Meats and Sausages
Cumberland Sausage-Traditional
Perhaps the most famous of British sausages is the Cumberland sausage, which has been a local speciality in the County of Cumberland for more than 500 years. It is a chunky, coarse cut sausage spiced with black pepper and made in a continuous coil. The ingredients for Traditional Cumberland sausages consists of: boneless pork meat, rusk water and seasonings. The taste of Traditional Cumberland Sausage is quite spicy due to the generous amount of pepper added which is accompanied by a strong taste of herbs.
Cumberland sausage carries PGI, 2011 classification.
| Meats | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Pork shoulder | 800 g | 1.76 lb |
| Rusk | 200 g | 0.44 lb |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
| Salt | 18 g | 3 tsp |
| Pepper | 4.0 g | 2 tsp |
| Thyme | 2.0 g | 1 tsp |
| Sage, rubbed | 2.0 g | 2 tsp |
| Nutmeg | 0.5 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Mace | 0.5 g | 1/4 tsp |
| Cayenne | 0.5 g | 1/4 tsp |
Instructions
- Soak rusk in water.
- Cut meat by hand or grind through a plate not smaller than 3/16” (5 mm). Discard skin, gristle and sinews. The official PGI requirements prohibit use of a bowl chopper (food processor) for this sausage as this would create an unacceptably emulsified end product.
- Mix meat with all ingredients.
- Stuff into sheep or small diameter hog casings, forming a one coiled, continuous sausage.
- Refrigerate.
- Cook before serving.
Notes
Synthetic casings cannot be used as these are not considered to be traditional. The sausages are left unlinked and sold by weight.
Fried Cumberland sausage.
