Sausage roll

A sausage roll is a savoury pastry popular in the United Kingdom and other countries. In addition to being sold at retail outlets, they are also available from bakeries as a take-away food item. A miniature version is popular as a buffet or party food.

Composition
The basic composition of a sausage roll is generally a sheet or sheets of puff pastry formed into tubes around sausage meat and glazed with egg or milk before being baked. They can be served either hot or cold.

Historically, during the 18th century they were made using shortcrust pastry instead of puff pastry.

Sales
In the UK, the bakery chain Greggs sells around 2.5 million sausage rolls per week, or around 140 million per year.

In popular culture

 * The Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Grand Duke used sausage rolls as a plot device.
 * Frequently used in party scenes in New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune.
 * The Blackadder series makes mention of sausage rolls. In the first series, episode Born to be King, the Queen is loathing the return of her husband because she feels as she's "being used all night long, like the outside of a sausage roll." In the second series, episode Potato, being overly excited from the return of Sir Walter Raleigh lends the Queen excuse to describe some of her "pretty wild dreams," one of which is her being a sausage roll.