Cumberland Sausage - the quest continues

[Bob Jefferson]

I shan't be boring you with details of my holiday, nor sharing with you my holiday snaps since I remembered to take the camera but forgot the memory card. However, I thought you might like to hear of my ongoing quest for the ultimate Cumberland sausage.

I'm a bit of a traditionalist here and I won't have any truck with a Cumberland-esque sausage that is produced outwith Cumbria. I am aware that Findlays do a version and I was greatly amused to note that Heinz has added to its 57 varieties 'Baked Beans with Cumberland Sausage' but I was on the trail of the real thing, un saucisson sans pareil.

My mother still swears by Cranston's sausage, but I personally feel that it doesn't taste as meaty as I recall from my youth. As part of his 'Food Heroes' series Rick Stein featured a local producer, trading as , who uses rare breeds of pig to produce a more authentic flavour. It's made from 98% pork with no additives of any kind, other than salt and cracked black pepper.

Last year we set out to locate BCF in Crosby on Eden. It involved quite a long detour, but being a foodie this was a small inconvenience. Not sure that the rest of the family agreed, particularly when we finally arrived to discover that there are two Crosby on Edens in Cumbria and we were in the wrong one. Ironically, the one we wanted was only a few miles from where we had just come from. Anyway, this morning I finally tracked down the elusive sausage. I didn't have any cash so they gave me a pound of sausage as a free sample. (They don't get many customers from Edinburgh and I can be very persuasive!)

I then drove to my parents' house and presented my mother with said sausage. As usual, she had spent a fortune in M&S to provide lunch for us, but I insisted on the sausage. So how was it? Very peppery, very meaty, a bit dry. I overcooked it to be honest. So the jury is still out.

I've heard that in Waberthwhaite is supposed to be very good. If anyone is planning to be in the Lake District anytime soon...?

[mr magnolia]

[ecm]

[Pal of Porty]

[ecm]

[Pal of Porty]

[ecm]

[Pal of Porty]

[Bob Jefferson]

[mr magnolia]

[Sandra]

[Sandra]

[Lizzie]

[Pal of Porty]

[foxy]

[Porty]

[foxy]

[bellybabe]

[Epykat]

[Bob Jefferson]

Lizzie, Epykat - you are both so sweet. Waberthwaite is I'm afraid, nowhere near Carlisle. It's near Ravenglass on the A595, miles from anywhere really.

Border County Foods on the other hand is a bit more accessible. From Kingstown head towards Asda, continue on this road past the Gallo Rosso restaurant and take the next left and then left again into the Kingsmoor Business Park. There's a barrier but the guy in the gate house will let you in and direct you from there. Epykat, I don't want to put you to any trouble but if you think you can find it let me know and I'll sort something out with you. I don't think I did their sausage justice and I'd like to give it another bash.

Both suppliers do mail order but the carriage is prohibitive unless you are buying industrial quantities.

Thanks to everyone for the recipes so far - keep them coming. I'll definitely be trying them out and I'll report back. Mr M's chilli and garlic spag sounds great, though I think I might be tempted to add a few prawns. Bellybabe- whose mushroom risotto are you touting out of interest, as I have my own fave?

[bellybabe]

[Epykat]

[Porty]

[Jay]

If ecm can't get one for you, would you like me to try in Furness, next time I'm down? - or would you count that as not a traditional one, as Furness was never in Cumberland ..........? (it is now in Cumbria, but most people there still consider themselves Lancastrians).

I have meant to ask you, Bob, whether you heard about Carlisle football club and the two goldfish?

[Bob Jefferson]

[Jay]

My 'local' in the village in Furness is a mine of information - a bit like POL! - I'll ask next time I'm down about where to get the best Cumberland sausage - and when the debates have died down (!) - I'll take a consensus and go and get one for you!

It broke my heart to see the pictures of Carlisle, Bob. I don't know the town really well, but I did do quite a bit of FH research in the library and the Castle, and I always liked the town - friendly people and a lovely town centre, preserving the old, but also modern and up-to-date. I was devastated to see the pictures. And I know exactly what it means to lose personal items in a flood, as I lost half of my things in the Millennium Floods. I was amazingly lucky in that really precious items, like photos, diaries etc., were the things that were saved (I wasn't there when it happened, so it was pot-luck what was grabbed), but all my precious books went, and a lot of other items that had sentimental value. I really feel for people who get flooded out.