Tequila Slammer Banger
I love tequila and I love sausages, so what could be better than a Tequila Slammer Banger from Dickie’s Big Boozy Bangers, a sausage company with a difference.
If we’re eating out in a pub and they have that old favourite Sausage and Mash on the menu, my wife always says: ‘I know what you’re going to be ordering.’ And she’s right. It’s hard to beat a big, brown, juicy banger, almost done to a crisp, with a pile of creamy mash.
So if you add a shot of tequila into the mix, I’m in heaven, though with Dickie’s Big Boozy Bangers the tequila goes right into the pork sausage. It is big and boozy, as 9.5% of the sausage is pure tequila, with 84% being open barn reared pork from an award-winning farm. Throw in a spice mix and there’s no room left for the rubbish ingredients that go into cheap pork sausages.
Tequila Slammer Banger
These tequila-laced sausages come in two sizes, a bumper-sized sausage which comes in a pack of three, and a smaller chipolata-sized sausage, in a pack of twelve. The company also makes other boozy bangers, like a Bloody Mary Banger with vodka, and a Prosecco and Apple Banger. However, as my pack of sausages arrived the day before National Tequila Day, what else could we try first but the Tequila Slammer Banger on National Tequila Day itself?
Simply by opening the pack you know you’re probably in for a treat. They look solid, packed with meat, and they smell spicily fresh and delicious. Cooking them means sticking them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, and turning them once or twice to get them thoroughly cooked and browned.
Mezcal Mash
What goes with tequila bangers, though? Well, what else could it be but mezcal mash? I couldn’t find a recipe for this online, maybe because I’d just made it up, though I did find one for mezcal ice-cream. Hmmm…
I also had a recipe for creamy bourbon mashed potatoes, so why not just substitute mezcal for bourbon? It seemed obvious to me that the smoky and spicy notes of the mezcal would be the perfect accompaniment for boozy tequila sausages.
For my experiment I chose The Lost Explorer Mezcal, a recent arrival on the market (and on my shelves), as it was smoky but very lightly so, and it had lots of other flavours that I hoped would work well with my basic creamy mash. It certainly did! In the end I abandoned the bourbon recipe as I hadn’t allowed enough time, and instead simply poured some mezcal into the potatoes at the end. Taste. Add some more. Taste. Perfect! Both creamy and smoky.
Tasting the Tequila Slammer Banger
By now the smell from the oven was driving us mad. It wasn’t quite like nosing a tequila in the glass, but there were certainly all kinds of aromas coming out, on top of that irresistible roast pork smell.
Pairing these boozy bangers with mezcal mash was a real meal to remember. I’m not exaggerating when I say that we both felt these were the best sausages we’ve ever eaten. That doesn’t sound like much of a description, compared to describing the taste of spirits, but it’s all you need to know. They’re the bangers from heaven.
The Head Banger
The man we can thank for our supreme sausages is Dickie Kieswick. Kieswick was tired of coming across sausages that promised so much but were, well, rubbish. In some cases literally so, as a friend who used to visit a huge sausage factory told me.
Kieswick was also fed-up of sausages that were only 42% meat. He started experimenting with making his own sausages, producing them at weekends to keep up with the demands of his banger-loving friends. He admits that producing a sausage that has lots of booze in it is not an easy task. Well, in his own words it’s ‘a bloody nightmare’. But he thankfully persisted, and I suggest you start with his Tequila Slammer Banger.
Buying Tequila Slammer Bangers
You can find the full range of boozy bangers on the Dickie’s Bangers website.
All photos by Sophie Harrington Photography.
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