cumberland sausage...
It is no surprise that meat constitutes a significant part of the Cumbrian produce - the climate and geography of the region lends itself better to breeding animals than to growing crops. The most famous of the meat products may well be the traditional Cumbrian sausage, easy to recognise because, unlike other British sausages, it is not linked, but long and coiled, and sold by length or weight. It is always made from rough-cut pork and contains 85% meat. The other ingredients include a blend of herbs, spices and seasonings, with most butchers having their own secret recipe, some dating back over a hundred years.
The name came from the traditional Cumberland pig, which has unfortunately been extinct since the 1960s. Today, the sausage is made from free-range rare breed pigs. Like so many Cumbrian specialities, such as Grasmere Ginger Bread and Cumberland Rum Nicky, it makes use of all the spices that started arriving in Whitehaven in the 18th century, when the town was the third most important shipping port in the country. In fact, local sausages were considerably spicier a hundred years ago than they are today.
In recent years, a number of food producers have started mass-producing what they call Cumberland sausage, sometimes with as little as 45% meat content. The makers of the genuine article have responded by seeking to give the Cumberland sausage protected status under the PGI (Protection of Geographical Indication) in European legislation. If they are successful it will mean that sausages cannot be sold as Cumberland sausages unless they meet the criteria for meat content, ingredients, production process and place of origin. Other products which currently are protected this way include Parma ham, Normandy cheeses, Stilton cheese, Scotch beef and Jersey Royal Potatoes.
Cumbrian National Sausage Champion
While Cumbrians are keen to protect their traditional recipes and products, they are also very good at creating brand new ones. Paul Heavey from Lakes Speciality Foods won the British Sausage Week 2007 National Champion title for the Best British Birthday Banger. Paul created a pork and black pudding sausage which completely bowled the judges over. Organised by the British Sausage Appreciation Society, British Sausage Week is a celebration of the great British institution that is the sausage and those who embrace them.
Oyster Sausages
In the old days, sausages in these parts were made from mutton and oysters, two ubiquitous and cheap English foods. Says food historian Ivan Day, who lives and works out of Shap: "Most modern chefs and diners are very sceptical when I tell them how good oyster sausages taste - that is, until they try them themselves. So far, everyone who has sampled this curious dish has given them a very definite thumbs-up. This doesn't surprise me at all, as they have an excellent flavour - a combination of upland fell-bred Herdwick with more than a hint of the sea. If you like, the original surf and turf." Ivan is the country's leading food historian, and works within everything from museums and historic houses to film and TV. He was recently seen on BBC 2 in his kitchen helping Heston Blumenthal roast some spices in front of the open fire for Heston's perfect trifle.
