To Make Savsages

This recipe is from Ann Smith, dated 1698, a time when English country households made sausages at home for family meals. The dish reflects the practical, frugal use of veal and suet—ingredients that were readily available and inexpensive for many rural households of the period. Flavorings are kept simple, relying on garden herbs, salt, and pepper, suggesting a rustic approach. Eggs act as the binder, a typical technique before the commercial production of casings and standard sausage-making equipment. Boiling in butter rather than roasting or frying indicates a gentler cooking style that likely resulted in a tender, moist sausage. This method also reflects the limited access to more refined kitchen equipment or larger ovens outside wealthier homes, emphasizing resourceful home cookery.

To make these sausages in 1698, the cook would use a large chopping knife and board or a mincing bowl for the veal and suet, a mixing bowl (often wooden), and her hands for forming the balls or sausage shapes. A skillet—usually cast iron or heavy copper—would be placed over an open hearth or on a trivet above the coals. Butter would be ladled in, and the sausages boiled gently in the fat, with regular turning using wooden spoons or tongs. No meat grinder, sausage stuffer, or modern kitchen gadgets were involved—just skill and elbow grease.