cumbria's sausage secrets...

If you are looking for Britain's best banger then look no further, it's right here in Cumbria. After a thorough, countrywide search, Paul Hevey from Lakes Speciality Foods in Staveley was officially declared ‘King of the Sizzle'! A seven time Gold Award winner fused a Cumberland sausage with real Lancashire black pudding and celebrity judge Phil Tufnell said "When we tried Paul's banger it immediately stood out. The combination of the pork and black pudding was just stunning. Well done to Paul!". The sausage was aptly named "The celebration of two counties", reflecting Cumbria's heritage of the Cumberland sausage and Lancashire's of black pudding.

At the moment anybody, anywhere can make a sausage out of anything and call it a Cumberland Sausage and in Cumbria, we are rightfully shocked that our poor sausage has been hijacked and abused by all and sundry. So much so, that there is now a Cumberland Sausage Association who give out a simple message "for all those who, over the years, have demeaned, degraded and devalued the wonderful regional food speciality that is our Cumberland sausage: we're taking it back!" A traditional Cumberland Sausage needs to have a meat content of over 80%, it should be coiled and not linked, it should have a wider diameter than conventional sausage, have a rough cut texture and be prepared in the County of Cumbria. And whilst the individual butchers all have their own recipes, Cumberland sausage generally should be more highly seasoned than conventional sausages - a throwback to the import of spices into Whitehaven. So there you have it. Keep your hands off our sausages. Who says so? Well, nobody at the moment but soon "Traditional Cumberland sausage" will be protected by EU legislation when it gets its Protected Geographic Indication status - just like champagne.

Content and photography supplied by www.Artisan-Food.com, funded by Distinctly Cumbrian.