Cumberland sausages are a favorite in the UK - here's how they're made

• With a coarser, juicier texture than other sausages and a flavorful aroma from the generous amount of spices, Cumberland sausages are a favorite in the UK.
• We traveled to Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and met with Peter Gott.
• Peter is a farmer and butcher who in the last 20 years has made it his mission to defend the traditional method of making Cumberland sausages.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Claudia Romeo: You will spot it in a crowd thanks to its circular shape. But the reason why you will forever remember this sausage is the taste. With a coarser, juicier texture than other sausages and a flavorful aroma from the generous amount of spices, Cumberland sausages are a favorite in the UK. But there are only 12 butchers in the country making the original, traditional sausage that's been granted a protected status. We're in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. This county has been the home of Cumberland sausages for hundreds of years. And today we're going to learn more about the traditional method to make Cumberland sausages, a method that will take us back to the times of the British Empire. Let's go find out more. To make traditional Cumberland sausages, butchers would have originally used a local breed, the Cumberland pig, which is now extinct. So now they use rare breeds, outdoor pigs, like today's British Lop.

Peter Gott: And what you find is, because they live longer, the flavor is in the meat, and with a little bit of spices and herbs, the sausage is fantastic. So, here we have the half of the pig. This is the shoulder, this is the middle, and the belly. So we have the loin, which is the loin chops, and the belly pork. And then we have the leg. And we make a combination of the leg and the shoulder together. Because in the leg, it's lean. And if you only just use the leg, you need a little bit of fat. So we need to combine the both. And when we cook this, you will see that the combination is the best. So, the knife skills. In taking off the meat from the bone, they've got to separate any sinew and skin.

Claudia: OK.

Peter: Believe it or not, any skin like this, in a commercial machine, could be made into a paste and could end up in the sausage. We don't want that, and we haven't got the machine. So it's important that every little bit of sinew, bone, cartilage is removed so we end up with really nice meat.

Claudia: Yeah.

Peter: And depending on profit, we need as much meat from the bone as possible, otherwise he's a very bad butcher.

Claudia: [laughing] OK. So, this one has been skinned pretty well?

Peter: [laughing] Yeah, that's pretty good.

Claudia: Once the meat is deboned and degristled, these are the chops that will later be turned into Cumberland sausages. Rather than going through a more commercial bowl chopper and being emulsified, the meat is thickly minced to retain solid, chunky pieces.

Peter: So, those are nice, chunky pieces of mince that, in a mouth texture, would be really good.

Claudia: Yeah, that's true. I can see the fat, but it's not as dominant as you would think.

Peter: We call that 80 VL. So, 80 pieces are red, 20 pieces are white. It's called visual lean. We can see this.

Claudia: Yeah, it's true, it's true, 'cause you never want to get rid of all the fat.

Peter: No, no, no, no, no.

Claudia: You still need a bit to flavor -

Peter: But if you put too much fat in, then it fills up the pan, and that's no good. And your sausage shrinks. But with this, the sausage will stay the same.

Claudia: It may sound obvious, but high meat content in a sausage is never a given. More commercial butchers will use bread or cereal, which is something Peter feels pretty strongly against. The bread or cereal will soak up some of that extra fat, which will in turn alter the structure and flavor of the sausage.

Peter: We want a high-meat-content sausage. We want a proper Cumberland sausage to be recognized, because it's different. And so we applied to the European Union for protection of our regional sausage.

Claudia: And that took? Peter: 10 years.

Claudia: 10 years to be approved.

Peter: This is what they call bureaucracy. 10 years.

Claudia: Now that we're all set on the importance of the meat, we are ready to learn more about another distinctive feature of a Cumberland sausage, its spices. These are added by hand before the whole mix is encased in the pig's natural intestine. So, what sort of spices go into Cumberland sausages? What do we have here?

Peter: In here, we've got salt and pepper, we've got a little bit of sage and nutmeg that are finely ground, we've got potato starch and rice flour.

Claudia: OK.

Peter: And this mix is the meat and the combination together. Then we've got some herbs, which is a little bit of sage. You could use a fresh sage, but with a dried sage, it gives it a little bit of better shelf life 'cause it's nice and clean. And then we've got the rusk, which is a pea starch.

Claudia: Which is not bread, right?

Peter: Not bread, no. Now it's gone a little bit dry, so we have to have a bit of water. Because all that has to come out of this nozzle.

Claudia: This specific spice blend wasn't random. According to Peter, back in the 1800s, German slate miners moved to Cumbria for work and brought their sausage recipe with them. But instead of the spices they were used to, they used spices they could get locally, which weren't actually that local. Spices were being imported to Cumbria from the Caribbean thanks to the port of Whitehaven, the second-biggest port in the country at the time.

