[Sca-cooks] Adventures in Sausage Making

Susan Fox selene at earthlink.net
Wed May 17 08:53:01 PDT 2006


Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Muiriath reported:
>  >>>
> So I did a trial run to speak, see how all this works out.
>
>    First thing, it takes alot longer to stuff the casing then I
> expected.  Took me 10 minutes with an electric grinder/stuffer to do
> 1 12 inch test sausage.
> <<<
>
> That is a lot longer than I would expect. Perhaps it is the equipment. 
> Using the sausage stuffer on the mixers I seem to remember doing them 
> about ten times faster than that. However, had your previously ground 
> the meat? I think we might have ground the meat first, then mixed in 
> the spices and then stuffed it.
>
Ya know, the last time my grinder took that long, it turned out that 
there was a piece missing from the insides.  M, do you have the little 
plus-sign shaped widget that goes in, impaled on the spiral-shaft, just 
before the output?  That is what messed me up the last time I tried to 
do large-scale grinding and it makes a BIG difference. It cuts up the 
meat and helps propel it onward so it can actually get through the holes 
in the plate. This is important even if the meat have been ground already.

> >>>
>    BTW, they are English bangers.
> <<<
>
> Sounds a bit obscene. Can any of the British folks here tell us where 
> this name comes from? Somehow I don't think it is period. 
Victorian prudery is post-period for the SCA [as I often say when my 
humour gets a bit, um, earthy].

Some websites suggest that the name "banger" originated circa WWII, 
because this sausage contained so much water that it tended  burst 
during frying.  So Muiriath did it right after all!  Maybe the name is 
anachronistic but there's nothing "too modern" about a highly spiced 
pork sausage. 

Some banger links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2284846.stm
http://www.fletchingbonfiresociety.co.uk/bonfire_night_banger.htm
http://sausagefans.com/
http://www.graigfarm.co.uk/pksaus.htm


Selene



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