Cumberland sausages

Cumberland sausage and hams

Cumberland sausage? You can buy that down the local ale-house, can't you? In name only, I'm afraid. The true Cumberland sausage, like Cheddar cheese, has been much maligned by poor imitations, with pub-grub papier-mache snacks passing themselves off as the Cumbrian speciality.

Calm down and tell us where you can find the genuine article. Take the train to the small Lakeland town of Millom, then go 20 miles north on the road between the Cumbrian fells and coastline to the hamlet of Waberthwaite. Past the Brown Cow pub, turn left and go 200 yards down the road to Lane End and you will come to the unassuming home of Richard Woodall, a grocer and provision merchant. Opening the door to the shop, you are hit by a sweet Christmassy smell of Proustian proportions. Once inside, step down past the post office counter and village shop section into the back room and you will be rewarded with a sight worth the epic journey. Here is a carnivore's cave of delights, with air-dried hams hanging down from the rafters and oodles of the sausages and dry-cured bacon that have made Woodalls famous.

Still seems a long way to go for a couple of pounds of bangers. These are no ordinary pork sausages. As a certificate proudly displayed in the shop says:Royal warranty was given on January the 1st 1991 in the 39th year of Her Majesty's reign.

Why are they are so good? They contain a lot of piggy and they are more than 97 per cent pork, free of modern preservatives and colourings. The other three per cent is accounted for by herbs, spices, the skins (Woodall uses a mile of natural casing a week) and a tiny amount of rusk for binding. The meat comes from brother Joseph's farm at the back of the shop and is processed on the premises by nephew Colin. Keeping it all in the family enables the Woodalls to produce what the discerning sausage nosher really likes - quality and consistency. As Peter Sellers so succinctly sang:Give us a bash of the bangers and mash me mother used to make.

Does Woodalls go back a long way? Many generations. The grocery business was established in 1828 by the widow Hannah Woodall as a way of keeping the wolf from the door, and the family has been selling sausages ever since. Richard is the seventh-generation pork peddler and Colin is keen to carry on.

And what about the hams in the picture? They are prosciutto or raw hams that are cured in salt and saltpetre and then washed, dried and left to mature in cold air for a minimum of 12 months. The Woodalls produce two types of these beauties: the traditional air-dried Cumbria ham and the richer Mature Royal ham, soaked and sweetened in Molasses and old ale, and lightly smoked.

Remember . . .

1 Woodalls also does traditional dry-cured bacon, so take a large rucksack for your visit after climbing Scafell Pike.

2 Grail Trail Cumberland sausages are not to be confused with the Ludlow Sausage Trail held every September.

3 Next time you are admiring a tasty leg of pork in a bar in Madrid remember that Waberthwaite hams are just as tasty - and come without the extra layer of cheap Spanish cigarette smoke.

Richard Woodall, Lane End, Waberthwaite, Cumbria LA19 5YJ (01229 717237/386; www.richardwoodall.co.uk; e-mail sales@richardwoodall.co.uk). Open weekdays and Saturday mornings.