The Lorne sausage, also known as square sausage or slice, is a traditional Scottish food item made from minced meat, rusk and spices.[1] Although termed a sausage, no casing is used to hold the meat in shape, hence it is usually served as square slices from a formed block. It is a common component of the traditional Scottish breakfast.
It is thought that the sausage is named after the region of Lorne in Argyll;[2] advertisements for 'Lorne Sausage' have been found in newspapers as early as 1892.[3][4][5] This was long before comedian Tommy Lorne, after whom the sausage has been said to be named, became well-known.[6]
The exact origins of the Lorne sausage remain unclear. It is often eaten in the Scottish variant of the full breakfast or in a breakfast roll. The sausage is also an appropriate size to make a sandwich using a slice from a plain loaf of bread cut in half.[2]
Sausage meat (beef, pork or more usually a combination of the two) is minced with rusk and spices, packed into a rectangular tin with a cross-section of about 10 centimetres (3.9 in) square, and sliced about 1 centimetre (0.39 in) thick before cooking.[7] Square sausage has no casing, unlike traditional sausages, and must be tightly packed into the mould to hold it together; slices are often not truly square.[2]
Occasionally, it has a length of caseless black pudding or haggis through the middle, in the style of a gala pie.
