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OXFORD SAUSAGES, WITHOUT SKINS (Theodore Hook's recipe)
Take a pound and a half of pork from the griskin, freed entirely from skin, a pound and a half of beef suet, and half a pound of lean veal. Mince all very finely, separately at first, and afterwards together. Mix thoroughly, as the excellence of the sausages depends in a great measure upon the mixing. Season with three small tea-spoonfuls of salt, one tea-spoonful of pepper, a quarter of a tea-spoonful of cayenne, and a dessert-spoonful of dried, powdered, and sifted sage, and bind the mixture together with five well-beaten eggs. Press the meat into a stone jar, and keep it in a cool place. It will remain good for two or three days in summer, and nearly a week in winter. When wanted for use, roll the mixture into the usual shape, or into balls, on a floured board, and fry the sausages before serving. Time, ten or fifteen minutes to fry. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for eight or ten persons.
A skinless sausage meat of the old Oxford type, meant to be mixed in bulk, stored, and shaped as needed. Most of it translates directly; the storage instruction is the part to disregard.
- Ignore the keeping timesRaw pork, veal and beaten egg held in a stone jar for "nearly a week in winter" assumes a cold larder and a tolerance for risk that no modern kitchen shares. Keep the mixture covered in the refrigerator and cook it within a day or two, or freeze it in portions.
- GriskinThe griskin is the lean strip left on the pork loin or neck end after the fat was cut away for bacon. Boneless pork shoulder, trimmed of skin, is the closest thing on a modern counter and grinds well.
- The suet ratioA pound and a half of beef suet to two pounds of meat (pork and veal together) is over 40 per cent hard fat of the total mixture, which suited Victorian palates and cold plates. A pound gives a moister, less waxy sausage; beef suet can be swapped for fatty pork belly if you want a softer set.
- Mince cold, mix coldThe recipe is right that the mixing decides the result. Chill the meat and suet almost to freezing before grinding, grind them separately, then work the mixture briskly by hand or paddle until it turns tacky and holds together. Warm fat smears and the sausages fry out greasy.
- Seasoning in modern spoonsThree small teaspoons of salt to nearly three and a half pounds of meat works out at around 1 per cent, on the light side by current sausage practice, which tends to run 1.5 to 2 per cent. A dessert-spoonful of dried sage is about two teaspoons.
- Five eggsThat is a heavy bind and gives a firm, almost forcemeat texture, which is what holds a skinless sausage on the pan. Two or three eggs give a looser, more sausage-like crumb if you shape the mixture into balls rather than rolls.
- Frying timeTen to fifteen minutes suits thumb-thick rolls over a moderate heat, turning often; the outside browns long before the middle sets. Take them to 160F/71C at the centre rather than trusting the clock, and do not crowd the pan or they steam.
- YieldAbout three and a half pounds of raw mixture, which is a generous eight to ten portions as the book claims. Flour the board and your hands well, as the egg-rich mixture is sticky.
Oxford sausage was a recognised regional style long before Cassell's: a pale, herb-heavy mixture of pork with veal and beef suet, sage and often lemon peel or nutmeg, and traditionally made without casings, so that the cook shaped and floured it at the point of frying. The absence of skins is the defining feature, and it is why the egg bind matters so much here. The attribution to Theodore Hook (1788-1841) belongs to a common Victorian cookbook habit of hanging a recipe on a famous name; Hook was a novelist, editor of John Bull and a celebrated wit and diner-out, exactly the sort of figure whose supposed table preferences sold copy. Whether the mixture was his in any meaningful sense is not documented, and the proportions are close enough to other printed Oxford sausage recipes of the period to suggest the name was the novelty rather than the formula.