Interesting conversation on Knuckle Grazers Channel 1 aka AI Poitou Charente. Apparently Iceland mystery bags are much to be preferred to French sausages which if it is to be believed are over spiced and full of grease. The conversation has been closed by the AI Stasi so no chance to contribute further. I buy "saucisses de paysanne" from my local charcutier which are not overspiced, not full of grease and taste relentlessly of the meat they are made from. I would say that they are second only to the finest sausage in the world,to wit, Cumberland sausage from Haighs of Workington.
Many years ago I lived in Burton upon Trent home of many brewers of fine beer, now long gone but that's another story and also home of a significant producer of pork products. Waiting for the morning train you could here the poor porkers anticipating their fate. The technical manager was enthused with the food technology and pointed to the addition of "rind emulsion" to their sausages and pies. In other words all the skin and fat and subcutaneous blood vessels whipped up into a pink cream. Tasty.
I've tried to get Eric le Sausage to make some with rusk or bread crumbs to emulate an English Banger but he just gives a Gallic shrug & goes "Boff" (or is it "Pfiff"?). I'm slowly wearing him down but it's a matter of being there when he's making 'em & adding some magic. When I was a kid I lived next door to a butcher & was the Sausage Stringer's Slave. Trouble is it was so long ago I'm damned if I can remember what went into them :-)
Because I am not ashamed of preferring an English type of sausage, we do not get them from Iceland or the UK but from a local farm near here, run by a couple of excapees from Zimbabwe. They also do proper bacon, lamburgers and gammon steaks.
We once got a large cheddar cheese from a farm in Brittany made by an Australian couple with French cows.
I eat what I like irrespective of its origin and do not believe in eating only French food because we live in France.
I too make my own but have to call in a neighbour to help me tie them. I use a 40€ electric mincer I got from Lidl . I just add salt, pepper and sage.
The sausage wherever and whatever is a way of using offal that has been around for hundreds of years. Some are great but others, for me malodorous andouillette typically, are repulsive. The best porkers I know are made by a farm in Norfolk, no gristle or nasty bits. Stands up exceptionally well against German wurst or American wiener sausages which are basically ground gristle and a bit of the less good end of a ham, nasty things.