The Lorne sausage, also known as square sausage or slice, is a

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

Scottish food item made from minced meat, rusk and spices. Although termed a

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

, no casing is used to hold the meat in shape, hence it is usually served as square slices from a formed block. It is a common component of the traditional Scottish breakfast.

Name

It is thought that the sausage is named after the region of Lorne in

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

; advertisements for 'Lorne Sausage' have been found in newspapers as early as 1896. This was long before comedian

Tommy Lorne Tommy Lorne (7 December 1890 – 17 April 1935) was a Scottish music hall comedian of the 1920s. Life Born Hugh Gallagher Corcoran in Kirkintilloch, he grew up in Glasgow. Lorne famously wore white make-up, boots that were too large, a jacket th ...

, after whom the sausage has been said to be named, became well-known.

History

The exact origins of the Lorne sausage remain unclear. It is often eaten in the Scottish variant of the

full breakfast A full breakfast is a substantial cooked breakfast meal, often served in the United Kingdom and Ireland, that typically includes back bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, baked beans, some form of potato, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, and a b ...

or in a breakfast roll. The sausage is also an appropriate size to make a sandwich using a slice from a

plain loaf A plain loaf, slices of which are known in Scots as plain breid (pronounced ), is a traditional style of loaf made chiefly in Scotland and Ireland. It has a dark, well-fired crust on the top and bottom of the bread. There is no crust on the sid ...

of bread cut in half.

Preparation

Sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

meat, (

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...

, pork or more usually a combination of the two) is minced with rusk and spices, packed into a rectangular tin with a cross-section of about square, and sliced about thick before cooking. Square sausage has no casing, unlike traditional sausages, and must be tightly packed into the mould to hold it together; slices are often not truly square. Occasionally, it has a length of caseless black pudding or haggis through the middle, in the style of a

Gala Pie A pork pie is a traditional English meat pie, usually served either at room temperature or cold (although often served hot in Yorkshire). It consists of a filling of roughly chopped pork and pork fat, surrounded by a layer of jellied pork stock ...

References

{{Sausage Scottish sausages Scottish cuisine Sliced foods Meat and grain sausages

Name

History

Preparation

See also

References