To prick or not to prick that is the question?

I think the need to prick goes back to the war and just afterwards when sausages contained a lot of water. On cooking the water turned to steam and would burst the sausages if they weren't pricked. Nowadays this does not happen and so it is quite unnecessary to prick and may dry them out if you do.

I think that the sausage 'skin' is made of something different these days, so no need to prick them, also, yes, the meat content(if bought from somewhere good) is a lot better too.Yum!

Not a great fan of sausages, but I used to prick them while they were cooking in the pan and was amazed at the surplus fat that ran out. My mother used to stab each one several times with a fork before cooking them. Maybe they are a lower fat content these days.

They are not called 'bangers' for nothing. I was always told to prick them because if you didn't they would split.

I do not like meat sausages. What happened to those lovely tomato sausages we used to be able to buy?

Dee, your Granny's way sounds yummy, i shall try cooking them like that tomorrow, cant wait

The reason why people were told to prick sausages was because during the war they had extra water added to them , and if they were not pricked they went BANG. Hence the nickname bangers. So no need to prick them these days, unless they are very cheap ones.

lizzypopbottle - I can't get the image of sausages gambolling around playfully in a field somewhere
No. don't prick either.

My granny used to roll sausages in seasoned flour then prick them and fry them in beef dripping. They were fabulous.

I cut full size sausages in half then bake in the oven until quite crispy. I don't like sausages that are surrounded with something else like bacon or Yorkshire pudding batter. They have to be well done and crispy all over for me.

We have just started making our own and don't prick them
Previously we liked HECK bangers but didn't prick them either

Ooh I love cold sausages teetime. Wish I could raid your fridge.

We also like Sainsburys outdoor reaered chipolates and Waitrose gourmet chipolates. I agree like them well done I cook them in the oven. Hate cheap sausages and don't eat sausage rolls as they look as tho they use poor quality meat.

We only have sausages very rarely. These were Waitrose pork and leek and were very nice - 2 cold ones in the fridge as we both would only eat 2 - they will probably be wasted - don't like them cold. I pricked by the way - didn't make any difference they are very low fat anyway.

That Mary Berry recipe looks delicious, I'm going to try it.
We get beef butcher's sausages and they don't need to be pricked, no fat. Daughter gave me a recipe - fry the sausages lightly with onion and lots of apple, + mixed herbs. Then cover with stock and bake, covered for about and hour.
The apple and onion combine to make a sauce.

chriscross. Love the sound of that recipe and will definitely try it. Do you flour them before cooking, and do you cook them in the oven, grill or fry? I'm not much of a cook so am worried about things sticking to pans.

In todays market fat reduced sausages are available.so prick if you want.In as is claimed Mary'heyday, and myself Mary's age,sausages were of a better quality than today.
We would eat pure pork Goodness knows what is added for todays market.

Never a prick is needed

I don't, but then the sausages I buy nowadays have so little fat in them. I used to prick them but virtually nothing came out.

I always used to prick the fattier ones.
I think it depends so much on how fatty your sausages are, and whether you want to ingest that fat or not.

I don't prick them these days as I find they go very dry if you do.

We have some fairly decent local butchers sausages - I don't prick - but I like to know whats in my sausagement so I make my own recipe.

500 grams of good quality minced pork
200 grams of smoked bacon
3 spring onions
2 flat tablespoons cranberry jelly
1 cup of fine breadcrumbs
3 shakes of nutmeg (about half a teaspoonful)
1 teaspoon paprika
3 large-ish fresh sage leaves chopped very finely

Remove any rind from the bacon but make sure you have 200 grams left - blitz the bacon with the spring onions. Then add everything else and it's most effective to mix with your hand - its only way to mix properly! It's very tasty. Hope you enjoy.

Oooh I heard something on Chris Evan's show on Radio 2 a week or two ago. One of the top chefs (sheesh - just how many "top chefs" are there??) said that yes, you should prick, but not with a fork or a knife etc, but with nothing bigger than a pin.

I was so engrossed in what he was saying, that I can't remember why :/

For the record, I never prick :D :D :D

Love this recipe of Mary's, make it quite often and always prick the sausages as the juices mingle with the wine for lovely deliciousness.

M&S free range pork sausages are our favourite, two packs for £5.

only prick cheap sausages, the better the sausage the less fat has to be let out - I always get very high met content sausages so never prick them

Even when sausages had been pricked sometimes jets of fat would spirt as far as the grill and cause interesting conflagrations!

I dont like sausages either,DH does and we dont prick them.