Thursday, December 14, 2006

Homemade: Sainsburys Pork and Apple 'Taste the Difference' + Warburtons Cheese Rolls

I thought it was time for another homemade effort so I made a trip Sainburys and picked up a different variety from their 'Taste the Difference' sausage range. Maybe influenced by the "Best Sausage Sarnie in Britain" mentioned earlier, I chose Pork and Apple this time, along with some nice looking Warburtons cheesey rolls.




As usual I cooked the sausages in a grill to lose some of the fat. First thing I have to say a LOT of fatty liquid came out of these sausages when I cooked them. It almost filled the small plastic collecting dish.

I don't know if this was pure fat or a mixture of fat and water (perhaps having apple in these sausges gives them a higher water content?) but in any case I was shocked at how much came out. As a result, the sausages were a lot smaller once cooked and nowhere near as plump as they looked in the packet. The skin also charred very easily compared to other sausages. All in all, these are slightly weird sausages.

I split the six sausages between four lightly buttered rolls and added some sliced tomato (yeah I know - I got really carried away there!) and added some HP sauce. Not having had HP sauce at home for a while, tasting it this time really brought home how awful the brown sauce you get in cafes is. The real thing is so potent and aromatic, it really whacks you with flavour and piquancy. God knows what the stuff they serve in cafes is but rarely do you get real HP.



Anyway it was decent enough sandwich. I may have been a bit over-enthusiastic with the HP sauce because that flavour kind of dominated everything. Still, I didn't think much of the sausage. Having apple inside the sausge didn't seem to make much sense because your effectively cooking bits of apple with the meat which doesn't seem to work. Also I think the high water content gave the sausage a slight 'steamed' feel to it.

Not a sausage I'd recommend for sandwiches. The rolls were good but at £1.80 (approx. I can't remember exactly) for four, I would look for a cheaper alternative next time.

Cafe Soho, Ingestre Place




A bit of a departure this time - not a plain sausage sandwich but a 'daily special' sandwich that just happened to have sausage in it. In fact, the full list of ingredients is as follows:

- Cumberland sausage
- lettuce
- cheddar cheese
- smoked turkey
- dijonnaise
- tomato
- gherkin

It would be pretty difficult to make a sandwich that didn't taste good with all those ingredients! Cafe Soho is one of the best sandwich shops in Soho and one I keep going back to. All the fillings are really fresh, the staff are great and they have daily changing specials. Next time I'll ask for a straight sausage sandwich and see how it compares.

3.5 out of 5 (tasty, but helped by the extra ingredients)

Sunday, December 03, 2006

A Guide to Hot Dog Etiquette

Do you know what types of napkins are appropriate to use when eating hot dogs?

Or how many bites are considered acceptable when consuming a hot dog?

Find the answers the these and other important questions here
here, courtesy of America's National Hot Dog and Sausage Council!