English Sausages

The English Kitchen series from Prospect Books gives the reader lots of recipes and helpful hints but also offers that extra ingredient to a cookbook: knowledge and context. As very little of this has ever been dished up when it comes to English food, the series is therefore important. This book tells the story of English sausages through the recipes and writings of chefs, cooks and gourmets from the time of the Roman conquest to the present. The story that unfolds is surprising. The English sausage, so often regarded as a food of the peasant and the proletariat, has a long and distinguished lineage - the food of kings and courtiers, as well as commoners. The book contains chapters covering: the sausages of Roman England; English fresh sausages; regional fresh sausages; white puddings and hogs puddings; black puddings, smoked and keeping sausages. There is then a section on making sausages, a full glossary and bibliography. There are approximately 100 recipes. People now think of sausages in 'creative' terms: putting God knows what into a pork casing. This book emphasises the wealth of historical and regional recipes without the need for crazy creations at all. In our lifetimes we have sacrificed the glorious spicing and seasoning of good old-fashioned bangers for the repellent pap of pink recovered meat.