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London has always imported its sausages. In the past, according to Victorian journalist James Greenwood, they came from Epping Forest on ‘a broad-wheeled wain, with a russet-coloured awning, a pair of farm horses in the shafts, and for a teamster a pippin-faced countryman in a snowy smock-frock and with turnpike tickets stuck in the band of his battered old beaver hat’. Now, however, they’re sourced from further afield: producers in Poland, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and Germany all have porky fingers in the capital’s sausage stew, turning us on to new and exciting ways of mixing pork and spice inside a skin.
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‘In the United States, everybody knows what kielbasa [hot smoked Polish sausage] is – you’ll find it in the deli counter alongside salami – but we don’t have that vocabulary yet,’ says Leila McAllister. She is hoping to change that by introducing some of Poland’s smoked sausages into London homes through Leila’s Shop in Shoreditch and her stall at Borough Market. McAllister’s sausages are made in the west of Poland by Jerzy Skonieczny, a lawyer who has been making sausages for five years. ‘Law is nothing special; sausage is something special,’ says Skonieczny, who sells half-a-dozen types of sausage through McAllister, some of which take months to prepare. ‘This kind of production is expensive and takes time; it is not complicated but it must be done correctly,’ he says. ‘People prefer to use chemicals and processes that make things faster – they like methods that take 1kg of meat and produce 2kg of ham; we need 2kg of meat to make 1kg of ham.’

Top dog: a Banger Bros special

That’s what makes Skonieczny’s sausages – made to recipes that are often 200 years old – more expensive than the mass-produced versions on sale in London’s many Polish shops, and it’s why McAllister believes she mainly ‘sells to native Londoners rather than Poles who are here to work and save money. They may be twice as expensive,’ she says, ‘but they are 50 times better.’

McAllister previously worked for Brindisa at Borough Market, where she started selling Spanish chorizo in a bun, something familiar to Spaniards but novel in London. It almost single-handedly catapulted the chorizo into the London culinary consciousness and, believes Mike Lucy of the Honest Sausage kiosk in Regent’s Park, ‘opened our eyes to good, robust, flavoursome sausage in a bun’.

Spanish specialities at R Garcia & Son

Borough Market’s impact on the city’s sausage-eating fraternity doesn’t end there. Lucy talks of being inspired by Peter Gott of Sillfield Farm, who has a stall at the market and is a firm believer in good produce, cooked well and served simply. Gott makes sausages influenced by international tastes, including a version of the South African boerewors and a wild boar salami.

That a market should be the meeting place for sausageheads is not surprising. After all, as McAllister says, ‘sausages have always been a market food; there aren’t many markets in Europe where you can’t get hold of a good sausage in a bun. In Germany it’s bratwurst, in Spain it’s chorizo, in Poland it’s parowki, in Portugal they bake slices of chorizo into bread. It’s appropriate food for cold days.’

Ham sausage, just one of the eastern European favourites at Topolski

For evidence, head down to the antiques market at Portobello Road, where not only will you find the German Food van serving decent pale bratwurst and the Spanish delicatessen R García and Son selling a superb range of chorizo and blood sausage, but also new takeaway Banger Bros, where you can get excellent, simple, well-cooked chorizo, merguez, cumberland or smoky polish sausage in a bun for a bargain £3.50. Just up the road, the resolutely British S&M Café, once the go-to place for sausages in London, is starting to look a little tired in the face of such multicultural competition.

S&M Café, along with Biggles Gourmet Sausages in Marylebone, was part of the first new wave of London bangers in the early ’90s. Explains Lucy: ‘The sausage – the organic or free-range type, anyway – became the acceptable burger for the middle classes after sausage, mash and onion gravy started appearing on menus in modern British restaurants. And like everything, it has come off the fancy plate into a bun, where people can charge a lot less for it but it’s just as good.’

Tourists enjoy a chorizo bap at Brindisa, Borough Market

Lucy, who specialises in cafés in galleries and parks, now serves sausages at many of his other enterprises. ‘At the Roundhouse Café we do something called the French Lorry Driver, which is a bun with a merguez sausage and chips piled on top. And we’re opening a place called Concrete at the Hayward Gallery and the one thing we want to put on there – because it is at the provocative end of the sausage range – is blood sausage.’

