Perfect Christmas Day (Penguin Specials) by Felicity Cloake

Author:Felicity Cloake [Cloake, Felicity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241962510
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2011-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

I love everything about Christmas dinner, but these, perhaps, are the salty, succulent cherry on the top of the festive cake. The only rule when it comes to pigs in blankets is that, however hard you try, there will never be quite enough. Everyone always has room for one more, even eaten cold after dinner, while groaning that they’ll never eat again. By the same token, make sure you provide sufficient for everyone to have the same number, otherwise the more polite will be consumed with a very unseasonal envy as the brave help themselves to that extra sausage they secretly crave.

You might think there’s little to tweak with this recipe – after all, how can one improve upon the perfection of baked chipolatas wrapped in crisp bacon – but, as ever, people have tried. Jamie Oliver tucks three sage leaves, blanched and tossed in olive oil, beneath the bacon. I find the flavour overpoweringly medicinal – sage is a powerful herb, and one I’d prefer to leave, in a more subtle guise, to the stuffing.

Waitrose magazine go for a similarly grown-up twist, basting their sausages with a sticky mixture of honey, bourbon and Tabasco sauce – a deeply Southern combination of flavours, but one which proves even more of a let-down. It’s too runny to stay on the sausages, and all my tasters can detect once they’ve been baked is a faint hint of sweetness.

Antony Worrall Thompson, meanwhile, cuts a long slit in each sausage and spoons in some sweet chilli pickle before tenderly covering up the evidence with bacon. Sadly, I can’t allow anything sweet chilli flavoured to ruin my Christmas dinner, so I substitute mustard instead. It’s not a bad idea, but doesn’t add anything more than a mustard dip would.

I decide to combine the stickily caramelized quality I was hoping for from the Waitrose recipe with mustard seeds (often sold in the Indian section of supermarkets), which, as well as providing the subtle heat that worked so well in the stuffed sausages, will crisp up deliciously in the oven.

Although these are a classic accompaniment for turkey, they also make excellent festive party food, but you will have to cook several trays full to prevent disappointment. Don’t ignore the advice to stretch out the bacon before you use it, by the way: it prevents the rashers shrinking too much during cooking, and the thinner they are, the more they’ll crisp up.

Makes 12

6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon

12 chipolatas

2 tablespoons runny honey

1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°/gas 4. Stretch out each rasher of bacon as far as possible, using the back of a knife, then cut each one in half. Wrap each sausage in a piece of bacon.

Put the sausages into a bowl and drizzle over the honey. Toss well to coat, then sprinkle over the mustard seeds while you continue to toss the sausages, so that the seeds are evenly distributed.

Put the sausages on a greased baking tray and bake for 40 minutes, until crisp and brown.

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