Kirstie's Handmade Britain

Gordon Atkinson showed Kirstie Allsopp how to make sausages on Kirstie's Handmade Britain

Makes about 50 thin sausage or 25 fat ones

• 2 kg minced belly or shoulder pork (ask your local butcher to mince this for you)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 300g jar of caramelised onion chutney, to flavour

For the breadcrumbs

• Good-quality white bread, or ask for some rusk from your butcher

1. Preheat the oven to 100ºC/gas mark ½. For the breadcrumbs, place the bread in the oven and allow to dry for 2-3 hours. When completely dry blitz until fine in a blender.

2. Mix 300g of the breadcrumbs with the pork meat and all the remaining ingredients, mixing well until they are well blended and feel sticky to the touch.

3. Using a sausage filler (available online), squeeze the filling into the sausage casings. (If you do not have a sausage maker, form the mixture into sausage meat patties and lightly fry in a little butter.) Once made, your sausage will taste better if refrigerated for a couple of days to give the flavour chance to develop.

4. Cook in a frying pan in oil or butter on a medium heat. Your pan should just sizzle when you lay the sausages in it. It will take roughly 15-20 minutes to cook, turning the sausages a ¼ turn every 30 seconds until an internal temperature of 72°C or more is achieved. Do not prick the sausages!

5. During winter, serve the sausage with Yorkshire pudding, creamy mashed potatoes, braised red cabbage and onion gravy made with beef stock. In the summer, serve with a light green salad and some sautéed potatoes.

Recipe by Gordon Atkinson of elitemeat.co.uk