Bangers & Mash

Bangers and Mash with fried onions and gravy are inexpensive comfort food par excellence. Yet with top quality sausages and top-notch Jus de veau, it's an elevated meal.

To get hold of good quality traditional English pork sausages in Switzerland is almost impossible – simply because they are not made here. The compositions of sausage ingredients are as manifold as there are varieties. I always loved the taste of traditional English pork sausage.

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meatsandsausages.com writes: The majority of British sausages include a filler material, the most popular being rusk and oats. Adding filler material to sausages has been a common practice in many countries. However, in English sausages adding filler material is almost the rule. British sausage has bread in it; other sausages from around the world don’t. British sausages are full of bread and non-meat fillers. They are about 70% meat and 30% filler. Such a proportion does weaken the meaty flavor of the sausage, so it is a bit of an acquired taste, that Brits really do love. Consumers in other countries prefer higher-meat content in sausages.

To be called a banger, the sausage must have a filler and must be served with mashed potatoes. Without potatoes, it is not a banger, just a sausage. English banger is a typical breakfast sausage served with mashed potatoes and gravy. In England, the term banger sausage is only used to refer to the dish «Bangers and Mash»; otherwise, they are simply called sausages. Bangers received their nickname during the First World War, when fillers and water were added to meat to extend its value, causing them to burst as they cooked.

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Since years my parents and I pay the Annual English Bazaar in Zürch a visit. It's a charity event and fun because one can buy English food products that you normally cannot buy in Zurich. This year I bought a packet HECK 97% Sausages – made with 97% pork meat, these sausages are dairy-free and gluten-free too. It’s a special treat when I get hold of some perfect bangers and a reason for me to celebrate them. And what better way than to accomplish them with a rich, deep gravy made from veal stock.

Fabian Lange, or «Le Saucier» as he calls himself, produces one of the best «Jus de veau,» I have tasted. He creates his Jus’ in small batches in Zurich. Fabian says about himself: «I am a trained chef and apart from producing sauces, I work in top gastronomy – the 17 Gault Millau and 1 Michelin star restaurant Gustav in Zurich with Antonio Colaianni. The Jus is developed by me with much love and passion, and every production is produced and tasted by me personally for several days. I take every single glass 22 times in my hands. For the Jus, I use only the best ingredients and can guarantee that all my sauces are gluten- and lactose-free and contain no additives».

You can imagine the bangers tasted just so much better with this gravy. I accompanied the dish with potato and parsnip mash and fried onions, and it was heavenly.