As it turned out they did in fact try this, to claim that the Great British Sausage was not a sausage because it did not contain enough meat. Which is rather to miss the point. They’re trying again:
Brussels will start a trade war with Britain if Boris Johnson overrides the Brexit treaty so that Northern Irish shops can keep selling British sausages, a vice-president of the European Commission has warned.
In an article for The Telegraph – published below – Maros Sefcovic said the EU would react “swiftly, firmly and resolutely” if Britain unilaterally extended the grace period in the Northern Ireland Protocol, which expires at the end of June.
Britain has already unilaterally extended grace periods – on supermarket goods and parcels – earlier this year. The Telegraph understands that ministers are now considering, as a last resort, another unilateral extension for chilled meats, including sausages and mince.
It is entirely true that the Great British Sausage is not 100% meat. But then it’s not meant to be. It’s a different beast – or parts of beast – from the chorizo, salami and bratwurst. Those others are served perhaps sliced and cooked into a paella, sliced and cold and for the third boiled – trust the Germans to go for the exciting cooking method.
OK. The Great British Sausage is designed to be fried – or perhaps baked/roast. They’re all methods of using up the scrag end of a beastie, true, but they’re different methods of doing so. The intended cooking method leads to requiring different ingredients. Those Johnny Foreigner muck things work best at 100% meat – or 100% plus spices maybe. But scrag ends are going to be fatty bits and to fry or roast this, unadorned, doesn’t quite work. Thus up to 12.5% bread in the GBS. The fat is where a lot of the flavour is, the bread soaks up the fat while cooking, the flavour remains with the bitten bit, not leaching away into the pan.
OK, fair enough, actually desiring to taste some sausages is a bit odd. It’s also true that manufacturers cottoned on early, wheat is cheaper than even scrag end of meat so the plumping out is also being done for cost reasons.
But the reason the GBS is different from that continental tubule is because it’s a different thing, intended for a different purpose.
Irish sausages do indeed exist but they’re slightly different again. Not quite sure of what the specific difference is but they always strike as being more like a chipolata than a GBS. Perhaps we’re talking of a finer granularity of the mince in there. But we do come to the point that GB is the only likely source of the GBS. The cuisine is different.
So, a million a and half people cut off from their only source of a basic foodgroup – anyone who has ever faced an Ulster Fry will know that it is a basic foodgroup too.
Well, that’s that then isn’t, gird the loins of the gunboats and advance on Brussels. Serve ’em right too.
Yes, of course we’ll win. Look, anyone can choke down the GBS but think of a nation that actively seeks them out, relishes them. How could such lose in any war?
My local supermarket is LIDL (which is German). They sell all sorts of German and British sausages. The German ones (at least those designed to be eaten hot) generally have a lower meat content than the British ones.
“The GBS is…a different thing, intended for a different purpose.” Note that Brussels does not just specify how to make it but what your purpose should be!
One thing that innovation does is further change the purpose. Surely this would require prior approval from Brussels? Though they oppose cutting the meat with bread, surely they’d be for using entirely meatless meat?
My intention? That’s one of my favourite games – Hide the Sausage.
Excellent sausage specialist in my town. http://www.procters-sausages.co.uk/ Some of the greatest GBS’s out there.
For me, Sainsburys, ‘Butchers Best Pork Sausages’ float my boat (possibly on a sea of fat it must be said).
All those foreign attempts at ‘sausages’ (not bockwurst, bratwurst, salami et al) seem to be overloaded with black pepper – ditto their attempts at southern fried chicken.
If it tastes good, who gives a f*ck what’s in it? Jesus, they eat truffles and foi grais.Oh yeah, plus those little birdy things which are illegal to catch but still caught by the Froggies in massive numbers and feed to likes of Clarkson. ….
BTW, my little ones and I loved Bernard Matthews Turkey and Pork sausages back in the Eighties. It may have been MRM, but it was way better than the ‘sawdust burgers’ on offer from the local butcher.
It really is straightforward. The UK is one country. The EU is now another. If the EU wants to limit access across its borders in any way it is within its rights to do so. And should do it. We really cannot keep this half-way pretence that Northern Ireland is partly in and partly out of the EU. It is out, and we should create procedures which recognise that accordingly. Trying to keep earlier agreements in place when the ground rules have changed will be increasingly illogical and unworkable. I was, and remain, a supporter of the clean break with… Read more »
To be honest, I can’t say I’ve had any trouble frying either French or Spanish sausages. Providing, of course, they’re the sausages meant for frying. You’re right. Chorizo isn’t. Nor are most of those strange German things. But, then, you wouldn’t fry liver sausage, would you? Although I do have access to the Brit sausage thanks to whatever our Icelands are calling themselves, I rarely bother. Prefer sausages with meat in them, now. The butcher I patronised in France made superb boar sausages. When I managed to shoot the ingredient.