Simply Sausages

Best British Bangers

I love a banger, I really do. The sausage, for those of a meat-eating persuasion, is a staple. As soon as we cut teeth we love biting into a freshly cooked sausage. And the versatility and simplicity of the sausage makes it a steady favourite throughout life. Sometimes a chipolata, tucked into a roll, smothered in fried onions with a line hot mustard is spot on. Other times we crave bangers and mash, with a red-wine gravy. Toad-in-the-hole works. Let's face it: you can't go wrong with a sausage. In fact, one of my earliest memories is sitting on my grandad's lap eating sliced up sausage dipped in ketchup while he sang me this little song, which I'll share with you if I may:

"I had a little sausage, a pretty little sausage,

I put in the oven for my tea.

I went down the cellar, to fetch my umberella,

And my sausage came after me."

Enoughof my past. What of now? What of the sausage in these times of enlightened attitudes with regard to animal welfare? What of new tastes beyond simply pork? Readers, I give you Simply Sausages. Launched in London's Smithfield's meat market in 1991, these boys know their sausages. And they care about the pigs which are made into sausages: their animals are kept outdoors for half their lives before being moved into straw bedded barns, where they have room to move and are kept in social groups. They are happy pigs. The sausages themselves are superb: I tucked into the smoked bacon and leek while the chaps tried the pork with a hint of nutmeg. Both were excellent: tasty, with good chunks of meat and a perfect skin. You can pick them up Waitrose or Tesco's, and at £2.59 for six you could have a great dinner for two for under a fiver if you banged up some mash and a bit of gravy. Economical, delicious, righteous and, even if we have no proof of this other than our own contentment, healthy. Get stuck in.