Long ride ahead for banger man

A DISS devotee of the juicy banger is to tackle a nationwide tour to promote the delights of the British sausage.

When not crunching numbers, maths teacher Stephen Plume munches Lincolnshires or Cumberlands and has been taking motorcycling lessons for a journey that will take him to more than 1,000 butchers shops across the country to inspect the latest recipes.

Having established a website dedicated to Britain’s 489 recognised varieties of sausages, Mr Plume is now keen to see for himself factories and butchers’ the breadth and length of the country and promote the products.

“There are currently 489 established varieties of sausages in Britain,” he said. “If you were to take into account the types of recipes produced by butchers for each variety you could eat a different sausage every day for the next ten years.

“The butchers who know me have helped me raise enough money to buy a low-powered Honda motorcycle which will take me all over the country. I wanted to ride a bike because of the low-carbon footprint. I shall start my first journey over the Easter holiday and then continue during the summer break when I hope to see several butchers in the region.

However, I intend to see around 1,000 sites across the country over the next few years. A low top speed motorcycle means that I will take in more scenery on the way and find new, undiscovered, sausage shops.”

Stephen has been taking motorcycle lessons with Anglia Training Services in North Pickenham which has an off-road track, allowing learner drivers to improve their skills while not putting themselves in danger in busy traffic.

Eight years ago, Stephen came up with the idea to dedicate a website to the British banger and collect recommendations and recipes for the best places to buy the classic or fancy sausages in the country.

With 30,000 hits a week and more than 2,500 registered users, the father -of-one has received a Banger Award – the Oscars of the sausage world – for outstanding service to the British sausage.

Stephen says: “It is one of the few great British foods left with regional varieties.”

His interest was aroused after he watched a television documentary about the traditional English methods of making sausages and he decided to set up the website to resurrect people’s interest in the British banger.

It began as a small mail order list with just under 100 members ,but now boasts a list of nearly 1,000 butchers around the UK and enough recipes to make sausage eating a more interesting affair.

With more than five million people eating 12 million sausages in the UK every day, Stephen believes there is a “huge market” for local butchers to invest in and sell traceable, top-quality products.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.