Latest features What's in your banger?

Date Published:

23/01/2009

Quality meat or earholes, eyeholes and arseholes? What really goes into sausages? Charlie Cottrell gets under the sausage skin with David Gardener, writer and editor of independent food website, sausagelinks.co.uk

We love our sausages. Last year pork-packing Brits got though 182,848 tons of the meaty treats, with 5 million of us scoffing sausages, every day.*

But what are we actually eating? When it comes to ingredients, sausages have a bad reputation. German politician, Otto von Bismarck, quipped: "Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made," and the term 'banger' came about because wartime sausages had such a high water content, they exploded in the pan. I grilled David Gardener to find out more.

What's in your sausage?

It depends who you're asking. Basically meat, bread, water, herbs and spices. Going down the quality scale you've got colourings, additives, MSG…

Are there any legal requirements for the composition of sausages?

There is a legal definition of a sausage but not for different qualities of sausage.

The Food Standards Agency specifies a minimum requirement of 32 per cent meat for a product to be called a 'sausage'. To be called a 'pork sausage' that jumps to a minimum of 42 per cent.

Supermarket sausages fall into three categories: economy, standard and premium. There are no legal definitions of these boundaries.

What are the differences between these classifications?

Meat content, the quality of meat used and what it's filled into. Economy sausages use collagen casings, because they are easy to use and stable. A good quality sausage uses natural skins, made from intestine. These are harder to use but taste better.

Economy sausages are essentially pork slurry made from recovered meat with fat, bread and colourings added to it. The mixture is emulsified in an industrial process that mixes meat and incorporates fat and bread into it to spread the meat finer. If you cook one of these sausages and cut it in half, it will have a smooth, even face and a consistent colour.

A typical economy sausage recipe might look like: 30% pork fat, 20% recovered meat, 30% rusk and soya, 15% water and 5% assorted e-numbers, flavourings, sugar, flavour enhancer, preservatives and colourings.

Premium sausages look hand made. Good sausages use joints of meat, minced; you'll be able to see the granules of fat and meat through the skin.

At the top end, the ingredients list is much shorter; something like 40% belly pork, 40% boned shoulder of pork, 10% breadcrumbs, 5% water and 5% herbs and spices.

What's stopping someone labelling a cheap sausage 'premium' and slapping on a hefty price tag?

You could try and sell it like that but the quality would be obvious when you look at the sausage and compare the meat content, additives and what the skins are made of.

What is meant by 'meat'?

The definition of meat is hard to explain. Meat can contain certain percentages of fat, connective tissue and skin and still be considered 'meat'. What most consumers consider 'meat' is what we call 'visible lean'. A pork chop is 90 per cent visible lean. A sausage label may say that it contains 60 per cent meat but that could be as low as 15 per cent visible lean.

What is connective tissue?

Gristle and the tissue that holds muscle to bone. The definition of meat is understood to include some connective tissue; good butchers don't abuse that understanding. In cheaper sausages connective tissue is used to bulk up meat.

Does it matter that economy sausages aren't all lean meat? Isn't this a good way of eating the whole pig?

You could construct an argument that using connective tissue and fat is better than wasting them but the fact that extra flavourings, salt and fat are added to the pork slurry undermines this. Nearly two thirds of sausages at standard and economy level contain MSG. Good butchers won't use it.

Are economy sausages bad for us?

There's no clear health risk associated with using recovered meat. The high fat and saturated fat content in economy sausages is obviously an issue as we think about obesity.

Salt is another area of concern. An adult eating three sausages could be eating up to 2/3 of their RDA of salt. Check the packet.

Any tips for banger buyers?

Always look at the label when buying supermarket sausages. Butchers sausages are by and large good quality because they use the cuts of meat that customers don't usually go for. It wouldn't be worth the transport or storage costs for most butchers to use recovered meat.

*British sausage week fact sheet

Learn more about pork cuts with our interactive guide to pork cuts

Watch Jamie's video: How to make a proper sausage

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