Get to know your regional sausage

Photo: © childsdesign

A good 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 and here are a few of the most easily found.

Cumberland Sausage
This is considered to be the meatiest British sausage. It is a chunky, coarse cut sausage spiced with black pepper and made in a continuous spiral. It is traditionally sold by length rather than weight. Looks very impressive when coiled in a spiral and cooked whole.

Gloucester Sausage
Traditionally made with Gloucester Old Spot (a rare breed) and flavoured with sage. Increasingly available from local specialists.

Lincolnshire Sausage
Old fashioned herby regional sausage traditionally made with pork, bread and sage (although thyme seems to be creeping in).

Lorne
Bit of an oddity, this is Scottish square slicing sausage. It is made with beef and pork, has a smooth texture and is probably destined for either the breakfast table or eaten in a sandwich with white sliced bread and brown sauce.

Manchester Sausage
A pork sausage, flavoured with white pepper, mace, nutmeg, ginger, sage and cloves.

Marylebone Sausage
A traditional London butchers sausage made with mace, ginger and sage.

Oxford Sausage
A regional sausage made with pork, veal and lemon. Herbs are usually sage, savory and marjoram

Pork and Apple (West Country)
Pork with apple and often cider or scrumpy, generally makes a moist sausage. Sage is often used, they are available nationally but very popular in the West Country. Traditionally made with Gloucester Old Spot which where reared in orchards and would have eaten the windfall apples.

Suffolk Sausage
A course chopped sausage with herbs, similar to Lincolnshire

Tomato Sausage
Pork and tomato, typical 10% tomato gives a distinctive red colour, they are popular in the Midlands. Can be combined with basil and sun dried tomatoes for the ‘Mediterranean’ taste

Yorkshire Sausage
White pepper, mace, nutmeg and cayenne are the predominant flavours in the Yorkshire sausage.