British Sausage

[American_Nina]

I would like to mix minced beef with a Tesco/Asda beef brand sausage to make a 'meatier' sausage. Some British Sausages seem to have more 'filler' than meat in their supermarket brands. Depending on the fat ratio, any suggestions? Thanks in advance :)

[American_Nina]

Great! I'll try those brands to mix in - thanks :)

[Harters]

Beef sausages are a comparitive rarity so you may not see the choice that you would have with pork.

Why not just buy whatever is the highest meat content sausage at your normal supermarket and take it from there. Or, seeing as youre intending to make your own sausage, why do you wish to start with a ready made sausage - would you not get a product more suited to what you want by making it from scratch?

[American_Nina]

Sausages are never 100% meat, so fillers and fat is needed for the right consistency, I think. As a new sausage maker, I want the taste, consistency and affordability as if I were in America lol. That said, I also want to stretch my dollar as far as possible. Or, in this case, my pound :)

Tesco, Sains & Asda market brands are all about 50% meat or thereabouts. Rather soft in texture - which is why I want to balance with minced beef.

[Harters]

Sainsbury's "Taste the Difference" beef sausages are 75% meat.Waitrose beef sausage are 74% meat content. Tesco's "Butchers Choice" are at 72% as is Asda's Butchers Selection.

[zuriga1]

I'm a bit hooked on Sainsbury's Carmelised Red Onion flavour. I used them whenever a recipe calls for sausages, in or out of the casing. I never realised how much one can serve up using them!

[Harters]

Try Sainsbury's "Sicilian" ones, June. Take them out of the casing and chop into bite-sized and use as a base for pasta sauce (usually a creamy herby one in this house)

[pj26]

I really like the Taste the Difference sausages as well - and use both the Sicilian and Cumberland for meatballs as you have suggested.

Also hooked on the Pork and Bramley apple on summer BBQs.

[Harters]

Suggestion for you, pj. If you're mixing something with the Sicilian for meatballs, try their Toulouse ones as a change from Cumberland. Nice garlicky hit which works with the fennel.

[pj26]

will do - thanks for the tip.

[zuriga1]

Thanks, John. I do use those when I make an Italian ragu to use in a dish with 'wavy' pasta. I love the fennel flavour.

[abby d]

I only buy Marks & Spencer sausages - they tend to be c80% meat and therefore have a firmer texture than a lot of the others. Fabulous in Jamie Oliver's Bloke's Pasta recipe.

[brokentelephone]

Why not just bite the bullet, buy a meat grinder (handheld's are very cheap), a casing filler, and goto a butcher for some cheap meat, fat, and rusks, and make your own sausages?

Assuming you're eating these a lot (which is unadvisable) you should amortize the cost of the grinder/filler quickly and be eating superior sausages for pennies on the pound!

[sunshine842]

Having eaten approximately my weight or more in British sausages and having grown up in the US, I would take British sausages over American any day of the week.

You'd be rather hard-put to find beef sausages in the US, too.

[zuriga1]

Have you tried sausages from Sainsbury's? I find them really tasty and they don't cost much more than something from Tesco or Asda.. and lots of good flavours. If you're willing to buy good quality minced beef, than why not just get some good sausages which probably wouldn't be much more than Tesco sausages and the beef combined.

[American_Nina]

My budget will not allow a premium sausage. I want to make my own.

[AWaiting]

I'm kind of confused by this post. If you want a meatier sausage why not buy from a butchers or at least a "premium" supermarket sausage where the filler % is lower?