John's Old English Sausage

You‘ll find John‘s - or “John‘s Quality Butchers“ to give them their full name - just off the market place in the pleasant market town of Downham Market in Norfolk. It’s an incredible shop. As well as quality meat products you can buy almost anything else you may be looking for! Preserves. Vegetables. High-end sports cars. Space hoppers. Russian brides. OK, maybe not a Russian bride, but pretty much ANYTHING else, it’s a wonderful place.


If you visit on a Saturday there‘s a little market on the go as well, and don‘t forget to wander up the hill, round the corner, and visit the other exceptional butcher shop, T&M‘s. John‘s are open from half seven in the morning to half five at night, Monday to Saturday (closed Sundays), give them a try.


John’s also sponsor a local ladies netball team - sadly our request to attend a match - for research purposes - was ignored.



Meat Content:
These sausages proved to be rough and ready, and delicious for it! Not a great deal of refinement here, these have a good meat content (a pre-asking-what-the-meat-content-is sample) which will satisfy your carnivorous instincts nicely. There were a couple of pieces of gristle here too….I don’t really mind that as at least it’s bits of chopped up pig….some people wouldn’t like it so much.

Flavour:The second “Old English” sausage we’ve tried, and another very tasty banger. I think there’s a hint of stuffing with Old English’s, the kind that you’d eat with a roast chicken, so that must mean there’s plenty of sage in here, plus a dash of onion? Don’t quote me of course, I am not an expert, but that’s the flavour that came to mind. I enjoyed eating these, they were quite light as bangers go, and not too filling (meaning you can eat more, of course!).

Texture:You can see from the six slices picture that these bangers have a superb texture. If you likes it rough, these are the boys for you! John’s Old English are definitely the Joan Rivers of the sausage world, coarse, dry, and crumbly. Delicious! (The sausages, not Joan). I heartily recommend them, and very much enjoyed them for Sunday breakfast. Good work John’s!

Shrinkage:
Average weight uncooked - 72g
Average weight cooked - 57g

Shrinkage - 21%

Value For Money:How embarrassing. I have lost the pricing info for these sausages. Sorry. Try these bangers today!

Debbie & Andrew's Special Edition

Welcome to Rate My Sausage's first panel review!


The "lucky" sausage maker first in the firing line is Debbie & Andrew's from Yorkshire. RMS first tried their 97% Pork bangers a couple of months ago, and you can read it here: Harrogate_97%_Pork_Sausage


If you want to find out more about Debbie & Andrew's products you should visit their website, which you can find here: Debbie&Andrews

So to the reviews:

Luke B reviews Sicilians:

The Theory
D & A’s Sicilians have obviously been created to capture that Italian combination that we all love. The succulent snags envelop garlic with sweet sundried tomatoes and delicate mozzarella, lightly seasoned with Italian herbs. They’re an Italian lover’s treat in a casing.

I am going to use a recipe which is perhaps an Italian twist on the British Bangers and Mash, Rotherham meets Rome!

The Recipe
Italian Sausage with Cider Casserole with Mustard Mash and Leeks

Ingredients
1 Pack D & A’s Sicilian Sausages
1 Red Pepper
1 Yellow Pepper
1 Carrot
1 Stick of Celery
1 Medium Onion
500ml Dry Cider
1 Tin Chopped Tomato
Seasoning

Fry or grill the sausages until browned.

Heat a generous glug of olive oil in a large saucepan add the vegetables and fry until the onion is slightly browned and the carrots beginning to soften. Add the browned sausages, tomatoes and cider. Bring to a simmer. Transfer to a casserole dish and cook in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C for around 35-40 minutes.

Serve on a bed of potato mashed with wholegrain mustard to taste with steamed leeks.

Served with a glass of Chianti, this is a great meal to serve to friends or family.

A British classic, with an Italian twist. The sausages have a great natural flavour enhanced by the Italian tomatoes and peppers in the sauce, with the cider for punch. Prego!

The Verdict
The Sicilian’s have a subtle but distinctly Italian vibe. You can taste all the ingredients which could have easily been overpowered by the garlic. Although care should still be given when serving to friends who are vampires!

The casing is very thin which disintegrated quickly when fried although the sausages kept their general shape and appearance. The pork and stuffing is finely minced and so is easily devoured by the kids as well, who nearly took the pattern off their plates.

