Sausage Roll Day Date in the current year: June 5, 2024

A sausage roll is a savory dish that consists of puff pastry wrapped around sausage meat. Spiced sausage meat (typically pork) is wrapped in sheets of pastry that are formed into tubes. Sausage rolls are then glazed with milk or egg and baked until golden. Sausage rolls come in different sizes and can be served hot or cold. They should not be confused with pigs in a blanket; the latter consist of hot dog sausages wrapped in croissant dough or sometimes biscuit dough.

Dishes consisting of meat or other foodstuffs wrapped in dough have existed since ancient times. A dish similar to the modern sausage roll is believed to have originated in France in the early 19th century and became popular in London during the Napoleonic Wars as a cheap and filling street food. Early versions of the sausage roll were made with shortcrust pastry instead of puff pastry.

Although variations of the sausage roll can be found in different cuisines, the dish is primarily associated with British cuisine and widely regarded as a quintessentially British snack. Sausage rolls are often served as party food, especially at Christmas and New Year’s parties.

Sausage rolls are also a part of popular culture! For example, they are featured as a plot device in Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera The Grand Duke; or, The Statutory Duel, where members of a conspiracy to kill the Grand Duke of Pfennig-Halbpfennig recognize each other by eating sausage rolls.

If you want a more recent example, we have one. In 2018, English YouTuber Mark Ian Hoyle, better known by his pseudonym LadBaby, and his wife Roxanne released a charity single “We Built This City on Sausage Rolls”, a comedy version of Starship’s “We Built This City on Rock’n’Roll”. The single topped the UK Singles Chart, becoming Christmas number one.

“We Built This City” was followed by “I Love Sausage Rolls” (“I Love Rock’n’Roll”) in 2019, “Don’t Stop Me Eatin’” (“Don’t Stop Believing”) in 2020, “Sausage Rolls for Everyone” (featuring Elton John and Ed Sheeran, a comedy version of their single “Merry Christmas”) in 2021, and “Food Aid” (a comedy version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”) in 2022. All singles became Christmas number ones, and in 2022, LadBaby surpassed the Beatles’ record for the most Christmas number one singles.

As you can see, the sausage roll is an iconic food that surely deserves to be celebrated and indeed has a holiday dedicated to it. The origins of Sausage Roll Day are unclear, but it has been observed since at least 2015. We hope that murky origins won’t stop you from celebrating this amazing food holiday.

You can observe Sausage Roll Day by buying a delicious sausage roll at your favorite bakery, trying sausage rolls from different bakeries to find the most delicious one, baking sausage rolls at home, hosting a sausage roll cook-off for your friends and family, and spreading the word about the holiday on social media with the hashtag #SausageRollDay.