It’s no secret that Australians have a love affair with the sausage roll. In this edition of Baking Business we delve into where this product came from – and it’s not where you think – and speak to a few businesses helping to redefine the icon for a new generation of tastebuds.

It’s fairly common knowledge these days that the concept of seasoned meat being wrapped in pastry has been around for thousands of years. The concept has been dated back to Classical Greek and Roman eras, however it turns out the origins of the humble sausage roll lie a little closer to home.

The quintessentially British hand-held snack actually first emerged in France during the Napoleonic Wars before making its way across the channel to England in the 19^th century. It was here that the sausage roll went on to become a common – and immensely popular – London street food. There are reports The Times newspaper mentioned it in an article in 1863, and by 1896 the sausage roll was being referenced in pop culture when the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Grand Duke featured them as a plot device where the conspirators recognise each other by eating sausage rolls.

So how did they venture Down Under? Like with meat pies, when British settlers began to emigrate to Australia and New Zealand, they brought the iconic pastry with them, where they’ve since remained a culinary mainstay. Although it’s difficult to put a number on the amount of sausage rolls consumed annually, UK chain Greggs has suggested they along sell more than 130 million per year.

Bourke Street Bakery is considered an OG when it comes to sausage rolls

The act of elevating meat and pastry

But just what constitutes a sausage roll? At its base level it’s a mixture of sausage meat – think a mixture of pork and beef – that’s wrapped in puff pastry and baked before being served hot or cold.

However, for many bakers today the recipe has evolved while each individual element has been carefully perfected in the process.

For Orange Pie Company head chef Mitch Brown, the right place to begin crafting a sausage roll is with really nailing the puff pastry – and he should know! The bakery claimed the Gourmet Sausage Roll title at the 2024 The Official Great Aussie Pie Competition with their maple bacon and hazelnut sausage roll.

“All sausage rolls should start with good pastry – we handmake our own butter puff pastry daily – but the filling can be just as important,” he said.

“[You also need to] consider where you are, the kind of produce that is important in the area and find inspiration for that. Local apples, local meats and local hazelnuts are great examples of how we do this.”

Similarly Jason Spencer from Banana Boogie Bakery – which took home the 2024 Australia’s Best Sausage Roll title – said this was an item where the filling and pastry had to be perfectly balanced, beginning with making sure the meat to pastry ratio is correct.

“Make sure you have a good relationship with your butcher so they don’t put too much fat in the meat mix. The ratio of bread crumb is also really important – too much and you have a terrible eating quality sausage roll. The other trick is getting them to bake out perfectly without under baking. Too many Aussie bakers under bake and it’s not ideal, as is the amount of bread crumb, to ensuring there’s not too much fat in the meat mix,” he said.

“Our sausage roll is simple yet effective. Our winning formula came from someone making a mistake with the herbs and spice mix – it actually tasted better than the original recipe.”

Sydney’s Bourke Street Bakery has long been considered an OG when it comes to the sausage roll game. Not only did they take home the top spot in the 2019 Wotif Uniquely Aussie Awards for the nation’s best sausage roll but also took the pastries with them when they opened up their New York City bakeries.

Bourke Street Bakery Co-founder David McGuinness agrees,  and said their pork and fennel sausage roll had been a mainstay on the menu since they first opened their doors in 2004.

“It’s really a matter of getting the filling and the pastry right. Meaning with the filling that the seasoning is perfect and that it’s moist enough, and that with the pastry it has lots of butter – the flavour and the texture is more important than the look,” he said.

“The pork and fennel sausage roll was there from day one. The inspiration – that was all Paul’s [Allam, co-founder] idea. Pork and fennel are just a classic flavour combination, so we’re really doing nothing new there. But what we wanted to do was take the Australian bakery experience and elevate it somewhat. And both of us being chefs, we wanted to put that experience into these products.

“Now it’s just part of the furniture, and everyone’s coming up with their own combinations.”

Orange Pie Company’s winning maple bacon and hazelnut pie

Room for reinvention

But when it comes down to it, just how much room for inspiration is there when it comes to reimagining a classic item like the sausage roll? According to Mitch, there’s endless opportunities – you’re limited only by your own creativity.

“Don’t be bogged down with tradition. Get creative! Just this year we have added Peking duck and saltbush lamb, honey and rosemary to our menu. These are familiar flavours that lend themselves perfectly to a sausage roll. [Even the idea] for the maple, bacon and hazelnut sausage roll was spontaneous,” he said.

“We had come into some excess hazelnut meal and didn’t want it to go to waste, so we considered what flavours would work well together. We decided to be crazy and mix it with bacon and maple syrup. The second we opened the oven and the smell rolled out we knew we’d done something really special, and it was and instant hit with our customers so it’s found its way into our regular rotation.”

David also said just like with many other products the ability to play around with the flavours were endless – both in the filling and the pastry.

“Recently I did an event for a foundation looking into the use of sea urchins in kitchens. They wanted some ideas of how they could be used in different creative ways… I did try the sea urchin on the sausage roll, but the sausage roll overpowered the sea urchin. We did end up doing a scallop on a pork and fennel sausage roll,” he said.

“We’re not a three hatter [restaurant] but we could elevate it from a bakery item to being an order for a fancy dinner.”

Beyond utilising new flavours, Jason said the overall concept of what constitutes a sausage roll could also be looked at. For example, at Banana Boogie he said they have created a sausage roll called the double barrel, which is two rows of meat with a centre of tomato relish and house-made onion and bacon mix, which has been met with enthusiasm since they were launched.

“In winter we also do a ‘sneaky sausage roll’ which is a sausage roll topped with mac and cheese mix and a decent squirt of Sriracha chilli sauce,” he said.

“At its core, the sausage roll is enjoyed by all age groups as they normally have a simple yet effective flavour profile. The kids love them, the tradies love them the boomers love them. They just appeal to everyone.”