Bobby's Bangers: A Brief Paen to the Humble Sausage

In food terms, I can't really think of any item so potentially varying in quality as a sausage. A quality banger is a thing of beauty, capable of bringing light where previously there was darkness and joy where previously there was sausageless sorrow. And yet. Some sausages are unworthy of the name - limp, bland tubes of flavourless chaff made from goodness knows which bits of goodness knows which unhappy animal. Mr Liz once bought a well-known brand of sausage from a supermarket "because they were on offer and I had these as a child", and they were utterly inedible - flacid pink devil items tasting only of rancid fat. He was forced to repeat one hundred times "not everything I remember from the 1970s will still be appropriate in 2012" and has not been allowed to do the shopping solo since.

But you may remember that last week, I had a brief, thrilling, clandestine encounter at The Mark Addy with James from Bobby's Bangers - his sausages had missed the "Meet the Producers" food barge, and thus he had brought me some to try in the comfort of my own home. Now, obviously I was already minded to enjoy these pushy bangers, for they come emblazoned with my new motto for life, "Keep Calm and Eat Bobby's Bangers" and were also GIVEN TO ME IN A PUB, but last night we tried the Full English Breakfast ones and found them everything we'd ever dreamed of. I'm not always a fan of the heavily adulterated, flavoured banger, but this one really works - large, tasty chunks of black pudding in a sausage with a coarse meaty texture with real heft and chew; even the subtle taste of tomatoes and baked beans add to rather than fight with the flavour of the meat. I served them with my own homemade chilli cornbread, of which I am inordinately proud - in theory, I should no longer need to go to Southern Eleven approximately every three days now I know how to make my own, but we'll see how that goes.

The Madras ones are in the freezer, ready for another day - if you have any ideas what I should serve these with, then please send them my way. You can find these meaty gems at various farmer's markets - drop them an email at james@bobbysbangers to find out where they'll be or find them on twitter @bobbysbangers. James gave me these sausages for free, but I was not obliged to review them and will certainly be buying them in future from Mr Liz's Sausage and Pie Fund (otherwise known as his back pocket). Honestly though, if those sausages REALLY think that deliberately missing the barge last week will get them their own, dedicated blog post, they've got another think coming...oh.