Breakfast of Champions
The traditional English Banger is an essential part of a traditional English breakfast. While the breakfast itself has no rules for the type of sausage offered, Bangers are very classic, as is the blood sausage/pudding or Boudin Noir. Although mainly served at breakfast, they do their job at lunch with rich onion gravy.
Sausage making in the U.K. goes back to Roman times (approximately 400 C.E.). ‘Banger’ is a colloquial term for this particular sausage. Legend has it that during the meat shortages of WWI, sausages often had more stock and fillers included in them. When cooked in a hot pan, the water turned to steam, and the links exploded, thus giving us the name Bangers.
Making traditional English Bangers at Home
During a recent sausage-making class at my home, we made up a batch of traditional English Bangers. Our resident Welshman has it on good authority that these are indeed some of the best he tasted outside the U.K. It’s super easy to do but a little time-consuming. I’ve broken down the steps to make this recipe as easy as possible. It will yield about five pounds of sausage and freezes remarkably well.
*Special equipment needed!
You will need a meat grinder and sausage stuffer to make homemade sausage.
Soak the (natural) casings per the instructions on the package. Then, I placed a small plate on top of the casings to submerge them fully in the water in this image.
This image shows the proper amount of fat for making sausage on a boneless pork shoulder/butt.
Cut the pork into slices. If you are using a bone-in pork shoulder/butt, you will have to cut around the bone. Work with it as best you can to get the meat cut into cubes.
Cut the pork slices into strips.
Cut the strips into cubes.
Spread the pork cubes out in a single layer, cover with plastic wrap, and place into a freezer for 15-20 minutes. The cubes of meat should be well chilled to (32°F or 0°C) degrees before grinding.
Measure out and combine all of the seasonings. Then, incorporate the spices into one bowl. (They are broken out here for demonstration only.)
Once the meat is chilled, run it through the grinder using a large or coarse plate. Once all of the meat has been ground, mix the ground veal (optional) and seasonings. Be sure all ingredients are well blended. Do this by hand (not machine). Over-processing can lead to tough sausages.
Next, run the sausage mixture through the course/large plate again, then replace the coarse/large hole grinding plate with the fine/small grinding plate. Finally, run all of the sausages through the grinder one last time.
The sausage is now ready to be stuffed. Follow the instructions on your stuffer. In most cases, you will need to lube the horn with a bit of vegetable oil. The oil will assist the casings to come off smoothly. Do NOT tie off the end of the casings just yet. That is coming. (In this image, I’m using the KitchenAid sausage stuffer attachment. You can find my recommendations on the Shop Equipment page in this blog.)
Run the sausage mixture through the stuffer with a thumb over the end of the horn. When the sausage starts to come out, stop or turn off the stuffer.
Pull off enough casing so you can make a knot. Then, gently push the excess casing back on the horn until it is flush with the sausage. This technique will help to eliminate any air bubbles.
Turn the machine back on and help feed the sausage into the casings. Use one hand to apply a little tension to the casings to don’t spool off too quickly. It will take a little practice to get it right, but I have faith that you will pull it off. When you reach the end of the first casing, stop the machine and pull off the excess. Do NOT tie off the sausage at this time. You will need this small amount of space when you start twisting them into links.
In this recipe, I used natural casings, which yielded four large coils of sausage. They are now ready to be rolled into the link size you wish, or you can cook them off as-is. If you cook off whole sausage coils, insert some skewers through the center to form an X. The skewers will help you turn them over without breaking them.
The standard link is the width of your hand. If you want to make double links, measure this area twice before twisting.
When twisting the links, gently squeeze the excess sausage down the casings line at the point you wish to rotate. Once enough sausage is down to make a twist, twist the sausage in one direction. Measure out the next twisting spot with the palm of your hand, but this time turn the link in the opposite direction.
Poke each link with a sausage pricker, ice pick, or toothpick. These small holes will allow the excess steam to escape while they are cooking. Otherwise, they will be prone to bursting.
To cook, add the English Bangers to a medium-hot skillet with a touch of oil. Cook until crispy brown on both sides. Take your time. The links are worth it!
It’s hard to describe how delicious these sausages were with sunny-side-up eggs, toasted wheat bread, and charred tomato. It’s something I would be proud to serve to any guest. (The green chili is a charred leftover jalapeno slice I had for another dish.)
