100 days – Day 10: “Sausages is (sic) the boys”

 

A breakfast this morning of sausages, bacon and egg.  For some reason the late Scottish comedian, Jimmy Logan’s catchphrase, “Sausages is the boys”  came into mind.  I used to listen to him and Stanley Baxter way back in the 1950s and early 60’s on the old steam radio.

“Sausages is the boys”  I guess it means that sausages are the best, the bees’s knees, manna…. whatever.  “Sausages is the boys”  – in other words, “ye cannae whack them!”   (mind you, who would want to whack a sausage?  Don’t answer that!)

Originally, however, the catchphrase (in this case, “Sausages ARE the boys!“)  belonged to Tommy Lorne from whom, it’s been suggested, square-sliced-sausage was named.  Tommy Lorne was another Scotch comedian of an earlier generation than Logan or Baxter.  He  lived from 1890 and died in 1935, and loved his sausages.

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He often ate a sausage sandwich between his acts.  It has even been suggested that not only were Lorne Sausages named after Tommy Lorne and to give people an easy to make sausage sandwich, but that Tommy Lorne was the inventor of the Lorne Sausage.

Whoever did come up with the original recipe for Lorne Sausage is owed a debt of gratitude to many Scots.  The shape and size is perfect to fit between two slices of bread to make the perfect sausage piece.

 

–ooOO00–

There’s an old Scottish song about sausages which I particularly like:  it’s called  “I Love a Sausage”

 

I love a sausage, a big boloney sausage,
If ye saw it ye wad fancy it yersel,
If ye fry it with an ingin,
Ye can hear the sausage singin’,
“Mary, my Scots Bluebell”.
I had a sausage, a bonny, bonny sausage,
I put it in the oven for my tea.
I went down to the cellar
To get the salt and pepper,
And the sausage ran after me.
I love a cookie
A Co’perative cookie
A haill big cookie to masel:
Ye squeeze oot the cream
And hear the cookie scream–
Mary, my Scots Bluebell!

I love a cabbage,
A Co’perative cabbage
A haill big cabbage to masel:
Ye cut oot the hairt
And gie it to your tairt
Mary, my Scots bluebell!

I love an aipple
A Co’perative aipple
A haill big aipple to masel:
Ye cut it up in qua’ers
And gie it to the squa’ers–
Mary, my Scots bluebell!

I love an ingan
A Co’perative ingan
A haill big ingan to masel:
Ye fry it wi’ a sausage
And hear the ingan singan’–
Mary, my Scots bluebell!
I love a cookie, a Co-operative cookie,
Tho’ ye cannae get near it for the smell;
If ye spread it wi’ some syrup,
Ye’ll hear the syrup chirrup,
“Mary, ma Scots Bluebell.”

I love a sausage, a Co-operative sausage,
Tho’ ye cannae get near it for the smell;
If ye fry it wi’ an ingin,
Ye’ll hear the ingin singin’,
“Mary, ma Scots Bluebell.”

I love some breid, some Co-operative breid,
Tho’ ye cannae get near it for the smell;
If ye spread it wi’ some butter,
Ye’ll hear the butter mutter,
“Mary, ma Scots Bluebell.”

 

 

or how about this one from the 1920s?
 “The Sausage Song”

Turn me over, turn me over,
I’m waiting to be done the other side.
Turn me over, turn me over,
Remember Sausages have got some pride;
I’ve got no lovely clothes, I’ve got no silken hose,
But in my skin I’m welcome far and wide.
Turn me over, turn me over,
I’m waiting to be done the other side!

 

–ooOOOoo–

 

It used to be that sausages contained a lot of filler and little meat.   Bags of mystery was a term for sausages from 1850.  There used to be no regulatory control over sausage production, and a vast variety of unsavoury items were often added during Victorian times, left over scraps of meat and even sawdust regularly filled the linings, so this very apt phrase came into being. These days sausage contents are monitored but rusk is still routinely added as filler.

 

A customer complained to her butcher about the sausages she had bought from him last week.
“They were all meat at one end, and all bread at the other.”
“I’m sorry, madam,” said the butcher.

“In these times of recession, it’s difficult to make both ends meat.”

 

Why are they sometimes called Bangers?

 

After the outbreak of World War I, food shortages led to a dramatic reduction of meat, of any sort, in sausages.
Instead, producers packed them out with scraps, cereal and water, which caused them to pop and hiss when cooked on shovels over open fires in the trenches of northern Europe — hence ‘bangers’.

 

 

 

  Sausages are indeed THE BOYS!