More bang to your bangers: A masterclass in stuffing and sizzling

Sausages are one of this country's delicacies. Many are the meals that have been spiced up with great British bangers. But while most people tend to buy their sausages off the shelf, rather than make their own, one food expert strongly believes we should reverse that trend.

Paul Peacock, the editor of Home Farmer magazine, has written The Sausage Book. It is released this week to mark British Sausage Week, a seven-day-long celebration of all things soft and sizzling.

There are many reasons people might wish to make their own sausages, Peacock says. "For one, consumers increasingly want to know what is in their food. The average salt content of the sausages you might buy in shops is around 3 per cent, which has potential health implications. These sausages can also contain saltpetre, which is there by law to stop people from dying from botulism. But a lot of people believe that saltpetre ingestion may be linked to cancer, so why not give them the option? You'll also never find 'blacklisted artificial flavourings' such as monosodium glutamate in anything you make yourself."

Peacock also says home-cooked sausages taste better, because they contain high concentrations of meat; those in shops often substitute cereal and water. All sausages contain both, of course: the cereal absorbs the cooking juices, which could burst the sausage, and the water helps them cook. But those we mix up ourselves can contain as much as 80 per cent meat, whereas your average supermarket sausage contains only around 30 per cent meat.

"It's the difference between eating baby food and a fine steak," Peacock says. "That is mostly down to price. Even in the best butchers – and I have been in a few where they claim to 'make' sausages – the butcher is using spices from a tin. Very few butchers' sausages are completely made from scratch. He will buy the pig, say, and mix up the quantities, but then will add flavourings from elsewhere. In the home, you can get herbs and mix them up to whatever quantities you desire. The whole thing is made to your exact specifications."

To make the perfect sausage, first get hold of some sausage skins, which are part of pig or sheep intestines. "Go to a butcher and ask for 'sausage skin', or just go on the internet. Two or three different companies do them, including Design a Sausage and Sausage Maker UK," Peacock says. "Some skins have a curl to them, but the simplest is the hog skin, because it is straight and thus harder to burst when you are stuffing it. Sheep skins can stink and have curls and bends: much harder to stuff and more likely to break."

Next, mix your sausage filling, ideally using a food processor. "Sausage meat is mostly pork shoulder, but you can also use pork thigh," says Peacock. "A really good sausage would be 70 per cent pork shoulder and 10 per cent rusk or breadcrumbs. You can buy rusks from Design a Sausage, or you can make breadcrumbs yourself, to which you would then add water and pork fat; the butcher would generally give fat to you for free." For 1kg of meat, you would need 700g pork shoulder, 100g fat, 100ml of water and 150ml of rusk or breadcrumbs. Add two level teaspoons of salt and three of ground black pepper; mix and grind in a food processor.

"This is considerably less favouring than what would be found in the shops," Peacock says. "This is because salt is used as a preservative there. Some sausages even have sugar in, to detract from salt flavour. But what we have created here is a nicely flavoured sausage. If you want to re-create certain regional sausages – for instance, a Lincolnshire sausage – add a handful of sage. But my advice is, keep it simple. If you are doing it for the first time, take a bit of your mix and then fry it a bit to see if you like the flavour."

Next comes the stuffing; there are various methods. One is using an Italian "thumb-stuffer", which looks like a sawn-off funnel without the wide bit; you can adapt a conventional kitchen funnel by cutting off the bottom. Roll the skin on to the long thin bit and put the meat through the other end. Alternatively, Peacock suggests using old-style meat grinders, which often have a sausage-stuffing attachment.

Cut up the sausage skins into 6ft-long pieces. "You put the meat in the funnel and push it in. It's as simple as that. Stuff the skins, and then every so often twist the skin to separate the sausages; tie a knot in them at these points. Then leave them overnight."

Peacock recommends that you cook your sausages slowly – and it is crucial that they not be pierced. "This is so that steam stays within the sausages and cooks it," he explains. "Bangers were called bangers during the Second World War because of the sausages' low meat content. Instead of high meat content, they used water. This would cause the sausage to pop because of the steam escaping."

One last tip: you can make great sausages without using skins at all. Instead, buy "caul" from a butcher. This is the membrane that holds the internal organs of animals together. It's "effectively a sheet of fat," says Peacock. "You simply cut it and roll the meat in the caul until you have a sausage shape. When you cook it, the fat melts in the caul, and you are left with something tasty as well as easy to prepare."

'The Sausage Book' by Paul Peacock is available now from The Good Life Press (www.goodlifepress.co.uk)

If you must buy them ready-made...

Paul Peacock's picks

Boston Sausage; Lincolnshire sausage

"These sage sausages have been made by the Mountain family since 1852, pre-dating all others in the county. They've been making them since Darwin was travelling on the Beagle." www.bostonsausage.co.uk; 01205 362167

Rothbury Family Sausages; traditional pork sausages

"One of the top sausage-makers in the country, Rothburys also do some weird and wacky ones, such as kangaroo." www.rothburyfamilybutchers.co.uk; 01669 620744

Complete Meats; cheddar and chive sausage

"This award-winning traditional Devon butchers has the skill to get the balance of a cheese-based sausage just right, which is hard: sometimes the fat in the cheese doesn't mix right, and the chives can take the flavour balance over the top. This one is perfect."

www.completemeats.co.uk; 01297 33282

Keelham Hall Farmshop; free-range pork sausages

"One of the biggest but also one of the best: made with local animals, these honest-to-goodness bangers won't let you down." www.keelhamhallfarmshop. co.uk; 01274 833472

Border County Foods; Cumberland sausage

"Borders make Cumberland rings using pigs that are a cross of Gloucester Old Spot and Berkshire. The Cumberland has outlived the county itself!" www.cumberland-sausage.net; 01228 573500

The Big Bang; Oxfordshire sausage

"Oxford sausages were originally made for the masters of the colleges; the Big Bang offers courses in making your own." www.thebigbangrestaurants.co.uk; 01865 511441

Osney Lodge Farm

"As well as offering you a great chance to make your own sausages, Osney Lodge lets you pop outside to see the pigs that the sausages are made from. And Graham simply annot pass by the chance for a pint and a chat about sausages and pigs in general."

www.osneylodgefarm.co.uk; 01342 892216 01342 892216

Vegetarian sausages

"These are not easy to cook, but they are easy to make. For this reason I prefer cooked vegetables where possible. The easiest one to make is probably roast vegetable sausage. On a tray, place chopped peeled vegetables: 1.5kg of carrot, marrow, parsnip, garlic, potatoes, fennel and whatever else you like. Roast them for an hour and a half at 180C. Cool and tip into a bowl with 200g breadcrumbs, 150ml water and 100ml olive oil. Mix and season to taste. Stuff into hog cases and leave overnight. Cook very slowly on a low light, turning often."