Peter: So there was always a little bit of spice. Sometimes you might even find ginger. But predominantly nutmeg, mace, pepper. And these were the spices that made the Cumberland sausage very different. If you were working hard in the slate mines and you wanted to have a nice, strong sausage, the local spices were fantastic.

Claudia: Wow.

Peter: But really, the real component was the meat.

Claudia: Yeah, yeah. So, all together make something quite unique.

Peter: I take the intestine of the pig that's been cleaned.

Claudia: OK, so this is the intestine, yeah?

Peter: Yeah, this is the intestine.

Claudia: It's long.

Peter: And, basically, we put this onto the nozzle of the sausage machine.

Claudia: All right.

Peter: And this is very important that we use a natural casing, a natural intestine, as opposed to the cowhide synthetic which commercial sausage makers are now tending to use.

Claudia: So it just gives you a better texture at the end and a better taste.

Peter: Well, exactly. When you cook it, that natural texture, it isn't chewy or rubbery or plasticky, like sometimes you find on some sausages.

Claudia: Yeah. How long is that? This is one intestine from one pig, no? 'Cause it's continuous.

Peter: In Victorian times, it was 19 yards. Now it's 21 meters.

Claudia: OK, so now I know how long that is.

Peter: And that's interesting, because as we've improved the commercial viability of our pigs, the intestine has got longer, and probably the ability to absorb more food. It's just one of them things. But, yeah, there is definitely 21 yards, 21 meters.

Claudia: Oh, they have this -

Peter: Coil.

Claudia: Yeah, this thing, coil. And why is that?

Peter: Don't know.

Claudia: No?

Peter: Probably 'cause we couldn't tie knots.

Claudia: Really? [laughs]

Peter: Maybe it came with the Germans, because they make the rings of sausage.

Claudia: OK, yeah.

Peter: So, you know, maybe they were making a sausage with a ring. You know, like a ring, like the sausage sometimes in Germany, you have the -

Claudia: Yeah.

Peter: Type of sausages. We don't know.

Claudia: And it's quite pink, no?

Peter: That's a nice, traditional Cumberland sausage. You can see in the white bits, you can see the 80 VL, you can see a little bit of the herbs.

Claudia: You can see where the fat is, which also makes you realize that there's not that much of it.

Peter: Sometimes I think you see sausages in Italy like this, don't you?

Claudia: Yeah, in my region we have one that's served like this that's called zampina.

Peter: Zampina?

Claudia: Yeah, it means little paw.

Peter: Oh, right.

Claudia: But it's served in a coil like this, yeah. And it's, like, the grilling sausage. Once in a coil, a proper Cumberland sausage needs to be left overnight to let the spices and herbs blend into the meat. Peter grilled some from yesterday's production for us to taste.

Peter: Here, Claudia, have a taste of our sausage.

Claudia: Thank you. Here you go.

Peter: Chef. [Claudia laughing] Got to remember the cameraman, then he gives me my best angle.

Claudia: Yeah. [Peter and Claudia laughing]

Peter: So, the thickness is important. The coarse texture is important. But above all else, the taste in the mouth. Please. Cheers. Peter: Mm.

Claudia: Mm. That crack that you feel when you bite into the natural casing.

Peter: Natural casing, natural intestine. You're also tasting meat.

Claudia: Definitely.

Peter: That's prominent. A little bit of influence with the seasoning.

Claudia: Pepper. Pepper most of all.

Peter: Bit of pepper there, yeah. Obviously, bit of nutmeg. Can you taste it?

Claudia: Yeah, bit of that as well.

Peter: And to be cooking this on the barbecue, on the grill, in the oven, fantastic.

Claudia: Yeah, yeah, it's very good. It is, yeah, you can taste the meat. Like, it is quite meaty.

Peter: Claudia, if you own a Rolls-Royce -

Claudia: I wish.

Peter: You wouldn't put cheap oil in the engine. Don't put bad food in your mouth. This is fantastic.

Claudia: Yeah. So, how would you recommend eating this? I mean, apart from this way, like on a stick?

Peter: Traditionally -

Claudia: Oh! Huh.

Peter: In the ring.

Claudia: Ah.

Peter: A proper Cumberland sausage. A good meal.

Claudia: Beautiful.

Peter: Maybe a meal nowadays for two.

Claudia: Um, I'll eat that. [all laughing]

Peter: The more you give to Claudia, the less you have, you know that?

Producer: I know! [laughing]

Peter: Have you had a bit?

Claudia: Sorry. [laughs]