Sausage Roll 101

News today that Britain is experiencing a nationwide craving for sausage rolls. Due to the recent onslaught of rain, a yearning for comfort food and a £3 million national advertising campaign for sausage rolls featuring Paddy McGuinness of Phoenix Nights fame, sausage roll sales have surged. Ahhhhhh..... The sausage roll. As an Aussie, for me a sausage roll brings back memories of mum pulling huge trays of the things out of the oven (homemade of course) to serve at almost every special occasion. ACDC even wrote a song about them. “It’s a long way to the shop when you wanna sausage roll” No wait!....... It was actually “It’s along way to the top if you wanna rock and roll” but most of us sang the sausage roll version as kids. I suppose it was the Brits that took the sausage roll down under in the first place, but how did the original concept of the sausage roll come about I wonder? A quick google brings up a very amusing theory on Uncyclopedia. Something about an English lord back in 1647 who was understandably starving after battling the forces of evil back then, and rode into the nearest farm demanding to be fed pork pies. Unfortunately the farmers wife was a terrible cook and hadn’t mastered the art of the pork pie. She had however mastered the art of rolling pastry crudely around minced pig meat, but I won’t tell you what else they say she added to the dubious mix. If anyone out there has any more credible info on the history of the good old sausage roll, feel free to comment. Meanwhile I’ll leave you with a fabulous sausage quote from Otto von Bismark a Prussian and German statesman of the 19th century: "To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making." Also given as "People who enjoy sausage and respect the law should not watch either being made" Judging by the list of ingredients in the farmers wifes sausage roll mix I'd say that quote goes just as well with sausage rolls!