I would definitely purchase these Italiano’s in the future and would recommend to others.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Samantha H reviews Perfect Pork:

First of all, I have to say I would consider myself a bit of a sausage snob; in fact I come from a family of sausage lovers and had previously thought that nothing could beat a good old banger from our local family butchers, Van Pelts of King's Lynn. However, when sampling Andrew and Debbie's pork sausages, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. For sausages that were not homemade, and were in fact, factory produced, they really stood their own against our old family favourites.

The packaging was the first thing that made a good impression on me. It looked good quality and told prospective purchasers in no uncertain terms that these sausages were made from quality ingredients and inspired confidence in the product; if I saw these in a supermarket, I would definitely be drawn to them.

The sausages themselves looked inviting, and I couldn't wait to try them. One slightly negative thing I noticed however, was their too perfect shape - to many this would be a good thing, but for me, the unsymmetrical shape of a homemade banger is infinitely preferable as it indicates quality. Maybe this is food for thought as these sausages are being marketed as the quality alternative to the homemade butchers sausage.

They cooked very well, producing the minimum amount of fat when cooked and thus avoiding the potential disaster of spitting and staining one's clothes. This was also an indication of the high quality of the meat; the less fat produced the better in my book! There was also a minimal amount of shrinkage, demonstrating the well packed and dense nature of the sausage, so what you saw in the packaging was what ended up on your plate when it came down to it! A definite plus!

I was not disappointed when it came to trying them. They had a lovely meaty texture, a delicious taste and a nice firm consistency. The flavour was not overpowering and would have made the perfect accompaniment to bacon and eggs, mash and peas or in a buttie. My only complaint was that they disappeared too quickly. All in all, a definite winner in the sausage stakes!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carolyn S reviews Sicilians:

I work full-time and now that the children are grown up family mealtimes are few and far between. So I was happy to have a go at reviewing these sausages and cooking with a purpose!

I decided to cook half of the sausages in a sauce (and ate them all in one go - so greedy but there was no-one else around except the dog and I felt she wouldn’t be able to contribute to this review). I fried a chopped onion in a pan and then added the sausages to brown (next time I might grill them as the skins sort of disappeared). I then added some red wine – about a glass – followed by some chestnut mushrooms and enough stock to cover. I added a small amount of mixed herbs and seasoning and left it to simmer for 20 minutes. I served it with a baked potato and garden peas. It was a lovely ‘comfort food’ meal and I really liked the texture of the sausages – very smooth. The flavour was quite delicate and I wondered if I’d made a mistake by putting them in a sauce, nice as it was. Anyway I polished off the lot (much to the dog’s disapproval).

Luckily I still had some sausages left so could review them all over again the next day – this time just grilled with fries – smashing, and all the subtler flavours were there.

It has taken me ages to produce this as, when I went to take a photo I found all the camera batteries were flat so had to use my phone and then couldn’t find the thingy to plug it into the computer – you can tell I don’t do this sort of thing very often.

Anyway, thank you for letting me sample these sausages and I shall definitely buy them and cook them for my daughter who, I know, will love them. I also like the wholesome, healthy farming family, concern for animal welfare image.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, pictures of the packaging and ingredient lists for the sausages:

Vancouver Butcher's Pork Sausage

Vancouver Butchers is an extremely busy shop which you can‘t fail to find if you visit the shopping precinct area of King‘s Lynn (which is also, coincidentally, called the Vancouver Quarter. It‘s all to do with the chap who discovered and named the Canadian city of Vancouver….I think his first name was Dwayne). This shop is brilliant for stocking up on your meat, as they always seem to have offers of packs of fab chops, fillets, stir fry, you name it, and you can split them up yourself for freezing.


Vancouvers used to be - if I remember right - close to the bus station, but are now nearer the centre of town, between a clothes shop and a sewing shop. You must pop in next time you’re in Lynn, and if you don’t go home with some great meat I’ll be surprised!

Meat Content:Sixty five percent! Check me out, I actually found out! These bangers are not the most meat-filled we’ve tried but they have a definite quantity of pig. Claiming 65%, you have to wonder at the Walls claim of 61.…the numbers are close but the sausages are an ocean apart….Vancouvers’ obviously have a decent lot of pork, Walls’ seem to have none. Good work Vancouvers!

Flavour:Rather good actually. These sausages taste like a good memory, with a final kick of pepper. Warm, juicy, tasty.

Texture:Better than any of the supermarket bangers, these chaps are OK, but maybe slightly on the over-minced side. We like a chunky mince-isation here at Rate My Sausage and these were just a little too fine. Come on Vancouver, chop chunkier! Good, but could do slightly better.

