Made myself a sausage sandwich this morning (up very early, so felt I deserved breakfast for once in my life) and was terribly disappointed to discover that my sandwich had no flavour.  As the sausages were my normal choice (Richmond Pork, which I love because they are completely homogeneous and have no obvious traces of meat in them at all), I coud not explain it, but simply gave the sandwich a good grind of rock salt, at which point the flavour improved enormously and I enjoyed the remainder of my breakfast (swimming in butter and dripping, and washed down with half-a-pint of Channel Islands' milk).

Breakfast over, I set out to do some research.  Typed "salt" + "sausages" into British Google, and back came page after page condemning Richmond as the very devil incarnate : "OVER TWO GRAMMES OF SALT PER PORTION" screamed page after page.

So I went outside and read the packet.  "Less than 2% salt", it said.  "1.1gm/40gm cooked weight".  So here's what I think has happened.  Richmond have listened to the moaning minnies of this world, and reduced their salt content.  As a result, I can no longer detect any flavour in them.  And as a result of that, I have to give them a good grind of rock salt in order to make them edible.  And as the chances of "a good grind of rock salt" being less than 2gm are vanishingly small, Richmond (by reducing the salt content of their sausages) have caused me to increase my salt intake -- until today, a sausage sandwich was one of the very few dishes to which I never felt it necessary to add salt.  So, thank you very much Richmond, for listening to the moaning minnies, rather than having the guts to tell them to stick their reduced salt intake where the sun don't shine.   NOT.

Rant over.
** Phil.

I love salt but due to a congestive fluid retention condition I have to cook low sodium. However after a few weeks, you don't miss the salt if you wean yourself off gradually. Comes a time that you get a curry from the t/a and all you can taste is salt that overwhelms everything.

For an extra zing, lime juice or tamarind, extra garlic and ginger etc really takes up the slack. However sometimes I must admit I fall off the salt wagon, but then go for a few k power walk and get a sweat up to dispose of some of it. 

Edit: dripping and lard are great. Heart attacks were very rare until the aftermath of the Second World War when most of the animal stocks in Europe had been destroyed and they introduced veg oil and margarines. My Granddad had a heart attack in the 1950s and they didn't even know the word - he had a "thrombosis" and students used to come and look at him in the hospital as a curiosity.

These days I limit my salt intake to about 4 to 5 grams/day due to me being in the pre-hypertension category.
I agree that you get used to less salt and then some food can taste too salty. I've just done 2 weeks in Menorca and found chicken kebabs etc. to taste too salty for my new palette.

Then again I was eating some beans on toast at home and immediately noticed the beans tasted awful.
Sure enough my wife had bought the low salt/low sugar variety. I would rather eat them less often and enjoy them than eat beans that taste of cardboard.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Phil, I can promise that whilst they say they coarsely chop the meat, I don't feel you would be put off by this. The sausages contain 85% Pork and are a meaty bite through and through, quite different to a French sausage.


Given that a 6 pack is only around 2.60 a pack, it's worth a go surely?


We used to buy Richmond until I started becoming more conscious of the rubbish that goes into sausages. We dropped Richmond like a bad habit and went on a hunt for the perfect banger. When Porky Whites were introduced into the supermarkets we gave them a go and haven't looked back since.


Check out the Roasted Cumin & Garlic, makes for a tasty toad-in-the-hole!