Cumberland Recipe

[Divey]

I am going to make this recipe using 4 kilograms of meat tomorrow. I don't know what's happening in this part of the world as I could not buy any pork shoulder. I tried four different stores for shoulder and had to settle for leg and belly. I hope it works out okay.

When I was making up the spice mix, I ground fresh peppercorns in our pepper mill on a medium setting and am now a little concerned that it may make the sausage too dark. Anyway, it's all going to happen tomorrow so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Divey]

I had to add a fair bit more water for some unknown reason, but, the recipe is a cracker. Well done.

[Divey]

Does this look to be about the correct size This is a 230mm/9inch pan.

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[captain wassname]

Looks good to me.Water can vary breadcrumb is not always the same.When you make it again use the amount of water as per recipe and add more if needed

Jim

[Divey]

Looks good to me.Water can vary breadcrumb is not always the same.When you make it again use the amount of water as per recipe and add more if needed

Jim

As the recipe called for the same amount of breadcrumbs and water, I added both together to allow the bread crumb to soak up the water and rehydrate. Well the breadcrumbs sure soaked up the water and then proceeded to set like concrete. I had a devil of a job to mix the breadcrumb into the minced pork after that. I won't be doing that again.

[yotmon]

I was in Kendal, Cumbria today ( yes, I know it was originally Westmorland pre '74) and perusing the Cumberland sausage in the butcher's windows and also on the farmers market. Well, looking at them they didn't look at all like a traditional 'Cumberland'. They appeared dark as though they were too lean - almost similar to a Venison sausage. In contrast, on Saturday I passed a small butchers shop in Ormskirk (Lancs) and he was displaying a sausage that had a decent girth - almost as wide as a 'Bury' black pudding. Although I didn't purchase any so couldn't comment on the flavour, it certainly looked more authentic than the Cumbrian varieties. Horses for courses ?

[Qpr82]

Wow - my goodness amazing. Can't imagine I would ever go back to shop sausages. Lovely 'pepperiness' only thing, I'm not a big salt eater and found them a little salty may reduce by only a few % .

[Stoat's Tail]

I tried Oddley's recipe a few months ago and found it to be absolutely class and have made it several times since without any need to tinker with it for personal taste. Two happy kids with empty plates bear testament to it's devine scrumptiousness.

[NCPaul]

Yet another I need to make again.

[yotmon]

I've just made up enough seasoning to go with a kilo of meat. To be honest, it appears more 'herby' than 'spicy'. I've weighed everything correctly according to the original thread, but because the dried herbs I have used are so light they seem to dominate the seasoning. Hopefully i'll be able to pick up a kilo of pork tomorrow to see how they work out. Has anyone else experienced this or do you think it'll be alright ?

Yotmon.

[wheels]

It'll be interesting to see what someone from the NW makes of it.

Phil

[yotmon]

Polly Perkins Cumberland Style Sausage.

78.4 % - 784g Pork Shoulder
21.6 % - 216g Fat Bellys

Of Meat
10 % - 100g Iced Water
10 % - 100g Breadcrumb
0.8 % - 8g Phosphate
2.9 % - 29g Seasoning

Seasoning
52.6773 % - 15g Salt
5.2581 % - 1.5g Black Pepper
5.2581 % - 1.5g White Pepper
0.7236 % - 0.2g Cayenne
5.9817 % - 1.7g Dextrose
5.3546 % - 1.6g Ground Coriander
5.3546 % - 1.6g Nutmeg
2.7014 % - 0.8g Mace
7.9112 % - 2.3g Sage
4.3898 % - 1.3 Thyme
4.3898 % - 1.3 Parsley

Hi Phil, - Iv'e followed the above measurements to the letter but omitted the phosphate (not got any), I'm going to make a kilo batch this afternoon to try out. My concern is the strong smell of Sage in the seasoning. Iv'e used a common Sage from my garden that I dried a couple of months back, but it hardly weighs anything so 2.3g seems quite a lot for a kilo of sausage. I've just weighed another gram as a control sample and it's taken 17 small sized leaves to make that weight, so the best part of 40 leaves would be needed for this recipe. I notice in your 'Not Lincolnshire sausage that you would use 5 grams to a kilo of meat, so 2.3g isn't excessive. Maybe it's a case of measuring by volume rather than weight as I may have dried the 'living daylights' out of my Sage !
I think I will go ahead with the recipe but only use 1 gram of Sage seeing as a true Cumberland should be more noticed for it's spiceness rather than herbs - where's Capt. Wassaname when you need him

[yotmon]

Well, I decided to cut right back on the Sage as it was overpowering the rest of the spice. I used a gram, plus I replaced the dried thyme for some fresh from the garden. I had some fresh Parsley so that went in as well. Other than that, it remained original.
Prepared the lean shoulder and fatty belly ready for the mincer.

I used the old trusty Kenwood chef mincer with a large diameter plate. I decided to mince it twice although in hindsight I should have left it coarse as is the norm for a Cumberland.

After mincing, I added the iced water and mixed it into the meat, then the spices and finally the dried breadcrumbs.

Then I used the filler gun.

This is really handy for small amounts of sausage - takes 3 x fillings for a kilo.

The end result - not a bad looking sausage !


The only trouble is, is that the filler has hardly any waste so I was only left with about 2 ounces to fry up. Lovely taste though, will be having them tomorrow night so hopefully they will be as good as they look

[quietwatersfarm]

Did Oddley ever specify dried herbs or was it something I have missed? It may account for weights and 'herbiness' as fresh is a gentler flavour and much heavier. Just a thought.

I use fresh in my last 'cumberlandian' recipe and a little more spice, slightly less salt, than this (which it was based on) and I am as happy with it as can be.

A true 'master of tasty' in almost all of his recipes.

[wheels]

Hi Phil, - Iv'e followed the above measurements to the letter but omitted the phosphate (not got any), I'm going to make a kilo batch this afternoon to try out. My concern is the strong smell of Sage in the seasoning. Iv'e used a common Sage from my garden that I dried a couple of months back, but it hardly weighs anything so 2.3g seems quite a lot for a kilo of sausage. I've just weighed another gram as a control sample and it's taken 17 small sized leaves to make that weight, so the best part of 40 leaves would be needed for this recipe. I notice in your 'Not Lincolnshire sausage that you would use 5 grams to a kilo of meat, so 2.3g isn't excessive. Maybe it's a case of measuring by volume rather than weight as I may have dried the 'living daylights' out of my Sage !
I think I will go ahead with the recipe but only use 1 gram of Sage seeing as a true Cumberland should be more noticed for it's spiceness rather than herbs - where's Capt. Wassaname when you need him

I agree. The use of lots of herbs seems to have become commonplace in Cumberland sausage. As I have said before, the ones I remember were spicy not herby. I should also mention that the 'Not Lincolnshire sausage' is not my recipe, it's from a butcher called Phil Groth, via forum members Parson Snows and Oddley.

There's some anecdotal evidence that the use of herbs was more prevalent in what is now the S.Cumbria area; historically this would have been Westmorland and a bit of Lancashire. Peter Gott, the president of the Cumberland Sausage Assoc. hails from this area. He can be seen in these two (somewhat contradictory) videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRE40yWrAS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs4j8SGlmC8

That said, Mum & Dad brought me some sausage from a farm-shop near to where Peter Gott has his, near to Kendal. The butcher there said that it should contain 'salt, pepper and maybe a tiny bit of mace', but noted that 'some' add 'a bit of sage or chives'. The taste of his sausage backed this up, and was very like what I remember.

HTH

Phil