If there is one single food item that defined my decades of meat eating, it would be the sausage.
I loved sausages. LOVED THEM! I was a sausage fiend. Cumberland, Lincolnshire; pork or beef. Hotdog, chipolata, chorizo, frankfurter, bratwurst, salami, saveloy, … pigs in blankets; you get the idea.
Many of the great memories of my adult life involve sausages: a plate of Hungarian kolbász enjoyed in the Budapest sunshine; a cheeky pretzel-wrapped hotdog from Reading Terminal Market during a work trip to Philly; sharing a sausage platter with a mate in a London pub with the cricket on (and I don’t even like cricket, such is the power of the sausage). Great times.
When people ask me “What do you miss most now you’re a vegan?”, I usually reply milk chocolate, or trifle, or cheesecake. Puddings and sweets basically. I’m not sure why, because the real answer is most definitely sausages. Maybe I think that sweet stuff should be easy to find alternatives for, so I’m always disappointed when vegan options don’t measure up. With sausages, I know they can’t be replaced. There’s just no way. I accepted when I became vegan that I’d never have sausages again.
But is that really true? Are there genuinely no good vegan sausages? I have decided to pose myself this question as one to investigate. I have low expectations, just as I did on the run-up to my first Christmas dinner as a vegan. But I surprised myself with that. maybe I can surprise myself and find a decent sausage replacement. Maybe, just maybe.
