Bangers get flash

SAUSAGES are an enduring British favourite. The figures speak for themselves: 137,801 tonnes of sausages are consumed in the UK annually, £5m-worth of pork sausages alone are sold into the food service market every week (£3m into the profit sector and £2m into the cost sector), and since 1996 there has been a 34% increase in the consumption of sausages outside the home.

But this has not always been the case. Long a staple on pub menus and centrepiece of the full British breakfast served in hotels and guesthouses up and down the country, it is only in the past decade or so that the British banger has edged its way into the dishes served at some of the country's most fashionable restaurants.

Leading the way has been Richard Shepherd, who first introduced his now-renowned dish of bangers and mash to the menu at Langan's Brasserie, London, nearly 18 years ago. He did it as a concerted move to inject a more English flavour to his menu, alongside the likes of cod and chips, boiled leg of lamb with caper sauce, and fish cake with parsley sauce. "It was unusual to see sausages on a restaurant menu at lunch and dinner then; but, of course, everyone has now jumped on the bandwagon," he says.

Bangers and mash continues to be served at Langan's Brasserie today, and also at two of Shepherd's other London restaurants - Langan's Coq d'Or in Earls Court and Shepherd's in Westminster. They are enormously popular, with about 50 portions being ordered at Langan's Brasserie out of a total of 600 covers served daily. "A lot of our customers are the kind of people who eat out at lunch - and sometimes dinner - five times a week, and they like the opportunity to be able to order something simple, like sausages."

Selling at £12.75, Langan's bangers and mash is served with either white or brown onion sauce. Initially, Shepherd served the Porkinson sausage, created by society photographer Norman Parkinson, but dropped it when its quality became inconsistent in favour of a Cumberland sausage with a hint of herbs and spices, supplied by catering butchers CST.

For CST, sausages are a growing business, with about 7,000lb of its most popular variety - the CST Cumberland Special - being sold to the top end of the catering trade every week. There is also growing interest in its range of speciality sausages, such as beef and ale, venison, and wild boar and apple. About half of all sausages sold are for the breakfast table, usually sized at 16 or 32 to the lb, while the rest are destined for a main course at lunch or dinner (between four and eight to the lb).

"The main requirement of our customers is for an old-fashioned type of sausage with a good meaty content in a natural casing," says CST buyer David Webb. "The CST Cumberland Special has an 80% pork content and is flavoured with herbs."

Home-made varieties

Many restaurants, in addition to buying in sausages, make their own for added interest and individuality. At Home House, in London, head chef Simon Whitley has created a lamb sausage based on the traditional ingredients of a Cornish pasty. Middle neck of lamb - a good cut to use because of its high fat content - is combined with potatoes, carrots and onions for a sausage that is served with a carrot broth and boulangäre potatoes. He also serves a seafood sausage, made from monkfish, salmon, prawns, coriander, lemon grass, chilli and ginger, accompanied by a chilli and oyster sauce and noodles.

Paul Gayler, executive chef at London's Lanesborough hotel, serves venison sausages with a port sauce, red onion marmalade and red cabbage, and duck sausages, accompanied by caramelised apples in Calvados and mash, on the Conservatory restaurant's lunchtime menu.

"Sausages are a great, heart-warming, comfort food," says Gayler, who is a member of the British Sausage Appreciation Society. "They are quick and provide all sorts of opportunities for creating a selection of versatile dishes, suitable for all levels of restaurants."

Such versatility has enabled RK Stanley's Famous Sausage Restaurant to thrive in the three years it has been open in Little Portland Street, London. Although the 140-seat restaurant does offer several non-sausage items, about 90% of customers order from the choice of nine sausage dishes, including two vegetarian (Glamorgan - containing cheese and leek - and Nigel Slater's white bean). Between 1,500 and 2,000 covers are served weekly.

The contents of the meat sausages are sourced from smallholdings in North Wales by butcher John Jones of Ruthin. Huge quantities of pork, lamb, beef, venison, rabbit and hare are transported to London every week and turned into about 1,200lb of sausages by the restaurant's resident butcher and sausage-maker.

"We don't use any fillers, additives or emulsifiers," says RK Stanley's owner, Fred Taylor. "Our philosophy is real food, based on quality of supplies and value."

RK Stanley's sausage selection includes the Simple Stanley, the restaurant's best-selling sausage, which is flavoured with a hint of salt, pepper, nutmeg and thyme (£7.25); a game sausage, made from venison, rabbit and hare (£8.95); and a Thai sausage, mildly flavoured with Thai spices (£7.50).

While lentils, split peas, broad beans and other pulses, together with polenta, rice, pasta and cabbage, are all excellent accompaniments to sausages, RK Stanley's votes firmly in favour of mash being the most appropriate partner. The floury earthiness of its plain mash, champ mash, mustard mash, parsnip mash, sweet potato mash and garlic mash all provide the perfect foil to the rich meat of its sausages. n