Here's a Recipe for Truly Authentic
English Sausage Rolls!

Ingredients:

17 - 20 oz. ready-made puff pastry dough (see notes below)
16 oz. loose sausage meat ("bulk," or removed from casing)
1 egg, beaten to seal and glaze the pastry

Preparation:

Make an egg wash by mixing the beaten egg with ¼ cup water. Cut the puff pastry into rectangular sections about 4½" - 5" long by 3" wide.

Season the sausage meat with salt, pepper and any herbs or spices you like (if using unseasoned meat) and roll a good, heaping tablespoon of it into a small, long oval for each roll. Place each in a pastry strip.

Roll up each and brush the edges with plenty of the egg wash to help make the pastry stick together. This latter step can be a little tricky - if you don't seal those edges together securely enough, they'll come "unzipped" in the oven half-way through the baking process!

Place them on a greased cookie sheet, seam side up, one inch apart. Brush the tops of each roll with the egg wash to create a nice glaze and cut two diagonal slits in the top of each roll to vent while they bake. Bake at 350° F for 35 minutes. This recipe makes a dozen sausage rolls. Serve warm or cold, with mustard.

These make great party snacks!

Notes:

Commercial brands of ready-made puff pastry are usually available in the frozen section of most U.S. supermarkets. Pepperidge Farm produces a 17.3-oz package containing two, flat (square) pastry sheets that are just the perfect size for this recipe. Be sure to follow the defrosting instructions on the package - most commercial brands need to be thawed 30 to 40 minutes before use.

Oliver Cromwell
1599 - 1658

Great Britain's "Lord Protector" was a farmer-turned-politician who showed the monarchy that its existence is wholly dependent on the will of the British people. His parliament deposed the king (Charles I), beheaded him and abolished the British crown for a time because the king ignored them for so long! But the monarchy was eventually restored with the coronation of the executed king's heir, and Cromwell's long-dead body was exhumed, symbolically beheaded and hung out for show like a common criminal.

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