These are normally fresh types for cooking; they differ from the general run of such sausages in having a significant cereal content. This difference has only been visible since the latter part of the 19th century, when industrial production of sausages began and manufacturers, anxious to have a mass market, sought to keep costs down. The idea of combining met with cereal in a sausage-like casing was by no means a new one. Haggis is an antique and excellent example of the combination. But up to this time English sausages had been like Continental ones in being more or less entirely of meat of some kind.
British pure pork sausages, similar to the French or Italian ones, are still made on a small scale, but the great majority of British sausages are made with rusk crumb or special 'sausage meal' (rather than the traditional bread crumbs). the meat content of commercial sausages ranges from below 50% to 95% or more in the most expensive. Pork, or pork and beef, are considered best. Pure beef sausages are cheaper and are preferred in Scotland, where pork has been a less popular meat.
Traditional British sausages, all seasoned with pepper, usually black, and often with mace, include:
- Cambridge, with sage, cayenne, and nutmeg;
- Oxford, of pork, veal, and beef suet with sage, nutmeg, pepper, and sometimes herbs;
- Yorkshire, with nutmeg, cloves, and cayenne;
- Lincolnshire, with sage and thyme;
- Manchester, with sage, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger;
- Cumberland, made of coarse-cut pork, and spicier than most, not twisted into links, but sold by length from a long coil;
- Epping, an extinct but interesting variety, skinless, made of pork mixed with beef suet and bacon, with sage and spices;
- Glamorgan, a sausage containing cheese and leek (no meat or fish). This too is skinless, consolidated with a coating of egg white;
- tomato, a peculiar local variety which remains popular in the Midlands. It is a normal British pork sausage coloured reddish with tomato purée.
Davidson, Alan (2009) The Penguin Companion to Food, London, Penguin