Irish Sausage Rolls

Here’s a fun and authentic Saint Patrick’s Day appetizer to serve your family and friends. In Ireland, sausage rolls are very popular. You can find them just about anywhere you go. They are served at pubs, parties, and can even be purchased ready-made at bakeries. These pastry wrapped sausages are also prepared for a hearty breakfast on the go.

 

 

Pork sausages are widely available and consumed regularly in Irish cuisine. This is attributed greatly to the fact that even the smallest family farms in Ireland have room to raise pigs. Ideally, there’s enough room on the small farmstead to raise two pigs a year to keep and butcher for food and a couple more to bring to market for sale. Now, most Irish people buy prepared sausages which are typically about the size of a bratwurst only shorter. If traditional Irish sausages are not available in your area, you can opt to make your own or use a lightly spiced onion sausage. We buy ours from the local butcher or from our friend, Russell, at Sunny Cedars Farms.

 

 

Obviously, American artisan onion sausages do not exactly taste like authentic Irish sausages but they make a very tasty stand-in. Traditional Irish sausages use allspice, white pepper, and sage as their predominant flavorings. The main reason sausage recipes were created hundreds of years ago was out of necessity to preserve the freshly butchered meat on the small farmsteads. So really any lighter spiced, small-batch artisan sausages will work here. For me, if we do not grind our own, it’s the onion sausages I crave.

 

 

Clearly, Irish Sausage Rolls are very similar to our American style “Pigs in a Blanket” only on a more adult scale. So if you’re loving this recipe, you might also like our Andouille Sausage Bites.