Bangers and mash

[Twenty five ought six]

Bought me some English Bangers at the old Harry's once, and I became kind of partial to them. The English eat them for breakfast, and as main meal in "Bangers and Mash"-- sausages and mash potatoes.

Compared to our sausage meat, the sausages are more savory, featuring "sweet spices" such as allspice, nutmeg, ginger and so on. Most of the recipes don't have any sage or hot pepper -- if they have pepper, it's white pepper.

So I made up my mind to make me some authentic English bangers.

First, the bad news.

I had a package of sheep casings as my intention was to make a breakfast link type sausage.

So per the package instructions, I put them in some warm water to soak and expand. I've used sheep casings before, and they are not my favorite because they get tied up in more knots than a professional backlash -- the good thing is that they really have a "snap" when you eat them.

So here's the sheeps casings, like a lot of little tapeworms.
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Twelve hours later, here are the sheep casings (water has been changed regularly) -- I've actually gone to the trouble to separate them to help them expand--

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Twenty four hours later -- here are the sheep casings -- still a no go-- they never "fluffed up." So into the garbage they went,

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Why didn't they expand? I don't have a clue.

On to the good news -- bangers can be all pork, all beef, or beef and pork. I decided to make mine pork/beef because I had some pork and some beef -- see how hard decisions are made easy!!

The beef -- I'm making these for family Christmas presents, so I spared no expense in preparing a first class quality product--

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Here's the first grind on the beef -- it was already ground, but I wanted a finer grind.

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Here's the first grind of the pork, the beef is in the background. Sausage ended up 7 lbs. pork and 3 lbs. beef, mostly because that's the way it came out --absolutely no intent at all there.

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Here I'm about to run some bread through the grinder. Most banger recipes call for bread crumbs as a binding agent. Running a slice of bread through is a traditional way of cleaning out the grinder. Two birds, one stone.

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I put my seasonings in a little cold water, mix the meats, add the water, and mix thoroughly. This is 10 lbs' of sausage about to go in the fridge for overnight. No sage or hot pepper added. I used some black pepper because I didn't have any white pepper, and didn't feel like going to get some.

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Fortunately the sheep casings disaster was not a fiasco, as I already had some pork casings ready to go -- they were just bigger than what I really wanted.

A little flush with some warm water, and they are ready to go. Worthless sheep casings are in the background. Compare.

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One whole hog casing stuffed. Note that the casing is not full. This is because when you twist the casing to make links, the sausage will tighten up. If the untwisted sausage is too full, it splits. Still haven't gotten this part down pat.

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I'm being watched JUST IN CASE I drop something on the floor.
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Here is 10 lbs. of linked sausage. Note that the links are short. That's because I really wanted a breakfast sausage, and a full size link would just be a lot.

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Cooking these, you need just a little bit of oil in the pan, and fry them over a low heat, turning as they brown. The bread binder will scorch if you get them too hot (learned that the hard way). Came out pretty darn good if I say so myself.

 

[Capt Quirk]

Interesting approach. Most Bangers and Mash I know, are Pub Food, not breakfast. The best are made with lamb. For your spices, try a bit of sage and some anise. The way I cook it, is to brown like you did, with onions. Once the sausage is browned, remove it and cook the onion until it is caramalized, then add flour. You want to mix the oil, onion, sausage juices with the flour until it is a browned rue. Mix in beef broth and stir till you have a rich brown sauce. Pour over meat and taters, and enjoy

 

[serving1Lord]

I bet those would be wonderful smoked. They look great.

 

[gtparts]

Ought-six, I am surprised the sheep casings were unusable. I have kept partial hanks in good quality plastic ware, in the freezer for several years,... yes, I said years. The trick is to put the unused portion in the plastic ware and cover completely with Kosher salt and seal so the moisture will not escape. If it isn't sealed, the casings will get "freezer burn" and you'll just be wasting freezer space. Otherwise, it's just rinse and flush before use.

 

[Jeff C.]

Nice job....either way!!!

 

[JohnnyD]

Looks excellent. It was one of my favorite meals when I was in Europe on vacation in 2004. Just good old fashioned filling food.

 

[blues brother]

I haven't had Bangers & Mash since my last trip to Ireland.
Looks like you did a bang up job!!

 

[Nitro]

I admire your efforts. When I want Bangers and Mash, I just go to Paddy's Pub at Chateau Elan. Outstanding.

Second place would go to Fado in Buckhead.