I’m not sure exactly when I became a sausage snob. I suspect my days at school when no one seemed able to raise a dollar without rolling a thin brown snag across a just-warm barbeque contributed to my fussiness. I’ll eat most things, but I cannot understand how the lure of a beef sausage cooked to the consistency of petrified wood served upon a piece of dry bread.
At University while my mates enjoyed what seemed a three year sausage fest, I resisted the sizzle.
It wasn’t until Bearhands and I moved to the farm that snag pestering became persistent. Bearhands missed sausages and I came to realise that the occasional snag in the kitchen is a good thing. Our butcher at the time was a little too eager to encourage my love of sausage, but Mum later told me that was normal. There are two kinds of butchers: the flirty ones and the ones with their finger on the scale.
Bearhands and I will have been married seven years this week and as the story of true love goes, he’s taught me how to embrace good sausage. I’d get bored pretty quickly if we had the same old snag every week, so I’m always trying new ways to spice things up.
Toad in the hole is a traditional British dish that combines good pork sausages and Yorkshire pudding. It’s guaranteed to satisfy a husband with a banger hankering.
how to make Toad in the Hole
Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
750g thick pork sausages
1 ½ cups plain flour
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
2 ½ cups milk
sprigs of fresh rosemary – leaves removed from woody stems.
Method:
Preheat oven to 220ºC (fan forced). To make the Yorkshire pudding batter, combine the flour, salt eggs and milk and whisk until smooth.
Add the olive oil to a baking dish and heat in the oven for five minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and add the sausages and half the rosemary. Careful, the oil will spit! Return to the oven and cook until the sausages are golden. Remove from the oven and add the Yorkshire pudding batter. Top with the remaining rosemary and return to the oven and reduce the heat to 200ºC. Cook for thirty minutes. Don’t peek! It’s important not to open the door of the oven for the first twenty minutes or the pudding may not rise.
Serve with gravy and veggies. (Serves 6)
do you love a good snag?
is your butcher a flirt?
Maybe it’s because we’re from the mother country, but we love a good Toad in the Hole and it makes a regular appearance on our winter menu. There’s something so delicious about a Yorkshire Pud especially when it’s giant sized and stuffed with snags! Nom!
Hubby would love his – he’s a sausage man, sometimes. I’m not a fan either, can’t see the point of all those calories for something squashed in animal skin.
My hubby loves a good sausage. Me not so much. But I do love yorkshire pud and this looks like it might just change my mind, Yum.
Now we’re talking!! I LOVE toad in hole and had completely forgotten about it and you started talking snags! It’s on the menu for our tea tonight xx
Amanda, your Dad and I where raised on ‘Toad in the Hole’ you should ask him about it. Must say I think yours looks better than what we use to have xx
I’m not at all surprised to learn that in her day Nanna was partial to the odd snag in the kitchen, Merilyn! xx
I’ve never made or tried this before. All three of my boys are sausage mad so I know they would love this. I must admit I don’t mind a good sausage every now and then 🙂
Glad to hear it Lauren. I’ve had feedback from two readers who made this for dinner last night and the kids loved it. One boy came back from thirds! 🙂
There is something about a man wanting a fat sausage .. My husband of 9 years recently commented that he was craving thick sausages .. and then went on to mention that I have NEVER cooked him thick sausages. NEVER is a long time. My childhood experience of the thick sausage was burnt on the outside and raw in the middle therefore, just like TBone steak, rissoles and boiled mince … I don’t cook them.
Anyhow, being the good wife hat I am I went and bought some ‘pre-war’ sausages from a notable butcher on the coast and they have gone down a treat … I just make sure I cook them slowly over a low heat. To top off the week of the sausage husband also got to have his fat sausages while in a mining camp .. he rang me especially after breakfast to tell me, must have been the highlight of his day.
I grew up in Western NSW on a sheep , pug and Wheat place , we had lamb and more lamb , dad killed own . So snags were a BBQ treat , hence I embraced the good old sausage sizzle at uni . And Daddy Day care doesn’t make a not to bad wait for it ” sausage soup” eek elk , frozen mused vegs and snags served with mash and a random packet soup mix took me many yeRs to discover his mums secret ingredient , Dutch curry and rice soup mix , Contiential brand . Just basically slush , vegs and snags . It’s all about the snags I find , the big supermarkets do I call them ” plastic snags ” finding a good butcher with the colour of real mince and not to fatty is the key in the snag . We do curry snags and sausage s d peppers , will provide details soon , kids bug , small and sine picky eaters even luv it xxxxx
Excellent blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you recommend starting with a free
platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many
choices out there that I’m totally confused .. Any ideas? Bless you!
Hi there, I wrote my top fourteen tips for starting a blog a few years ago. You can check it out here: http://www.cookerandalooker.com/14-tips-for-starting-a-blog/
Best of luck,
Amanda