Should we care what lies under the wrap or simply believe our eyes? Let’s make some tasty sausage rolls and only then decide!

Appearance can be deceiving especially in the time and age we live in.

What’s in the roll?

The fact that our instincts are still stuck in the times when mammoths roamed the Earth and barely can cope with the influx of information, can be a real challenge on a daily basis.

We couldn’t really cope with billboards and TV commercials properly but now with the constant stream of content, rolling up in front of our eyes, we are more vulnerable than ever. Of course, we have more information than ever before but that doesn’t mean that we can make more informed decision.

Should it feel right?

It seems that in many cases, especially when unknown complex situations arise and we rely on our instincts, we make decisions that not only not help us but even against our best interests.

Of course, our gut could foretell a good deal of useful things, like don’t pet sharp toothed wild animals, or never trust the members of other tribes but it’s not the most reliable advocate when things get a bit more complicated, like getting shelter under a tree may look like a good idea first, but science tells us that lightning bolts like trees in the storm too.

Should we listen?

So, our reasoning part can come on top if necessary, but it takes a lot of practice and sometimes tricks to be able to rein our untamed self, especially when all the commercial world is so bent on exploiting its weaknesses.

Fun fact that when grocery stores were experimenting with music, found that on average melancholic sad music increased the number of products the shoppers purchased. The reason why we don’t hear heartbreaking songs 24/7 in shops is that trade unions complained about the staff being lethargic and so our souls were saved there.

Only to be sold elsewhere though. Marketing strategies are solely created to wrap blunt everyday things into ideas we can associate with and feel as the extension of our own self. After all if it wasn’t for the Wienerfleet, who would care to choose Oscar Mayer over any other Wieners, made of the infamous pink slime.

Does the look matter more?

Wrapping is everything and it’s more important nowadays than it has ever been.

Sausage rolls are nothing more than sausages rolled into some sort of pastry. With the advancement of puff pastry production, when we can have puff pastry readily available for a fairly low price, the previous method of rolling sausages into shortbread pastry has gone out of fashion.

Sausages are rolled into some sort of bread since sausages came to existence. The ingenuity wasn’t coming up with the rolling but rather the filling as meat was always the more difficult part to come by.

According to early British court documents, some went as far as soaking brown bread into red ocher, a type of clay and ferric oxide, then seasoning it to disguise it as beef sausage for the filling.

Does sausage matter at all?

Luckily, things have changed a lot since then, and we only have chlorinated chickens, pink slime, and hidden sugar on our plates.

We can, of course, make our own that is always much better than what we can buy in the shops, not just because we know exactly what’s in it. Not even because of the lack of unnecessary calories or the preservatives in them but because our homemade sausage rolls are always made with love, and life tastes better with love.

Ingredients

Beginner

1 Puff pastry (keep it in the fridge until usage)
6 Wiener
1 Egg yolk (eggwash)

Advanced

¼ cup / 60ml Oil
1 Onion (finely diced)
½ teaspoon Salt
1 Celery stalk (finely diced)
1 Carrot (finely diced)
1 clove Garlic (crushed or finely diced)
4oz / 110g Ground meat
½ teaspoon Black pepper (optional)
1 Puff pastry
1 Egg yolk (for eggwash)

Overkill

4 oz / 100g Bacon / Pancetta /Guanicale
1 Onion (finely diced)
1 Celery stalk (finely diced)
1 Carrot (finely diced)
½ teaspoon Salt
1 clove Garlic (crushed or finely diced)
½ teaspoon Black pepper (optional)
4oz / 110g Ground meat
1 Puff pastry
1 Egg yolk (for eggwash)

How to make sausage roll

Beginner

Unroll the puff pastry. We used a 12″/ 32cm diameter European style round puff pastry. Size may vary. Keep the parchment paper.
Divide the pastry to three equal parts.
Since we used a round pastry, we had to patch the missing part of the circle by dividing the pastry into 3 equal 3″/9cm parts and a 4th 2″ / 5cm one that we used as a patch.
Place the Wieners on top.
Wrap the Wieners in.
Cut the rolls into 1″/2.5cm pieces or as desired. Place them onto a parchment paper laid baking sheet then brush them with beaten egg yolk aka egg-wash.
Bake them in a 350°F / 180°C preheated oven until golden brown for about 25 – 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Advanced

Filling

Pour oil into a pan and on high heat saute the diced onion, carrot, celery and salt until the onion gets a glassy / translucent look for about 3 – 5 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium to low then let the onion caramelize for about 10 -15 minutes. Add the garlic 3 minutes before finishing the mirepoix.
Mix the raw ground pork with the mirepoix. Also add optional spices like black pepper if desired.

Assembly

Unroll the puff pastry. (We used a 12″/ 32cm diameter European style round puff pastry.) Divide the pastry to three equal parts.
Place the filling on.
Wrap them up.
Cut the rolls into 1″/2.5cm pieces or as desired. Place them onto a parchment paper laid baking sheet then brush them with egg-wash.
Bake them in a 350°F / 180°C preheated oven until golden brown for about 25 – 30 minutes.

Enjoy

Overkill

Filling

On medium heat render the fat out from the Bacon / Pancetta /Guanicale.
Add the diced carrot and celery and saute for about 3 – 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium to low then let the onion caramelize for about 10 -15 minutes.
Increase the heat, add the garlic then mix the ground pork with the mirepoix add optional spices like black pepper.
Brown the meat for about 5 – 10 minutes. Let it cool before filling it into the puff pastry!!!

Assembly

Divide the pastry to three equal parts and patch it if necessary.
Place the filling on.
Wrap them up.
Cut the rolls into 1″/2.5cm pieces or as desired. Place them onto a parchment paper laid baking sheet then brush them with egg-wash.
Bake them in a 350°F / 180°C preheated oven until golden brown for about 25 – 30 minutes.