Sausages

I’ve noticed that with sausages, lately. The skins are really tough.
I buy mine from Aldi now and they are really good. They’re in a pack of 8.

I recently discovered these Taste the Difference sausages from Sainsbury's.
They are meaty and delicious. No problem with the skin burning or being hard. I know what you mean about that.

I am vegetarian but do not like some of the vegan "skins" as they are disgustingly slimy.

I haven't had a problem with the m n s ones.

How far north are you Tizliz? I live in Northumberland and I know of two butchers who deliver in Northern England and parts of Scotland. I can vouch for the sausages from both as the recipe for Cumberland pork sausage came from the family of my DH.
cranstons.net/store/.
I'll try to link to the other one, if I leave my message and open a new tab it will disappear.

onlineordering.pioneerfoods.co.uk/ Here is the other one.

Cranstons is who I like. We are an IV post code - the map is marked ‘here be dragons’ 🤣🤣

Sainsbury taste the difference Dextrose. Sausages filled into alginate casings.

What is alginate sausage casing?
Alginate is a gel obtained from algae. It is a natural product and purely vegetable-based. The alginate encapsulates the sausage in a transparent skin, allowing the product to remain visible. It imparts a good texture and a pleasant mouth-feel.

I’ve just purchased 10lb of venison sausages from a butcher in N.Yorkshire.
They are just beautiful.
Whenever we visit the area I take a cool bag.
No idea what the casing is but I’ve never had any trouble cooking a quality sausage

I don't buy sausages from supermarkets. I buy them, directly or indirectly, from butchers I trust (the best sausages I've ever tasted come from Woodalls of Waberthwaite, in what we are once again allowed to call Cumberland).

Either that or I make my own. I haven't for a few years now because since moving to Scotland I haven't established a source of skins, but it's easy enough and you know exactly what goes into them. You do need an old-school hand mincer with a sausage-extruding attachment (I've heard of electric mincers that will do the job but are a fraction of the fun. You need some pork shoulder with plenty of fat, some belly pork, a few anchovies, salt and pepper. Yummy!

Oh, and something to bind, otherwise the sausages will fall apart. I use oatmeal.

Have tried making sausages, what a laugh! Not going to bother again. We make burgers out of pork shoulder and they are OK with mash or in a sandwich

Tizliz

The mention of sausages on another thread reminded me why we don’t eat sausages now. Just can’t get on with the skins they use - seaweed based. They don’t cook they burn before the sausage is cooked and are so tough.

There is a shop in Penrith which sells lovely ones with natural casings and all visitors are made to stop there and buy me loads, they don’t deliver this far north.

Is it just me or have others stop buying them in the supermarket? (No butchers here ).

I know Penrith and I think you mean "Cranstons Cumberland sausage", they do a whole lot of different sausages and often win awards. They do sell online but I'm not sure how far North and you might have to buy a lot.
Look at their website. We used to take a whole load home when passing through.

Oh I am sorry that Cranstons don't deliver to your area. I'm afraid that Pioneer don't either. What bad luck.

What about Donald Russell? They should deliver to you. I am wary of any meat products that aren't 'whole', such as burgers or sausages, but I love theirs, particularly the chipolatas, which are bigger than the little Christmas ones, but thin enough to cook through easily. The chipotle ones are lovely, too.

We love Quorn sausage, our children tolerate them well.

I’m so lucky to be able to buy wonderful sausages from local organic farmers - I can see the pigs enjoying life in the fields when I’m walking DDog. They’re delicious 😋 and

Oops! and a reasonable price too!

We buy ours from the butchers too and they seem fine

We're lucky to get ours from a couple of really good butchers, and they are delicious. One does a range of different flavours, and it's nice to find something a bit different from time to time.

I avoided eating sausges as much as possible until I was in my 40s. My early memories of sausages are the ones in school dinners in the late 1940s and 50s. They had skins on them that could have had a second life as car tyres.

I haven't noticed any change in the thickness of sausage skins recently. I get my meat sausages from a butcher and Linda McCartney veggie sausages from a supermarket.

I had forgotten about Donald Russell, thanks Doodledog. They have good sausages and deliver here.

Tizliz

Cranstons is who I like. We are an IV post code - the map is marked ‘here be dragons’ 🤣🤣

Cranstons have a shop in Hexham Northumberland just off the A 69 and they used to have ones in Carlisle and Dumfries but I'm not sure about those any more.
There was also an Independant shop called Belase in Shap Cumbria that sold to all the hotels and B&B but they have closed

We buy M&S British outdoor reared Pork and Caramelised onion sausages.
Grill them for 20 mins or so and they are delicious.