Celebrating Heritage British Food & Cooking
Saveloy sausages are a British classic with their distinctive lipstick-red casing. I can personally testify that they are very tasty.
These classic smoked sausages are commonly bought in UK fish and chip shops. Sold ready to eat they have an interesting history.
Like many other inventive British products, they used to be made with offal, in this case, pig brains. When food was scarce it made sense to use as much of an animal as possible.
Their name comes from the old Italian cervellato anglicised to saveloy. Modern ones are made from a combination of beef, pork, spices and rusk.
The closest sausage to the saveloy outside the UK is the Swiss cervelat, also historically made using pig brains.