Borut Kozelj, the hyperactive Slovenian butcher, raises a pair of sausages in the air. “Guys, which one is healthier?” he challenges. We fellow novice sausage-makers take a close look.

The first is dappled with white chunks under the skin; the second is a consistent colour, and of a creamier texture. We decide that the dappled one is more fatty, on account of the visible white bits.

“That is wrong, guys,” says Borut. “Guys, the lumpy or pasty texture comes from how finely it is minced. Nothing to do with fat content. If it is nice and chunky, it will be good quality meat, you can’t hide nothing, guys. But the pasty one is minced very finely, so you don’t know what is in there…”

We all turn a little green and swear never to buy cheap, finely minced sausage again.

Welcome to the one-evening sausage making course at the Ginger Pig butcher’s shop in Marylebone. It takes place every month, and is invariably sold out: bookings must be made at least four weeks in advance. Sausage-making, it seems, is back in fashion.

Waitrose’s sausage buyer, Jamie Matthew, says that anecdotal evidence confirms this. “We constantly get enquiries for sausage skins, even though we don’t sell them,” he says. “Unless everyone is doing something else with pig intestines, people are making sausages.”

The chopping starts. I am taken aback by the nipples on the piece of pork I am given, but I am attempting to be a man of the earth: I whip them off with a knife and get to work. Continue reading on the Telegraph website

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