast to the more herb-dominated flavors of Lincolnshire sausage.

Raw Lincolnshire sausage.

Pan-fried Lincolnshire sausage.

Lincolnshire sausage is a pork sausage from the east of England. The meat is coarsely ground, seasoned with sage and stuffed in natural pork casing. Other herbs such as parsley and thyme are often used, but these are not considered authentic for Lincolnshire sausages. Unlike the Cumberland sausage, there is no standard width or length for a Lincolnshire sausage.

The Lincolnshire sausage is as integral part of the traditional English breakfast.

Efforts to standardise and control the manufacture of Lincolnshire sausages have resulted in a proposed ingredients list:

• British pork, coarse cut, minimum meat content 70%
• Maximum fat content 25%
• Breadcrumbs
• Sage, salt and pepper
• Pork-intestine casings
• Sulphite preservative (to 450 ppm maximum)

Cooked Newmarket sausage.

The Newmarket sausage is a pork sausage, moderately spicy, originating from the English town of Newmarket in Suffolk. There are several different brands of Newmarket Sausage, which differ in theuse bread as a filler vs. rusk (baked bread). They also vary in the proprietary seasoning mixes they use.

Downtown Newmarket in the late 19th century.

The brand Musk's originated in the small village of Stetchworth, three miles from Newmarket, sometime in or before 1884. Elizabeth Drake and James Musk in Depford are credited with the creation of this sausage. The family business continues to this day. Musk's sausages have been favored by royalty, and Royal Warrants were issued to Musk's from George V in 1907, Prince Edward of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) in 1929, Queen Elizabeth in 1965, and Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.

Powter's sausages.

Powter's sausages.

The second trademark is Powters, based in Newmarket. Their recipe dates back to 1881. Using meat from their own farm, which is free-range and hand-bones, they use their secret family recipe dating back to that year. Their sausage is made from minimum 80% meat, which consists of prime cuts such as the loin and the leg, no trim and by-products.

Raw Oxford sausage.

Oxford sausage and mash.

Oxford sausages are a distinctive variety of pork and veal sausage commonly associated with, and thought to have been developed in, the city of Oxford. Traditionally, Oxford sausages are noted for the addition of veal, in contrast to many traditional British sausages, which contain only pork, and their high level of spice seasoning. References to the "Oxford" style of sausage date back to at least the early 18th century. The first published reference to a sausage that closely resembles the present-day Oxford sausage is by John Nott in " The Cook's and Confectioner's Dictionary: Or, the Accomplish'd Housewife's Companion" published in London in 1723.

Oxford sausage is a regional food product. Therefore, unlike for example German bratwursts that can be called, for instance, Coburger Bratwurst only if they are made in Coburg, the Oxford sausage does not face such a restriction. Different recipes for Oxford sausages vary in many aspects, but all follow a similar ingredient list. The modern Oxford consists of a mixture of pork and veal, seasoned with lemon and herbs. Nott's 1723 recipe calls for pork or veal, seasoned with salt, pepper, clove, mace and sage. The spice content also appears in many other late 18th and early 19th century recipes, with mace or nutmeg (derived from the same seed) being a consistent ingredient. When first produced, Oxford sausage did not have a casing, but was hand-formed and flour-coated before frying. Modern forms are commonly made in a conventional linked banger style with natural pork or sheep casings.

Raw Gloucester sausage.

Pan-fried Gloucester sausage.

The Original Gloucester is a large pork sausage with a blend of herbs and apple. Meat comes from the Gloucestershire Old Spot pig breed. These are big pigs indeed. Boars reach around 600 lbs, while Miss Piggy is slender, only about 500 lbs... Meat content in the Gloucester Sausage is 70-80%. Bread is used as a binding agent instead of rusk. The taste is peppery, herby and succulent.

Yorkshire sausage on the grill.

If you have ever wondered what was missing from your last Yorkshire breakfast or your last serving of bangers and mash, the answer is: Yorkshire Sausage! Lincolnshire, Cumberland and Suffolk all have distinctive sausages named after them; sausages that are rooted in their local history and celebrated across the UK. But Yorkshire, the biggest county in the UK has not had a a namesake sausage. In a bid to give the sausage lovers of Yorkshire a banger they can be proud of, David Lishman, an award-winning butcher from Yorkshire, organized a campaign to give Yorkshire its own sausage.

If this counds similar to the story of Kurt Zeitler, the mayor of Würzburg, whose principal achievement was the creation of the official Würzburger bratwurst, it is. In a grass-roots banger-eating roadshow, the "official Yorkshire sausage" was chosen by public opinion:

Seasoning:

• 135g salt
• 27g white pepper
• 19g nutmeg
• 19g mace
• 19g ground coriander
• 19g dried parsley

Meat

• 6.8 kg pork shoulder & belly
• 672g pinhead rusk or dried breadcrumbs

Method:

1. Grind the pork through a 5-mm mincer plate.
2. Add the seasonings and bread or rusk
3. Add water to rehydrate the bread or rusk (approx 1.3kg)
4. Grind a second tie for a second time.
5. Fill into natural pork-intestine casings.

Typical bangers and mash.

bangers and mash with peas.

Traditional haggis in a sheep stomach.

Haggis sausage mixture in a can.

As the 2001 English edition of the Larousse Gastronomique puts it, "Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour". Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish, considered the national dish of Scotland as a result of the poem "Address to a Haggis" written in 1787 by Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland.

Pizza with Haggis at Aberdeen airport.

Haggis is traditionally served with turnip and potatoes, boiled and mashed separately, and a glass of Scotch whisky. However, in the 21st century, haggis has made it onto the stage of culinary fusion. In Scotland, there is even haggis pizza, as seen in a restaurant at Aberdeen airport.

• Exhibit "Sousedé na talíři, Die Nachbarn auf dem Teller" held 2011 - August 2011 in Brno, Czech Republic
• Exhibit "British Sausage Week 2012"
• The Great British Sausage Report, compiled by The British Sausage Appreciation Society, 2012
• Lincolnshire.org
• Wikipedia