 Arguably the most famous of the Lake District's meat products is the traditional Cumbrian sausage.
It's pretty easy to recognise because it is coiled rather than linked like other British sausages. It's sold by length or weight and is made from rough-cut pork. It has a high meat content, at least 85%, and is made with a blend of herbs, spices and seasonings. Most of the butchers producing authentic Cumbrian sausage have their own recipes, often dating back over a hundred years. The name comes from the traditional Cumberland pig, now extinct. Nowadays, the sausage is made from
other free-range rare breed pigs.
Some other food producers have begun to mass-produce what they also
call Cumberland sausage containing around 45% meat content. However,
the makers of genuine Cumberland sausage have sought to give it
protected status under the PGI (Protection of Geographical Indication)
in European legislation. If they are successful it will mean that
sausages cannot be sold as Cumberland sausages unless they meet the
criteria for meat content, ingredients, production process and place of
origin. Other products which currently are protected this way include
Parma ham, Normandy cheeses, Stilton cheese, Scotch beef and Jersey
Royal Potatoes.
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