Beautiful bangers

There’s food for thought in Shropshire during British Sausage Week, writes Andy Richardson

Journalist Bruce McMichael likes sausages so much that he bought his own pigs.

The two saddlebacks – called Smokey and The Bandit – were fattened up on a small holding near Shrewsbury, before being taken to slaughter then converted to bangers. “They were delicious,” he says, proudly.

Bruce edits a quarterly food magazine called Taste, and is a leading regional foodie with impeccable credentials. 

In recent months, he has judged a number of sausage competitions and given talks to community groups and other experts.      

Few are as well positioned to comment on the county’s reputation for excellent food.

He says: “Shropshire is lucky to have so many traditional, often family-run butchers, many of which supply sausages made to recipes passed down through the generations and kept secret.

“As a rural, agricultural county, Shropshire folk have a tradition of making and using quality pork and beef sausages. All of the county’s market towns and many villages have well established butchers with a great choice of sausages. The rise of farmers’s markets and farm shops has reignited interest.”

Shropshire sausages come under the spotlight this week during British Sausage Week 2008, which runs until Sunday. To mark the celebration, many of Shropshire’s towns and villages will celebrate with slap-up dinners. Anna Terrell, of the British Sausage Appreciation Society, says she hopes people will celebrate in style by holding a dinner party or enjoying delicious banger dishes at pubs or restaurant.

One venue celebrating is the Hundred House, at Norton, between Telford and Bridgnorth. The restaurant, which holds two AA rosettes, will host a special sausages and pie night, on Friday. Tickets cost £18.50.

Head chef Stuart Phillips will be making his own bangers, with help from Bridgnorth master butcher Keith Alderson. Stuart says: “On Friday, we’ll have award-winning sausages from Griffiths’s, of Ludlow. We’ll also be making a number of meat mixes and our local butcher, Aldersons, will put them through the sausage machine. 

“There will be a spicy leek and oregano, beer and winter fruit and a venison sausage, which will contain 10 spices as well as port and brandy. There will also be gourmet mash, including a mustard mash to go with the venison sausage and a parsnip mash to go with the beer and winter fruit one.”

Another leading sausage expert is Graeme Kidd, the co-founder of Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival. His passion for bangers inspired him to found the Ludlow Sausage Company, which used to ship sausages around the world. The sausage-centric entrepreneur was also the brains behind the Ludlow Sausage Trail at Ludlow Food Festival, believed to be the first event of its kind in the UK.

He says: “The sausage trail was the first idea that we came up with. When we were thinking about launching a festival, we wanted an event that would get local people as well as visitors moving around the town and trying new things. There were seven butchers then so we decided on a sausage trail.”

The quality of sausages in Ludlow ensures the return of visitors year after year. 

Graeme adds: “Sausages can be good quality stuff. There’s lots of horrible, nasty cheap ones in supermarkets but any craft butcher will take pride in his sausages. They are a good, nutritious wholesome food.”

Three of Shropshire’s best-known sausage makers are Richard Beaman, Paddy Ryan and Ian Ray.

Richard runs the family butcher’s shop in Bridgnorth High Street, and usually serves around 12 varieties made on site. He says: “They are basically made to a recipe that originates from my ancestors. We’ve tweaked it to the modern palate over the years and make them fresh every day. 

“We use a traditional method, which involves mincing the meat, mixing it with seasonings and other natural ingredients then putting it into natural casings. Ours is a totally traditional product.”

Such is the popularity of Beaman’s bangers that people travel from as far as London, Oxford, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Cheshire. His range includes venison with chestnut, pork plum and ginger, pork and leek, cumberland, lincolnshire, traditional thick pork with thicker casings, plain prok, prok garlic, beef chilli sage and red pepper, lamb and mint, pork with cider, apple and pistachio and pork and tomato.

Ian Ray, at DW Wall and Son, in Ludlow, recently bought a top secret recipe from a former competitor, Carters, who closed shop recently “Chris Carter sold us the recipe for the original Ludlow Sausage and it’s been worth every penny,” he says. “The days of putting all the end bits of the pig are gone. You need good quality shoulder of pork. We have around 10 varieties most days.”

Paddy Ryan’s, at Much Wenlock High Street, is another mecca for enthusiasts. Jenny Ryan, who works in the shop, says: “People queue out of the door. We have trouble to keep up with what we’ve got going on because there are so many customers.”