What Is Saveloy? English Sausage Guide

What is a Saveloy? If you’ve read my article about the right method of eating chips and fish You will be aware of the term however, the essence of it is an English sausage!

When I lived in London and worked at the Savoy Hotel, there are some meals that I used to love after a long shift in the kitchen, such as an English-style kebab with burger relish, traditional fish and chips, and another was saveloy with “a poke” of chips. What makes this food unique is hard to pinpoint however, from my many travels, I’ve yet to find something that is even a little like it. Let’s get our sausage on!

To make a long tale short, a Saveloy is an extremely well-seasoned sausage, generally with a bright, and red (pink between the lines) and a common feature for our local fish and chips restaurants. If you’re looking to be fancy, look up our Wikipedia page.

What Is Saveloy?

Basically, it’s an English sausage that looks very similar to a German frankfurter sausage.

It’s easy, I’m making progress! By its Swiss counterpart, the original saveloy was created using the brains of pigs. Nowadays, it’s made using generally pork (58 percent) water, the rusk, pork fat salt, potato starch, emulsifiers (tetrasodium diphosphate disodium diphosphate) cinnamon, peppers dry sage (sage), and preservatives (sodium nitrite, potassium Nitrate) along with beef collagen casing.

Sounds delicious, right?

Why Is It Called Saveloy?

Oi, oi, saveloy! Sorry, I had to…

There is no way to be certain however it is likely to come in the Latin word “cerebrum” a pig brain (yum) sausage that insane Swiss seem to be very attracted to.

Sausage Vs Saveloy – What’s The Difference?

At the start of the 20th century, the saveloy was explained in an Australian court case as a “highly seasoned dry sausage originally made of brains, but now young pork, salted” but by the mid-century, it was generally defined by its size as a 19 cm sausage, instead of a frankfurt at 26 cm.

Can You Get Saveloy Sausages Outside The UK?

It seems that they’re popular in Australia and New Zealand, both former British colonies, and both with the renowned Chip shop culture. Unfortunately, I’ve not attempted one of them in the other.

It is believed that there’s a frankfurter from Maine (USA) which is almost identical to the saveloy. It’s served in the Americano hot dog style.

What Is The Best Way To Eat Saveloy?

It’s a sausage and you can serve it as it is a sausage. What I’ll discuss here is how it’s served. It is also traditionally served in fish and chips restaurants across the country and is cooked instead of fried.

Saveloys are very popular within The North-East of England and can be bought from butcher shops. I’ve yet to experience this, however, you can cook it, then eat it in the form of a sandwich, along with peace, a very English delicious pudding which I may write about shortly.

Why Do People Say “Oi, Oi, Saveloy”?

It comes from people in the South-East region of England. They would greet each other with “oi, oi saveloy” upon seeing friends, often someone they hadn’t seen in a long time!