Hahaha…love it…!
…I can’t remember exactly but some sort of sodium nitrate and probably a dose of pentothal so the victims would say how awful the taste was after eating…
Hahaha, not many complain as you can witness from comments on here. Of couse you dont have to add it at home, just cook and enjoy.
Full of opium - that’s why it’s addictive…
2 Likes
Herta produces pretty reasonable back bacon, available in my local Carrefour and SuperU. As for sausages: make your own. It’s great fun.
You can find plenty of recipes for both Cumberland and Lincolnshire sausages online but it’s just 1kg of pork - 80% palette, 20% poitrine (though I often just use some côtes échines because they’re really cheap) - stick it in a meat mincer with 100g of bread crumbs (if you’re an English-sausage purist). Add 100-150ml of water, 1-2 tablespoons each or salt and pepper.
For Lincolnshire add a few tablespoons of chopped up sage. For Cumberland, add ½ teaspoon each of nutmeg, ground coriander, and mace. (You have to buy the mace online, impossible to find in shops).
I’m lazy so I form the mix into burger-type patties and freeze them, but you can buy “boyaux naturels” online and stuff them using the attachment that came with your mincer.
Enjoy!
3 Likes
Wow, I thought I might get a response or two, but what a lively discussion 
Thanks for all the tips and suggestions.
This is what L214 has to say about Herta. (Warning: Not for the squeamish)
Source: L214 Nouvelles images dans un élevage Herta | L214
1 Like
Exactly, I used to do that, (especially the burger tip)
To add to your recipe, include some herbs e.g. parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (might sound familiar)
Cue for massive thread drift.
I struggle getting French adjectives in the right place before and after the noun and completely changing the meaning. e.g. “Un cher ami” versus “un ami cher”.
I have only just realised that we do the same thing in English e.g. “Scarboro’ fair” versus “fair Scarboro’”
I used to make my own sausage, pork pies and burgers when I lived in France. I still make pork pies and burgers here in the Uk but not sausage, I know what my local butchers put in theirs.
Absolutely. Once you’ve got the basic meat, (breadcrumbs), water, salt, and pepper mix, experimenting is the name of the game. Personally, I’m more into spice than herbs, but whatever rocks your boat!
1 Like
Unfortunately, it’s all too common. And these megafarms are just getting bigger and more inhumane. I went round an chick-rearing hangar in Brittany when my kids were small: thousands on thousands of chicks from 3 to 21 days old. Barely the space each to turn around. The staff just spent all day picking out the corpses. I haven’t bought Père Dodu chicken since!
1 Like
I started making my own when my husband had a stomach problem as the local sausage was too spicy and have never bought any since. The only exception was when we returned to the UK this year I bought a pack of English sausages and they were more of a paste than a meat product, so back to making my own which I form into patties as they are easier to fry or grill.
I still have the sausage machine that takes 5kg of meat but should have sold it when I was still living in France as I don’t use it any more.
The advantage of making your own, apart from the satisfaction, is you can experiment with different flavours or meats and lengths , even size as there are different size casings available.
1 Like
I like both countries and also feel a need to return to France after a week in the UK. But there are just innumerable things back in Blighty that I don’t want to miss,including family, friends and various events. I just sold my house here and bought a camper van, and my partner here is trying to sell her Gite and relocate, probably within France. It’s a time of change.. hopefully for the better!
1 Like
Was in SuperU yesterday and out of curiosity, glanced at some of their meat; lamb and veal were pre-packed in plastic trays and around 20% more expensive per kg than from our local butcher. Also, although the meat was French in origin, it was not local (Aveyron/Cantal).
1 Like
That’s different from my experience. I did a sausage-making course some years ago and, since then, have made small batches of sausages for consumption over the coming week, eliminating the need for adding nitrates etc.
I have in fact, just purchased a new meat grinder for the very purpose of making my own sausages without additives.
3 Likes
Ah ok, so if I understand correctly, the nitrates are not necessary if you cook them pretty soon after making them?..I did the course in NL and I guess the meat their is either totally rank and/or the enterprise doing the instruction was aware of being sued for causing food poisoning.
I think I will give it a go sometime soon. Thanks
The nitrites are also added to help keep the meat/pork a pink colour ( think its a french thing
). I too make my own sausage meat but also like the occasional shop bought smuggled british banger .
1 Like
I think it’s just traditional, it’s salt plus saltpetre aka potassium nitrate, or curing salt which are sodium nitrate and/or sodium nitrate. There’s a thing called Prague powder which is some mix of them. Anyway I think they are fairly widely used, aren’t they? Doesn’t make them good for you, obv.
Ed for typo
Speak for yourself .. the nitrate is an absolute prerequisite for the male of the species… . The sodium ??? .. well potassium might stop the ticker ..