Upwell is a pretty, elongated village in Cambridgeshire. You’ll find Spikings’ butcher shop alongside the river that bisects the main street, in a lovely, quaint, idiosyncratic way. There’s parking aplenty outside, if you’re going to be there for just a few minutes. Otherwise you may offend the residents.
As you can see from the photo, we visited just before Wills tied the knot with Kate (wonder if they like sharing a sausage?). The shop was decorated decorously in an appropriate style. It looked fab, well done! It was a very happy shop full of charismatic local residents, with a brisk through trade of passing drivers as well. That can’t be a bad indicator that this place is doing something right. And my word, are Spikings hitting the right notes!
OK, they offer fabulous looking meat, at reasonable prices. I was quite surprised that such well butchered meat was on offer at their prices. I was also surprised to see a formidable and tempting range of local produce, ranging from honey, to licorice, to goose fat. And lots more quirky stuff. Honestly, you have to visit to have a look yourself!
Meat Content:
It’s subtle with these sausages, but sneaks up on you. This is a neat, sneaky trick – lots of meat, but you aren’t overpowered by it. Crafty. Good work with the pork.
Flavour:
This was a surprise. Where most sausages we try verge to the over-seasoned, these were different. Less salt, less pepper, but they taste.....they taste....delectable. Yummy. Fantastico. Spikings offer a light, tasty banger which may leave you wanting some more. I did.
Texture:
Absolutely fabulous texture! Rough cut ingredients lead to a splendidly fall-apart sausage. Bloody marvellous. They fall apart easily in the mouth but stick together quite well when sliced – but drop apart if cut too thin. A triumph of rough chopped pork. Butchers, do it chunky!
Shrinkage:
Average weight uncooked - 56g
Average weight cooked - 47g
Shrinkage - 16%
A good result for the Upwell royalists!
Value For Money:
£1.47 for four sausages, weighing 225g - this works out as a price of £6.53 per kg, or 37p per snorker. Considering the lovely quality of these bangers, this is good value for money.
Opening Hours:
M – Closed
T – 8.15 to 5.00
W – 8.15 to 5.00
T – 8.15 to 5.00
F – 8.15 to 5.00
S – 8.15 to 5.00
S - Closed
1 comment:
Top class sausages, by a top butcher, worth traveling 250miles round trip from Yorkshire to get them, as a memory from my childhood!!
Do go and visit John Spikings.
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