Overview
Excelsior Sausage is a historical British trade-formula sausage made from pork, veal and rusk. Excelsior was a promotional name used in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to suggest superior quality rather than a geographical origin.
Where it's from
The cut
Identity and terminology
The title is commercial and archival. It should not be presented as a traditional county sausage or connected to one town. The formula itself supplies the identity.
Composition and characteristics
Veal lightens the filling, pork adds flavour and fat, and rusk provides moisture retention. The seasoning is delicate, commonly using white pepper, mace, nutmeg or lemon.
Production and process
The meats are finely minced, mixed with hydrated rusk and seasoning and stuffed into links. It is a raw fresh sausage with the tender texture expected of hotel and catering formulas.
History and regional forms
Names such as Excelsior, Royal and Imperial appeared in professional recipe books during an era when butchers marketed proprietary or aspirational sausages. The product is evidence of commercial naming practice rather than regional continuity.
Use, storage and related products
It suits breakfast, light grills and plated catering. It is related to veal-and-pork Bratwurst and British breakfast sausage but retains its own historical formula record.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, run it through one of our curing calculators so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →“Make this” opens the same cure as a measured recipe, scaled to your batch.
- Meat
- Veal shoulder
- Cut
- Veal shoulder
- Salt (%)
- 2.3
- Curing salt
- None
- Fermented
- No
- Smoked
- No
- Maturation
- Raw sausage ≤4°C for up to 2 days; freeze for longer storage
- Basis
- per 1,000 g veal shoulder
- Style
- Fresh pork, veal and rusk sausage; cook before eating
Ingredients
- Pork shoulder95% · 950 g
- Pork back fat25% · 250 g
- Veal shoulder100% · 1000 g
- Fine rusk22.7% · 500 g
- Ice-cold water30.3% · 666.5 g
- Fine salt2.3% · 50 g
- Ground white pepper0.3% · 6.5 g
- Ground nutmeg0.08% · 1.5 g
- Ground mace0.08% · 1.5 g
- Ground cloves0.05% · 1 g
- Cayenne0.05% · 1 g
Method
- Mix rusk with the measured water and stand for 5 minutes.
- Chill meats, fat, hydrated rusk and equipment to 0–4°C.
- Grind pork shoulder and fat through 5 mm; grind veal through 3 mm.
- Mix veal with salt until tacky.
- Add pork, fat, spices and hydrated rusk. Mix until evenly bound.
- Stuff into 36 mm hog casings and form links.
Safety. Raw historical formula requiring modern refrigeration, allergen declaration and complete cooking.