As Lucy explains, sausages lend themselves to such creativity: ‘You can eat a sausage at any time of day or night, which gives it such potential for being developed further’. McAllister concurs: ‘Sausages are never going to go out of fashion.' Not in London, anyway.

Breakfast, Banger Bros-style

London's best sausages...
For breakfast
‘Something that gives you the most chance of tasting the pork, a cumberland or a lightly seasoned pork sausage, avoiding strong herbs and flavourings.’ Mike Lucy
‘Try a Polish royal sausage, sliced thinly and fried, served with scrambled eggs.’ Leila McAllister

With mash
‘Best at 11.30pm after beer, something with spice and herb in it. It’s an alternative to a curry – there’s a chilli, ginger and mace variety that we sell in the Honest Sausage.’ Mike Lucy
‘A banger. If they’re made with really good meat, then the simpler the better, but I always think fennel goes well with pork.’ Leila McAllister

In stew
‘Chorizo is great in bean stews, it seasons it and gives it colour and has a great contrast. Ours comes from Garcia on Portobello Road.
We use a variety called Alejandro. Don’t cut too thin, you need big chunks.’ Mike Lucy
‘Chorizo, although they can sometimes overpower your stew. But it has to be something coarse or fatty, anything else will dry out.’ Leila McAllister

In a bun
‘Simple organic or free-range pork, seasoned with loads of fresh torn sage and topped with brown onions.’ Mike Lucy
‘Bamberska, a lean ham sausage with marjoram, sliced and served with butter and good Dijon mustard on sourdough bread.’ Leila McAllister

Chairman of the boar: Sillfield Farm

Bangers: a buyer’s guide
Banger Bros
Seven kinds of sausages, grilled and served in a bun, with salad, or on their own. Cheap, international and excellent.
Banger Bros, 225a Portobello Rd, W11 1LU (020 7229 9147) Ladbroke Grove tube.

German Deli
Sells a wide range of spreading sausages, hot sausages and dried sausages and salamis.
German Deli, 127 Central St, EC1V 8AP (020 7250 1322) Old St tube/rail.

Ginger Pig
Butcher with wide range of sausages and its own coveted sausage rolls.
Ginger Pig, 8-10 Moxon St, W1U 4EW (020 7935 7788) Baker St tube.

The Honest Sausage
Good British bangers in a bun.
The Honest Sausage, The Broadwalk, Regent’s Park, NW1 4NU (020 7224 3872) Regent’s Park tube. Also stall in Greenwich Park.

G Gazzano & Sons
Excellent source of Italian sausages.
G Gazzano & Sons, 167 Farringdon Rd, EC1R 3AL (020 7837 1586) Farringdon tube/rail or Chancery Lane tube.

Harvey Nichols Food Market
Here you can buy a Sicilian sausage made from Gloucester Old Spot pork.
Harvey Nichols Food Market, fifth floor, 109-125 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7RJ (020 7235 5000) Knightsbridge tube.

Kurz & Lang
You’ll find artisan-made bratwurst, rindswurst, currywurst and krakauer (pork, beef and herbs) at this takeaway.
Kurz & Lang, 1 St John St, EC1M 4AA (020 7993 2923) Farringdon tube/rail.

R García and Son
Deli with great range of chorizo and Spanish blood sausages.
R García and Son, 248-250 Portobello Rd, W11 1LL (020 7221 6119) Ladbroke Grove tube.

Lisboa Delicatessen
Best place for Portuguese sausage north of the river.
Lisboa Delicatessen, 54 Golborne Rd, W10 5NR (020 8968 5242) Westbourne Park tube.

Topolski
Jerzy Skonieczny’s Polish sausages and pickles. While at Borough you should also check out the chorizo at Brindisa and the native bangers from Sillfield Farm and the Ginger Pig stall.
Topolski, Borough Market, SE1. London Bridge tube.