The great British Banger

[Slammer]

I got a craving for bangers recently, the real ones I knew growing up in Blackburn, uniform tubes of mystery meat, served with Onion gravy, mash and mushy peas. Baked beans, HP sauce and white sliced bread. And a cuppa.
The great British banger is a wonder of austerity and a curious thing in its own right, developed in the first world war in accordance with rationing laws, they have a high salt content, water, a lot of fat and a high content of bread as a filler to compensate for the lack of meat.
In the pan they tend to sizzle and whistle and pop, hence the term „Banger“
The banger survived as a low quality sausage past the second world war where it was supplemented with the national loaf and the woolton pie.

British cuisine at its finest.

Anyway, here in Germany the banger is non existent, can’t get any except more or less frozen things from dubious sources.
So I decided to make my own.
First step was to drool over pictures on the google.
Then I orders a „how to“ book on the kindle and got to know my banger.
Two weeks ago I decided to go for it and ordered a sausage stuffer from Amazon for 28 Euros.
Was not expecting much for that price but when it came I was quite surprised, it has a good quality stainless steel tube body and solid stainless steel mechanics, it is easy to dismantle and clean and has a wide selection of spigots.

Really happy with it.

Time to get sausaging.
Went to the local butcher and asked for skins, 600 g pork belly and 400 g pork shoulder and run it through the fine disk on the meat-wolf.
He looked at me curiously and asked what I wanted to do, the skins meant that I wanted to make sausage but the mix is not what he is used to having.
"Make sausage“
His eyes rolled in his skull until they clicked against the stops. Waving his hand over an army of sausages he asked if I thought that he did not have enough.
I told him that I wanted to make English sausages, at that point he gave up and just did as asked but you could tell he was having reservations about his prime meat going into English sausages.
At home half of my haul went into the freezer and the rest I mixed the meaty blob with thyme, pepper, salt, mace, nutmeg and sage, shaved ice and breadcrumbs, then I let it sit for a few hours and nipped of to the pub for a beer.
Later I set up the machine and tried to fit the skins onto the spigot. Its a lot like trying to stuff your wiener into a used condom without the elasticity of latex.
There is a bit of a learning curve…
But finally I got there, tied the end of the intestine off with a knot and filled the machine and cranked the handle.
Now I know that you have to get the air out first because on the first crank the air inside blew the skin up like a kids party balloon which then flew off the spigot with a fart.
I found out that the best way to fill is to crank with your right hand and massage the sausage with your left hand at the same time while standing behind the machine.
And now that I know that I am never going to look at a butcher in the same way again, the kinky bugger.
From a half kilo I got four large bangers and after a night in the fridge I fried on up for breakfast this morning.
The taste was good but I recognize that I need to learn a bit more about this topic.
For my bangers I need to use more salt and spices and thicker skins, maybe even lose the pork shoulder and just use pork belly.
But the first steps to the German banger have been taken and I am looking forward to the next ones.

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[Feierabend]

Sounds great! Did you actually achieve that authentic banger taste and texture?
I wouldn't go to your lengths to make actual sausages but I dismantle German sousages sometimes to make sausage rolls, mixing up the meat with breadcrumbs and a random onion/spice/herb mixture rolled up in flaky pastry. They get wolfed down.

[Slammer]

After eating the first one for breakfast this morning I have to admit that I am not quite there yet, but the direction is the right one.
Texture was a bit too crumbly, the taste somewhat bland and the crack of biting was not in the correct envelope.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams, "it invariably delivered a few tubes of meat that were almost, but not quite, entirely unlike bangers."
SO my takeaway now is that I need more salt, more pepper, more spices, make the mix wetter and use thicker skins.

[Fraufruit]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Slammer. It was enjoyable. You win Best Writer of 2025.

[Slammer]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Slammer. It was enjoyable. You win Best Writer of 2025.

Well I wanted to call the thread: "Cranking my wiener" but thought different.

[dstanners]

Great story, thanks. Entertaining and informative, albeit very few food recipes include descriptions like: "its a lot like trying to stuff your wiener into a used condom without the elasticity of latex".
Good luck on the quest for the perfect sausage.

[Fraufruit]

I shared your post with a British friend who is an avid cook. Allow me to share her replies -

"All you need is pork shoulder hackfleisch. You can add herbs, salt etc. if you want. I made Scotch eggs years ago, which need British sausage meat.

It shouldn't be too finely minced either.

The standard stuff from VMarkt worked fine. As in standard minced pork shoulder.
Pre-packed."

[Slammer]

I shared your post with a British friend who is an avid cook. Allow me to share her replies -

The common banger it seems is quite an interesting beast, it seems that there are as many variations as there are posts on the internet.
Lincolnshires, Cumberlands, Irish, black puddings and even haggis falls into the terminology.
Going to try this next:

4 Pounds Of Lean Shoulder Pork
1 Pound Of Pork Fat
3 Teaspoons of Salt
2 Teaspoons Of White Pepper
½ Teaspoon Of Mace
½ Teaspoon Of Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Of Sage
1 Teaspoon Of Onion Powder
2 Teaspoons Of Thyme
1 Teaspoons Of Ginger
2 Cups Of Breadcrumbs
Hog Casings

Then there is the variation with suet, and some with offal now that should be interesting as I make a mean Steak and kidney pudding.However these are sausages even a Bavarian would maaaaybe recognise but I am finding it difficult to find the kind you get at Tesco’s at three quid for six, these industrial bangers are what I am after.
Made with the infamous “pink slime” and emulisifyers they are a memory that I would like to recreate .
Just not sure that because I can that I should.

[HEM]

I wouldn't go to your lengths to make actual sausages but I dismantle German sousages sometimes to make sausage rolls, mixing up the meat with breadcrumbs and a random onion/spice/herb mixture rolled up in flaky pastry. They get wolfed down.

I do similar, adding some finely chopped dried apricots which give sausage rolls a slightly fruity flavour. I was asked to make a large number of these some Summers ago for the Polterabend of a Scottish friend to a German lady. All were eaten (confess that I ate quite a few).

[Slammer]

Been kicking this around for a while and had an idea.
So, what do you guys think about this..?
Pork belly and shoulder aus usual.
salt, pepper, sage, nutmeg, thyme, cloves.
Then instead of breadcrumbs, soak oats in Guiness and perhaps a wee dram of scotch, a cheap one mind you.
Perhaps supplement the meat with tripe and kidneys and make something I would call a haggis sausage, a hagage, a saucihag... something like that.

[kiplette]

Sounds like a grand plan. Oatmeal or zart oats? Rewe do oatmeal nowadays.

Hats off to you for actually doing this. We bought a sausage maker thingy from Lakeland ltd about 30 years ago and I think we finally chucked it out (passed it on, I should say) about 5 years ago having never once given it a go at all.

Looking forward to the next Versuch (hagage)

[Fraufruit]

https://www.johndavidsons.com/product/p ... -sausages/