Pork Sausages (English Bangers)

The name ‘Banger’ comes from the fact that the sausages used to ‘explode’ (bang) when cooking. This might have been because they used to be made with real pig casing which are quite strong, and unlike modern cellulose casings, would allow pressure to build up inside the skin leading to an ‘explosion’. Since we were going to use real casing they may very well be ‘real’ bangers!

Bangers:
4 lbs lean pork shoulder
1.5 lbs pork fat

Seasoning:
10 tsp. white pepper, freshly ground
5 tsp. mace
4.5 Tbsp. sea salt
4 tsp. ground ginger
4 tsp. rubbed sage
1 tsp. nutmeg

Grind up the meat and mix it together with 6 tsp. of the seasoning mix (reserve the rest for next time). As an experiment I decided not to include breadcrumbs, traditionally used as an austerity filler. The mixture was fed through the sausage stuffer into natural pig casings, making sausages approximately 5" long.

Serving the sausages with mashed potatoes and gravy is a British tradition.