Polish sausage renaissance

Foodies can now find increasing numbers of quality Polish sausage in supermarkets, butchers' shops and local stores. With prices two-and-half to three times higher than cheap sausages, the premium products are everything that a Polish sausage should be.

'Kielbasa' is often compromised by the inclusion of bone fragments (dangerous to the teeth!), gristle, too much fat, too much garlic, the last two resulting in horribly-repeating belches.

Last week in the village store in Zgorzala, just outside Warsaw's southern borders, I bought some 'Polska surowa' (Polish raw) sausage, at 21.50 PLN per kilo. Equally delicious raw or fried, the sausage consists of chucks of uncooked but smoked pork loin (similar in taste and consistency to Krotoszynska ham). No foul belching followed consumption.

Our local Auchan has started to carry a branded range of smoked meats, including an excellent kielbasa at 18.50 PLN per kilo, called 'W Kominku Wedzone' ('smoked in the chimney'). More like your traditional kielbasa, this one is well-smoked, good consistency meat, not too fatty or garlicy, no bone, cartlege or gristle.

Both sausages go down well with beer.

The premium kielbasa is available in the UK too, where 'Topolski' brand sausage is available in Selfridges for 25 quid a kilo. An excellent name - Dan Topolski, the legendary Oxford rowing coach, his father, famed artist Feliks Topolski - recognisable names to Britain's cultured classes, plus the conjunction of 'Top' and 'Polski'. Deserves to do well.