This month... What would you serve with sausage and mash?
Sausages used to be so simple. Pork, beef, or for the more adventurous gourmet, pork & beef. These days, if it can be lured into a mincer and forced through a skin, the chances are that someone is making a sausage out of it. Whether it's a basic banger or a smart saucisson, there's a great beer to go with it, so this month we've asked to our Beer & Food Matching panel to suggest matches for pub food classic sausage and mash.
- John Keeling, Fuller's head brewer: Choosing the right beer really depends on the type of sausages, mash and gravy. For simple pork sausages with creamy mash, London Pride is just divine. However, if you have a strongly-flavoured sausage, and perhaps a cheesy mash or rich onion gravy, you'll need something more robust such as ESB or Gales HSB. I always like traditional bitter-style beers with typically English dishes, so other fine accompaniments would include Timothy Taylor Landlord or Hogs Back TEA.
Kamini Dickie, product & flavour development at Brewing Research International: Creamy mashed potato is the perfect match to good quality juicy sausages; it's a beautiful contrast of textures. With beef sausages try horseradish or mustard mash; with lamb sausages roasted garlic mash. But my favourite is Cumberland sausage with créme fraiche mash and caramelised onion gravy. Team this with either Jennings Cocker Hoop or Coniston Bluebird. Both are wonderfully "hoppy" award-winning beers. The blend of styrian, challenger, fuggles and goldings hop flavours in Cocker Hoop gives a zesty bitterness with honey biscuit flavours. The floral fruity hop notes in Coniston Bluebird from the challenger hops fuse well with the toffee, dry, bitter taste. Cumberland sausage with Cumberland beer - a perfect match.
Ben McFarland, beer writer: Leffe Brune (6.5 per cent ABV) - it might be Belgian, but the country that gave the world Tintin also knows its way around a sausage or two. The caramel of the browned sausage goes well with the chocolatey, malty notes of Leffe. It's robust enough that a half will be enough to wash down your bangers, and it won't bloat you on top of all that stodgy mash.
John Bexon, Greene King head brewer: Greene King Old Speckled Hen (5.2 per cent ABV) sparkles with rich, golden amber hues mixed with warming red tones. It has a distinctive, rich, malty aroma and a wonderful full-bodied flavour. Made with goldings hops, it combines malt loaf and toffee flavours with a hint of bitterness and a satisfying dry finish. It's the perfect partner for a full-flavoured and warming supper such as sausage and mash; the ultimate British dish.
Richard Fox, chef and broadcaster: When it comes to matching beer with sausages, it's more a case of listing beers that won't go rather than those that do. If ever there was a dish designed for beer, it must surely be a plate of buttery, velvet mash, some butcher-created herb-infused sausages, and a rich onion gravy. So, on beers to avoid, you're probably best steering clear of cloudy Belgian wheat beers and lambic fruit beers. Personally, I like to keep things regional: Black Sheep with an artisan Yorkshire sausage; Pedigree for a Midlands version, and something from the Coniston brewery for the fabulous born-and-bred meats in the Lake District. Just make sure you use the best-quality sausages. Cook them so the skins achieve that state of sticky caramelisation which matches so well those flavours in good English ale. Finally, a good gravy with piles of sweet onion will provide the perfect contrast.
Rupert Ponsonby, director of R&R Teamwork: Pork sausages are great with milds, and with milder, maltier beers such as the "deliciously dark" Hobgoblin Strong Ale at just over 5 per cent, from Wychwood Brewery in Oxfordshire. This iconic beer's flavours of nuts and caramel underpinned by a hefty caress of English hops with hints of liquorice and orange is converting even "Lagerboys" to ales. Failing that, Fuller's 1845 would be my fave - 100 per cent goldings hops but full of balanced malt flavours.
Ben Bartlett, catering development manager, The Union Pub Company: The great thing about sausage and mash is that it can stay on a pub menu as a permanent item but you can vary the components. The mash can be buttered and seasoned and is usually made from potato or carrot and swede. The Irish have colcannon which includes their second vegetable cabbage, but my favourite is their scallion champ! For the gravy you can caramelise the onion and add a fragrant herb such as rosemary though loads of rich gravy is a must! I would match Banks's Original at 3.5 per cent ABV that complements and beautifully balances this plate. While best served from the cask, this smooth and full-bodied beer is malty, warming and has a slightly fruity taste.
Michael Tuckwood, Craft Guild of Chefs member and patron chef at the Stag in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: You need a strong and heavy beer with lots of flavour to go with the meaty taste of the sausages. I would say the darker and drier the beer the better. I'd recommend Old Speckled Hen or London Pride. The former has a mix of sweet and bitter tastes that gives it a dry finish, while London Pride has a mix of malty and rich hop flavours. My personal favourite beer with sausages and mash has to be a pint of Guinness, as it has a rounded dryness to its flavour that really enhances the taste of the dish. For slightly spicy sausages such as Lincolnshire or Italian varieties, you want a strong, dark beer while with a Cumberland sausage you might prefer something a little lighter, like Corona.
Phil Vickery, chef and broadcaster: I reckon you would always get a big-flavoured gravy, often with onion, with sausage and mash, and this means a bigger, heavier beer. Big hops would work well, Ruddles or Bishops Finger would be perfect. Lighter beers seem to get lost.
Our panel will be spicing things up next month's with suggested matches for Thai green curry. And if you'd like our experts to suggest beer matches for a dish on your menu, please email your request to pubfood@thepublican.com.