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Television chef Mike Reid has revealed a popular “trick” used by supermarkets to create the perfect pigs in blankets.
The popular sausage treat is considered a key part of Christmas dinners for families up and down the country. But many home cooks struggle to get their bacon neatly wrapped around their chipolata.
Now Mike, who has appeared on shows such as Channel 4’s Five Star Kitchen and Ready Steady Cook on the BBC has revealed how supermarkets get their sausages wrapped so tightly. Speaking on Channel 5’s The Taste Test Restaurant, Mike revealed the key step is stretching out your bacon.
He explained: “The key to making a good pigs in blanket is the stretching of the bacon. So, as this cooks in the oven because of the fat content in the bacon, it’s going to shrink.
“But because we’ve stretched it, there’s so much space now for that to shrink into, so it’s not going to unravel, it’s nice and tight. There’s nothing worse than when your bacon falls off your chipolata.
“So you can achieve this at home by using the back of your knife to stretch out that bacon. This is what supermarkets do, they’ll have machines that do this for them, that elongate the bacon.”
Mike was teaching viewers how to make the perfect pigs in blankets after a team of taste testers crowned Co-op’s honey and truffle the champion of the supermarket dishes. They narrowly beat Asda’s maple pigs in blankets and Marks and Spencer’s pigs in blankets.
The Co-Op dish will set shoppers back £3.50 however compared to £2.25 for Asda’s sausages wrapped in maple bacon. The most expensive was the M&S sausages, which cost £5.50 for 14.
Commending the Co-op pigs in blankets, one diner said: “Actually, it’s quite Christmassy. But it still looks like a breakfast sausage.”
While another said: “It’s a really good pigs in blanket. It compliments the bacon quite well, there’s a good herb going through the sausage.”
The Taste Test Restaurant is available to watch on Channel 5’s website.
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