Shrinkage:
Average weight uncooked - 51g
Average weight cooked - 45g

Shrinkage - 12%

Great shrinkage stats for the town centre contenders.

Value For Money:£1.05 for four sausages, weighing 202g - this works out as a price of £5.20 per kg, or 26p per snorker.

This is a bargain, buy some this weekend!

The Fruitpig Company's Rare Breeds Toulouse Sausage

The creator of The Fruitpig Company and I share some common history - over two decades each in the Royal Air Force. Mind you, he was a fighter controller, whereas I actually worked for a living. Matt Cockin comes across as a warm, genial, intelligent bloke who really cares about the food he sells. Unexpectedly, Matt popped in to the King Of The Bangers 2010 contest last Thursday. Wonderfully, he brought with him some…ahem….”spare” bangers, which he graciously allowed Rate My Sausage to put through the intense Rate My Sausage process.


The Fruitpig Company is a most interesting set-up. With customers mainly in the highest echelons of the “posh nosh” sector, it’s obvious that they don’t produce second-rate meat. As far as I can see, their animal rearing is second to none - would that be reflected in their sausages though? I’m hoping to arrange a photographic expedition to the piggery some time, but in the meantime please have a look at their website, which you can find here: FRUITPIG



And so to the sausages:


Meat Content:
Claimed at 98% and I wouldn’t dispute that. These sausages keep the same dimensions after cooking as before, which is always a definite pointer towards a good deal of meatocity. Some of the sausages we’ve tried literally “melt in the mouth”, and not in a nice way…..others need a few chews. The Fruitpig Company’s Toulouse bangers.…well….you need to chew, chew and chew again, with every chew adding to the fantastic eating experience. It’s as if these sausages are utterly determined to make your meal as enjoyable as possible, and strive valiantly to make each mouthful last as long as possible. If this sausage was a Cluedo character they’d be Major Meatiness.

Flavour:
Where to begin? I don‘t think my amateur, plodding way of writing can do these chaps justice, but I‘ll describe what I tasted. The first impression is of a cavalry charge at the tastebuds by an army of herbs and spices, with a hefty garlic flavour leading the way. A real eye-opener in comparison to some previous no-flavour bangers. After the garlic comes the sweet, sweet pork working in tandem with some lightly salty bacon-y taste to great effect - and you get lots of time to savour the flavour as these chunky monkeys will take you plenty of time to munch through. The spices complete the assault on the tastebuds, and give them a final pummelling with an aftershock of peppery heat. Altogether delicious.

Texture:
Look at the photos. Just look at them. These sausages were firm when uncooked, and firmer after frying. They are obviously hand made with a lot of pride and care, and are chopped a lot chunkier than any other sausage we’ve tried. There are great big, delicious lumps of good stuff all through them, which you can teasingly see through the skin pre-cooking, but then get to delight in when it’s time to tuck in. As close to perfection as I’ve found.

Shrinkage:
Average weight uncooked - 85g
Average weight cooked - 64g

Shrinkage - 24%

Value For Money:
I don‘t know how much these sausages cost, sorry. I would guess that they’re not cheap though, which would give me another chance to trot out the old faithful “You gets what you pays for” standard.


The Bisto Factor:A sunny Sunday morning and my flat was absolutely swimming in the delicious aroma of cooking pork, garlic, and others that “je ne sais quoi“ they are. Wear a bib to catch your pre-breakfast dribble.

Through A Child’s Eyes:There was NO WAY ON EARTH that Junior Sidekick was getting any of these babies!

Post Script:This is a first. A final word on the Fruitpig Company’s fabulous Rare Breed Toulouse sausages. If you want to imagine how these beauties taste, then imagine the finest, highest quality deli in the whole of Southern France, take a slice of that deli, and mince it up in a blender. Next, grab hold of the World’s Champion Pig 2010 from the World Pig Championships, take the best bits of meat from that pig, and mince them up in a blender. Add some zesty, spicy garlic that you’ve lovingly grown on your allotment. Mix them all together and squeeze into sausages. There you have it.
Where do we go from here?


La saucisse Toulouse ici, c’est formidable!
Je l’aime, elle est incroyable!
Elle didn’t restez tres long sur ma table!

King Of The Bangers 2010 - The Final Result

The dust has settled on the single most important sausage-related competition to take place in King's Lynn, in April 2010....

In the photo you can see Richard Bowers accepting the magnificent trophy from chef Dawn O'Donnell.

.

.

