Cocktail
Sausages - what are they all about?
November
2012
Most supermarkets sell
retail packaged uncooked "small
sausages", you know the rather pale
pink, smooth, industrially produced
looking sort, all regimentally
aligned in their filmed packaging
and all absolutely identical, which
do seem to be very popular with
children of all ages, and are no
doubt a regular staple at your
"little ones" birthday parties.
However recently I've noticed
specifically higher quality
"cocktail sausages" appearing on the
shelves alongside the more
mainstream examples of sausage
delight, but they seem to be just a
smaller version of a chipolata, but
are they?
It seems that a
true "cocktail sausage" is something
you can serve at a "party" or
"soiree" either loose on a serving
plate as finger food or with a
cocktail stick stuck in each to help
you pick them up and dip them. You
would eat these as you would with
other delicacies, crudities and
canapés, so a small sausage is ideal
as it will be easy to eat in one or
two bites, with or without a plate.
There appears there are quite a few
variations to the theme such as
pork, chicken, beef, and no doubt
other meats and combinations if you
can persuade your local butcher to
run you up something different.
I've seen smoked salmon ones too,
although I'm not sure about those
personally! There's even Kosher and
Halal versions available from the
right supplier!
Sauces to
accompany these can be quite
aromatic and thick such as sticky
barbeque, chilli ketchup, honey
mustard or sweet & sour! The sauces
can be intense and strongly
flavoured as your guests would
perhaps just eat a couple along with
the other fare.
We bought a
pack of "cocktails" to try and as we
are looking for a comparison, a pack
of the same producers chipolatas
went in to the basket too. As the
cocktail sausages lacked a specific
meat percentage content on the
label, we decided on a taste and
texture comparison.
Well
we'll cut to the chase then. In a
blind tasting of these, I doubt
whether you would taste any
difference, so there you go! The
casings seem the same dimensionally
and quality-wise, so why the extra
cost for "cocktail sausages" above
regular chipolatas? Surely the
extra twists on a chipolata sausage
run for a producer can't amount to
nearly an extra £2 / Kg?
I like a challenge, so within
less than 5 minutes we've made some
"cocktail sausages" out of the
chipolatas we bought earlier! With
each chipolata, give each a bit of a
squeeze a third of the way along
it's length, four twists, move on to
the next third and so on. Cut them
carefully apart and in the pan they
go!
When
cooking I half expected the little
darlings to burst as the casings
were pretty tight, but all was OK
and I'll openly admit given the
results from our test and the cost
per kilo difference, we'll no doubt
be buying chipolatas again to make
our own "cocktail sausages" in the
future...