Special Equipment: If you wish to grind and stuff your meats to make sausage and have a KitchenAid mixer, try the Gvode Metal Food Grinder Attachment. A less expensive plastic version of KitchenAid FGA Food Grinder Attachment works but is prone to cracking under heavy use. If you wish dedicated meat grinding machine, try Altra Stainless Steel Meat Mincer and Stuffer, this is a fine machine for the money.
For the sausage casings, try Natural Hog Casings or North American Natural Hog Casings.
Traditional English Bangers
Equipment
- meat grinder
- sausage stuffer
- chef knife
- boning knife
- cutting board
- measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lbs pork, butts/shoulder-cut off the bone or purchase boneless cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 1/2 lbs veal, whole or ground (optional, you can use all ground pork)
- 1 cup bread, (white) crumbs
- 5 tsp sage, rubbed
- 4 tsp kosher salt sea salt (Maldon) is a great substitution
- 1 1/2 tsp black ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp mace, freshly grated is best but p
- 1/2 tsp marjoram, dried
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated is best but pre-ground will do
- 1/2 tsp ginger, ground
- 1/2 tsp white ground pepper
Instructions
Prep the Sausage Casings
- First, prep the sausage casing per the instructions on the package. Usually requires soaking the sausage casings for about 1 hour before use. Drain and add fresh water at least once during the soak, to remove excess salt and preservatives.
Prep the Meat
- Hand trim the excess fat from the pork shoulder/butt if needed. Most of the commercially sold pork shoulders have already done this (see the images of the one I'm using). You want a bit of fat for the sausages to taste right.(If purchased from a boutique meat shop, you may need to trim the pork shoulder/butt. Fat is not a bad thing. Leaving on the extra fat allows you to cut as required and make your pork renderings for other cooking projects.)
- After you've cut the pork into cubes, lay them out in a single layer on a large sheet pan. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15-20 minutes, until the meat is just frozen or (32°F or 0°C). Doing this will dramatically help with grinding. Room temperature pork will bind up in the grinding process. Keeping the fat cold will help the blades in the grinder work properly. Do the same thing if you are using whole veal.
- Once the sausage meat is well chilled, work the pork through a grinder fitted with large holes or a coarse grind plate. If you are making more than 5 lbs of sausage, you may need to periodically clean and freeze all metal parts of the sausage grinder to get the meat properly ground.
Add Seasoning and Keep Cold
- In a large mixing bowl, add the ground veal to the ground pork. Next, add all of the seasonings and mix thoroughly. If it is a warm day, mix in a little crushed ice to help keep the meat cold.
Set up a Meat Grinder
- Switch to the fine plate for the second grind and pass the sausage mixture through the grinder once again.
Set up Sausage Stuffer
- Set up the stuffer attachment and lube the horn before adding the rinsed sausage casing. Follow the instructions with your sausage stuffer. Place a large sheet pan under the sausage stuffer with a bit of water in it. (The extra water will help the casings stay moist and pliable. As more and more of the sausage comes out, you can start coiling the sausage on the sheet pan while assisting the link to form out of the stuffer.)Keep your thumb on the end of the stuffer and process through until you feel the sausage coming out. At that point, stop the stuffer and pull out enough casing so you can tie a knot at the end. Gently push the casing back onto the horn until the knot end is flush, with the sausage beginning to come out.
- Proceed to stuff the sausage while supporting the link as it fills out of the stuffer.
- When you see the end of the casing approaching, stop the stuffer and remove the sausage link onto the sheet pan. Do not tie off the sausage just yet. You will need a bit extra space when you form the connections from the long coil of sausage.
Prick the Sausages
- Use a sausage pricker, ice pick, or toothpick and poke a few small holes along the length of the sausage links. These tiny holes will allow steam to escape the sausage during cooking so that it won't burst.
To Cook the Sausages
- Heat about 2 tbsp of your favorite oil (avocado/vegetable) over medium heat in a heavy bottom skillet. Carefully place the sausages in the oil. Check often to gauge the doneness of the link. The cooked side should be brown before turning to the other side. Once both sides of the sausage are browned, and the link is firm to the touch, they should be good to eat. (You can check the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer. It should be (160°F or 71°C)
Yield
- This recipe makes approximately 5lbs of sausage, so freeze the portions you will not eat in one week. From my own experience, homemade sausage gifts to friends and family are welcome. Cook any refrigerated portions of sausage within 4-7 days of making them.