For those of you who doubt the veracity and integrity of King Of The Bangers, I'll outline how it was organised. I personally obtained the eleven varieties of sausages, removed any identifying wrapping or packaging, and stored them in freezer bags marked only with a single letter. Two days before KOTB the eleven bags were delivered to The Woolpack, and on the big night the bangers were cooked by the chef. Nobody except me knew which letter related to which butcher. The sausages were served to the judges (as it turned out, twelve people took part in the voting) on plates labelled, again, simply with a single letter. They wrote their scores on the scoresheets provided, I totted up the totals after all sausages were tested, and announced the results, and which banger was represented by which letter. This was all witnessed by local butcher-legend Clifford Prior, so ask him if you think it was fixed or unfair in any way!

.

.

The total points on offer were 105, and the scores on the doors were as follows:

Winners - Bowers - 95 points

2nd - van Pelts - 80

3rd - Kings - 77

4th - Giffens - 75

5th - Priors - 74

6th - Vancouvers - 62

.

.

Well done to all the competitors for providing a very high quality of sausage, us King's Lynn residents are a fortunate bunch! Thanks to Tony Blyth for allowing us the run of The Woolpack for the night, to Dizzy Dawn for managing to cook all 88 sausages to order, and to all the judges for sticking doggedly to your task. Thanks to Daisy Wallage at the Lynn News, and Stephen Plume, "Sausage King", for both judging and writing nice things about KOTB, and finally to Simon Rowe and KLFM for their excellent support. Cheers, and see you next year!

J E Howard's Pork Sausage

What a great welcome I received at J E Howard‘s butcher shop in Gayton. Super smart staff and a gleaming shop also made for an inviting visit. Howard’s is pretty much across the road from Grimes’, so if you buy sausages from one you MUST buy some from the other as well. It’s the law.




The pigs from which Howard‘s bangers are made are raised just a couple of miles from the shop, and are able to lollop piggily around open fields before the fulfil their destiny and become sausages. You may say that you can taste the difference. This is very much a tight, local enterprise, and Howard’s have their own slaughterhouse attached to the back of the shop. In fact they were slaughtering when I visited, but don’t worry, you couldn’t hear anything.


Going off on a tangent here, about slaughterhouses. When I was at primary school (Church Lane Primary in Sleaford), the school was next door to the abattoir, separated by just one wall. The frantic squealing of piggies about to meet their maker was just part of the normal background soundtrack for us as we played cowboys and Indians in the playground, we didn’t give it a second thought. I wonder if that would be allowed these days? After all, we are talking 35 years since I left. Anyway, back to Howard’s pork sausages:



Meat Content:No figure noted….again. Mea culpa. This WILL become a mistake of the past as we work our way through the sausages bought before Sam Papworth tipped me the wink. Judging purely by the taste, texture and utter solidness of these lovely sausages from Howard’s, there is a high percentage of shredded pig in here. Six-year-old sidekick says these are “too meaty”, the second time he has proferred this opinion.


Flavour:Great seasoning here, enough salt to add a nice flavour and enough pepper to give you a little bit of heat. The home-reared pork tastes sweet-ish, juicy and has a rich aroma that will have you tapping your foot in impatience as they cook.

Texture:Not far off perfection with this one. Cooked as an after-school “treat” tea, they were fried in the standard tablespoon of olive oil, but at a slightly higher temperature than usual. They also were not turned as often as usual, as I was involved in a phone conversation with a King’s Lynn butcher who was looking forward to taking part in last Thursday’s King Of The Bangers 2010. I think I may try this method again, as I love a crisp casing, but also like slicing into the soft skin now and then - this way gave plenty of both, ace! The sausages were a very chewable forkful, which didn’t dissolve into a meaty paste in the mouth, just broke down to nicely-large bits and pieces. Good stuff.

Shrinkage:Average weight uncooked - 63g
Average weight cooked - 54g

Shrinkage - 14%

Value For Money:
£2.90 for 8 sausages weighing 505g = £5.74 per kg = 36p per sausage. This, sausage fans, is EXCEPTIONAL vfm. You must try them without delay.



Through A Child’s Eyes:As previously mentioned, “Too meaty“. Bloody kids, what do they know!

Stop Press! Bowers Win King Of The Bangers!

Breaking news live and direct from The Woolpack, King's Lynn....



Bowers of Gaywood have walked away with the 2010 title of King Of The Bangers, in the face of incredibly tough competition.




More to follow in due course, but congratulations to Richard Bowers, creator of the prize-winning banger.

