ottotheboar

I do not miss much in the way of UK foods but do like pork pies and sausage.
I have been importing seasonings from the UK and had some good results, just curious if anyone else is doing the same.
I found that using pinhead rusk made a huge difference.

Maste

I've made my own sausage rolls here. How hard are pork pies to make? I saw them make it on British bake off and it didn't seem 'too difficult' but they edit that show pretty well!

ottotheboar

For the pork pie crust we use 1 egg, 250g flour, 100ml water, 50g lard and 50g butter. I found it works better if left in the fridge overnight, to try to work it warm is tricky.
For filling many recipes suggest bacon with pork cuts but I found pork pie spice from the UK and rusk gave best results.

uk_grenada

Yes, we do it here, and bacon and ham, bacon is fantastic, local ‘organic-ish pigs fed on tropical fruit and veg...

plasticbag_uk

We order our Melton Mowbray pork pies from Parkers in Buffalo NY, they ship them packed in dry ice and the pies are amazing, as are the sausage rolls. My missus has attempted to make sausage rolls but she doesn't seem to got the pastry right, she does however make amazing Scotch eggs.

steveq

We make all our own bacon and sausages, and this week we cut into our first home cured ham. Currently OD'd on it.

johnwoo

You could try ready made puff pastry, it saves a lot of time and trouble.
I cure my own bacon, but getting the right cut of meat is a problem.

johnwoo

MsElui

i also made some sausage rolls for the first time ever this week. I took the delia recipe and went loosely from that. To be honest - the hardest part was trying to stop myself shoving them all in my gob - they were bloody delish.

ottotheboar

Not exactly making my own but a first for me.
I was picking up a deer from our butcher the other day and he told me that he had 5 bears brought in this season.
I asked him how he butchered them and he skinned them obviously, took out the bear fat which tastes bad, adds beef fat and a large handful of sage, grinds the lot up and stuffs it into 2.5 pound tubes and calls it bear sausage.

GeoffM

I have made bacon twice and sausages twice. The first bacon was bland as I did not understand the difference between salt and nitrites (doh). The second bacon was pretty good, albeit not the correct cut of meat. Apparently the "ethnic" (Mexican/Asian) supermarkets may do the correct joint if I order in advance; American supermarkets might do but less inclined as they use it for other things (apparently).

The first time I did sausages it was a real PITA to stuff them - I just found the skins really fiddly. The second time I did a clingfilm wrap and half cooked them in boiling water, then froze them (sans cling film) for cooking later. They actually came out fairly good.

However, a new butchers opened near us with a wide range of sausages, including British Bangers. Well, I had to try, of course. Bland. Bland. Bland. What is it with Americans and (lack of) flavour?! Anyway, suggested a couple of additions and they responded so positively that my recipe (Google!) is now what they sell. Even the assistants in the shop said they tasted real(ly) good.

Since a local shop sells pretty good sausages - and even offered to do a British bacon joint for me, special order - I don't bother with home made now. I never tried the online British shops that pre-cook them first (Parkers?), just didn't sound very appetising.

Not tried pork pies. My family don't eat pork so it's a lot of effort for just me.

Bob

I've made sausages without skins, usually wrap in clingfilm and roll them, and freeze and they work okay. I was able to get rusk from a Brazilian place, but not any more and I can't be bothered online and last time just used a sage stuffing mix that I blitzed up which worked pretty well.

ottotheboar

Rusk does make a difference, the home made recipe of baking bread slices at low temperature and crushing them is not the same.
I am no lover of sage down here they put in in all sausages our butcher even has an option on his price list of extra sage.
He told me it was clear I was not a local as I did not like sage.

steveq

We made our own rusk. from this recipe
Rusk for Sausage - Local Food Heroes

plasticbag_uk

I don't think I have seen puff pastry here ? I will look out for it, she uses the pastry from those pre packed 'Pillsbury' type tubes, it is not nice and the sausage meat seems to be slightly spicy.
I work based in NYC and have found an Irish café in Yonkers that makes and sells them hot.
Thanks for the tip.