A food review written by: Lee Sonogan

(19th century) Medium meal/Meat, pastry

A sausage roll is a British savoury pastry snack, popular in Commonwealth nations and beyond. They are sold at retail outlets and are also available from bakeries as a take-away food. A miniature version can be served as buffet or party food. Or even yet, frozen food and cooked in a microwave.

The basic composition of a sausage roll is sheets of puff pastry formed into tubes around sausage meat and glazed with egg or milk before being baked. They can be served either hot or cold. In the 19th century, they were made using short crust pastry instead of puff pastry.

Australian – Sausage Roll

The wrapping of meat or other foodstuffs into dough can be traced back to the Classical Greek or Roman eras. However sausage rolls in the modern sense of meat surrounded by rolled pastry, appear to have been conceived at the beginning of the 19th century in France. From the beginning, use was made of flaky pastry, which in turn originated with the Hungarian croissant of the late 17th century.

The Times first mentions the food item in 1864 when William Johnstone, “wholesale pork pie manufacturer and sausage roll maker”, was fined £15 under the Nuisances Removal Act and Act 1863, for having on his premises a large quantity of meat unsound, unwholesome and unfit for food.

Many people eat this with tomato sauce. While It is one of the few foods I prefer it with nothing on it. The best sausage rolls have ever had were in a town along the Hume Freeway in Australia. And at Flinders street station in Melbourne. The extra ingediant I think was carrot that made it better. Which is the biggest city in the state of Victoria. I recommend this food to everyone who likes pastry.

7.6/10

“The hour can be anywhere between three and six o’clock in the afternoon. The general rule is that the earlier tea is served, the lighter the refreshments. At three, tea is usually a snack. – dainty finger sandwiches, petits fours, fresh strawberries; at six, it can be a meal. Or “High” tea with sausage rolls, salads, and trifle,”  – Angela Hynes