Wall's Classic Pork Sausage

Walls Sausages. We know and trust the name don’t we. Walls make good sausages, and have done so for as long as we can remember. But do they? Do they really still provide our familiar family favourite banger? Having tried their Classic Pork sausages last weekend, I was shocked at the quality. And not in a pleasant way. Any sausages that are square when they come out of the pack have proved to be rather disappointing so far, and that trend continued here.


Of course, if you have a look at their website you may spot some clues which may go some way to explaining this much-loved sausage‘s decline. The Frequently Asked Questions page contains many identical FAQs, and answers, as those on the Richmonds and Porkinson websites. And if you want to contact “Walls”? You write to the exact same address as you would for those other two brands. Walls is now owned by the ubiquitous Kerry Foods. What a shame.



Not only are the sausages….“not my favourites”…. (I was going to write ”rubbish“ but that may have attracted unwelcome attention), but the meat in them (if you can find any) is imported from all over Europe. You wouldn’t catch Impsons, Papworths, van Pelts, et al, using foreign meat in their bangers, so why do Kerry Foods? Not that they will admit it either. Check out these two articles, and draw your own conclusions about the company’s evasive stance:

Walls-Made-In-Germany

Walls-Imported-Meat

Exactly how including the country of origin of meat on packaging would increase costs, I have no idea? Any suggestions? Anyhow, onto the sausages:


Meat Content:
Take a look at the label, which lists Pork Belly 40.5%, AND Pork Shoulder 21%. So that means 61% meat content, no? I am hugely sceptical about this figure, as the sausages seemed to contain about as much meat as a cup of tea. Walls make the claim though, so it must be true, right?

Flavour:A sweet, peppery flavour with overtones of fried onions. Not unpleasant. Also not going to be on my plate again. Another of those sausages which would be part of the Kids Meal Deal!!!! £1.29!!!! at any generic warehouse play venue. Serve with cold chips and baked beans that have a crust on them.

Texture:Bland. Look at the six slices, and try to spot ANY variation in colour, texture, appearance….anything. Did you see anything? No, me neither. What a terrible shame that the famous Walls name, carrying a reputation for good products, built up over many years, has now been hijacked by Kerry Foods to sell this slurry.

Shrinkage:Average weight uncooked - 57g
Average weight cooked - 48g
Shrinkage - 15%

Pretty good stats for a cheap product.

Value For Money:
Eight sausages, weighing 452g - this works out as a price of £4.65 per kg, or 26p per snorker. And that’s too much.

Bowers' Lincolnshire Pork & Sage Sausage

We‘re paying our first return visit in Rate My Sausage‘s history, returning to Bower‘s of Gaywood. Their Traditional Pork Sausages were the first that we tried, and set a truly impressive benchmark for the rest to try and match.


These Lincolnshire Pork & Sage are the most expensive sausages so far - would they justify the price tag?



Meat Content:
Absolutely jam-packed full of the stuff! These Pork & Sage jobbies tasted like they had a higher meat content than the previously road-tested Bowers’ Traditional Porks, but I don’t know that as a fact. These are extra large sausages, and contain almost half a dead pig each. Probably.


Flavour:
These may be called Pork & Sage, but the foremost taste was peppery. The Bowers boys certainly weren’t shy with the seasoning when this batch of bangers was being made, and the spiciness was the sharpest I’ve encountered yet. Not unpleasant, as I do like my pepper, but powerfully present, and maybe too strong to a child’s tastebuds. I ate two for breakfast and felt completely full afterwards!





Texture:
Solid, as you’d expect. You can see in the picture the sliced banger in the background - a chainsaw would be as useful for cutting through these mighty monsters as a knife and fork. These really are big ‘uns, and substantially chunky all the way through. The filling seemed slightly less coarse than the regular Bowers Porkers, but don’t let that put you off, these are the real deal.


Shrinkage:
Average weight uncooked - 74g
Average weight cooked - 63g

Shrinkage - 15%




Value For Money:
The four sausages, weighing 297g, cost £2.88 - this works out as a price of £9.70 per kg, or 72p per snorker. As mentioned, this is the most expensive sausage so far. They are also the biggest, so you can definitely apply the old “you get what you pay for” saying here. I think the price is rather steep - but the sausages are superb.


If there was a category in my tests for Shape & Size Variation - in which sausages would score highly for cooking into different, well, shapes and sizes - these Lincolnshire Pork & Sage beauties would gain top marks. One of them even did its best to transform itself into a scale replica of a pig’s trotter. Great stuff.