The Big Smoke's Best Banger

From today, the hunt is on to find the capital’s best local sausage. The Jellied Eel magazine is asking Londoners to choose their favourite from a selection available at farmers’ markets.

The 20 sausages entered are all produced by farmers based within 100 miles of the city, and sold on stalls at London Farmers’ Markets. To add a little extra flavour to the competition, producers are putting forward more than just plain pork, with venison and game options being entered as well.

A short-list of those voted for by the public will be put to a tasting panel including food critic Charles Campion, chefs Fergus Henderson of St John and Alan Stewart of Manson, and butcher Charlotte Harbottle (aka @girlbutcher).

Cheryl Cohen of London Farmers’ Markets commented: “This is a great opportunity to celebrate the sausage, to buy local, and to support all those farmers that come into the city every week, bringing a taste of the countryside with them.”

The competition is being launched with the latest issue of London food magazine, the Jellied Eel, which has a special focus on nose-to-tail eating.  Editor Ben Reynolds explains: “People are increasingly aware of the importance of wasting less food, particularly meat, because of all the effort that goes into rearing animals. We’re very keen to promote ways of using the whole animal, and the humble sausage is a great way of using up cuts that might not make the plate. It also helps that they’re pretty tasty!”

Stephane Wise, of Northfields Farm, which has entered its pork breakfast sausage, said: “I was delighted at the opportunity for us to enter our delicious rare breed ‘breakfast sausage’ into this competition. It will showcase what homegrown, traceable and ethically-reared produce can really be.”

Go to your local farmers’ market to find out which is your favourite sausage, and to vote for it, go to the Jellied Eel website www.thejelliedeel.org. Please check at www.lfm.org.uk to see which producers will be at which market, because not all sausages are available at every farmers’ market.

Entrants stand a chance of winning a meal for two at a London restaurant, a bumper banger bag including packs of all five short-listed sausages, and other prizes donated by the winning producer.

ENDS

For more information and pictures please contact Ben Reynolds on 07939 202 711 and ben@sustainweb.org, or Cheryl Cohen on 020 7833 0338 or Cheryl@lfm.org.uk

Notes

1. Competition dates – The competition runs from 18 January to 20 February. A short-list of those voted for by the public will be put to a tasting panel, and with the winning sausage being announced in early April.

2. London Farmers’ Markets runs 20 weekly certified farmers’ markets in London, providing sites for 183 farmers and producers to sell direct to the public. www.lfm.org.uk and Twitter @londonfarmers.  Each market has its own dedicated Facebook page where customers can ask questions, write comments and view photos of their market.

3. The Jellied Eel is a quarterly London magazine about ethical eating.  It is produced by BIG Media and London Food Link, part of the charity Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming.  20,000 copies of the free magazine are distributed via 130 outlets across London.  www.jelliedeel.org/stockists and Twitter @thejelliedeel1.