Snag (Australian sausage)
Fresh beef-and-pork sausage with breadcrumbs, heir to the British banger. The word snag, Australian slang attested since the 1930s, is today the only term used in everyday conversation.
| Lean beef | 400 g |
| Lean pork (shoulder) | 300 g |
| Pork fat | 150 g |
| Breadcrumbs | 100 g |
| Ice water | 50 ml |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Ground black pepper | 3 g |
| Dried sage | 2 g |
| Grated nutmeg | 1 g |
| Dried onion powder | 5 g |
| Sheep casing (Ø 22–26 mm) | — |
- Preparation: Cut the meats into 3 cm cubes. Refrigerate at 0 °C for 2 hours.
- Mincing: Mince through the 6 to 8 mm plate.
- Hydration: Mix the breadcrumbs with the iced water. Leave to swell for 5 minutes.
- Seasoning: Add the hydrated breadcrumbs, the salt, the pepper, the sage, the nutmeg and the onion powder into the meats. Knead 3 to 4 minutes.
- Storage: Keep for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator.
- Cooking: Grill on the barbecue over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes, turning regularly. Barbecue cooking is de rigueur.
- Serving: Serve in a slice of white sandwich bread (not a bun), with tomato sauce and grilled onions. This is the classic presentation of the ‘sausage sizzle’.
The name snag is Australian slang of uncertain etymology: it is attached either to snaffle (to grab, to snap up) or to a slang use meaning ‘a catch’, in reference to the casing skin under the tooth. The term has been attested since the 1930s and is now universal in everyday use, with the word ‘sausage’ considered too formal.
The snag descends from the British banger, brought by the settlers of the nineteenth century, and retains the proportion of breadcrumbs (up to 15 per cent of the forcemeat) that gives it its soft texture. This breadcrumb, seen by purists as a poor binder, is claimed in Australia as constitutive of the product: it is what gives the snag its tenderness and its capacity to cook evenly on the barbecue without drying out. Attempts to regulate the minimum meat content have sparked debate within Food Standards Australia New Zealand, without resulting in a binding standard.
The sausage sizzle at Bunnings Warehouses, where charitable associations sell grilled snags at the entrances of these DIY stores, has become a national cultural reference. The democracy sausage is the best-documented expression of the snag’s social role: on the day of the federal elections (voting is compulsory in Australia), associations set up barbecues outside the polling stations. A participatory site (democracysausage.org) lists the stations offering this service, and voters report choosing their station based on that information.
The migration waves enriched the Australian charcuterie landscape around the snag: South African boerewors, Italian sausages of the Calabrian communities, Lebanese sausages of the butchers of Sydney and Melbourne coexist in the same shops, without the snag losing its central position.
The book
All 144 recipes and their histories, gathered in a single volume.