Cumberland Sausage

Cumberland Sausage. Mildly spiced with common herbs and spices, this traditional meaty British sausage has little filler, freezes well, and can be stuffed into sausage casings or formed into patties.

I began making homemade sausages a couple of years ago.  I have to say that it is one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done in the kitchen.

Sausages are one of those things that I’ve loved  my whole life.

My mother used to get fantastic sausages from Walt Mercer’s Butcher Shop in Coley’s Point. They were definitely a family favourite.

Growing up, we loved to make breakfast for dinner. If pancakes and sausages were on the menu, I was one happy kid. 

These days our own family still occasionally does breakfast for dinner and of course we love our weekend brunches too. This Cumberland Sausage would be ideal to serve at either.

Cumberland Sausage, the origin.

Cumberland Sausage comes from the Cumbria region In the Northwest of England. The sausage is traditionally sold in coils as pictured in the photo at the top of the page.

 

Strict rules are in place to protect the authenticity of the recipes that were, and still are, traditionally made.

Things like no more than 10% rusk or bread crumb filler by weight, a select few herbs and spices that can only be used.

Strict rules for Cumberland Sausage.

There are also quality controls like no skin or connective tissues allowed in the ground pork. All rules must be adhered to in order for one of these coils to be considered a proper Cumberland Sausage.

I’ve stayed pretty true to these rules with the exception of the addition of one or two spices I like.

This recipe makes about 6 pounds of sausage but you can easily make a half batch. Or even a double batch if you’re feeling particularly industrious.

I always start with fresh pork shoulder but have used pork sirloin if it happens to be on sale.

In that case, because the meat will be too lean for sausage, I substitute 1 pound of skinless pork belly for one pound of the pork shoulder. This helps to get the right balance of fat.

I also prefer to use dried bread crumbs in this recipe. I coarse grind the bread in a food processor and then spread the crumbs out on an aluminum cookie sheet to bake at 200 degrees for about an hour.

The crumbs get tossed a couple of times during baking. Once baked and cooled, I grind them in the food processor again to get them a little finer.

Freezing and storing your Cumberland Sausage.

A vacuum sealer is ideal for storing the sausage coils for freezing, but Ziploc bags work quite well too. Just try and get as much air out of the bag as possible. When freezing these as breakfast patties, I like to weigh out the portions into 3 or 4 ounces before forming them into sausage rounds.

My method for freezing them is to stack them about 6 high with 2 parchment paper or wax paper squares between each patty. The two squares mean that each side of the sausage patty will be protected on both sides in the freezer.

It also makes them every easy to take apart while frozen so that you need only take out as many as you need at a time.

Love homemade sausage?

You might also like our recipe for Easy Homemade Breakfast Sausages. This one is based on breakfast sausages from the southern US.

Like this Cumberland Sausage recipe?

You’ll find dozens of other great recipes like this in our Breakfast & Brunch Category and even more ideas in our Muffins, Tea Buns & Scones Category.

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