P J Kew - East Rudham - Pork & Sage Sausages

There’s a tangible feeling of “butchery theatre” about P J Kew’s shop in East Rudham, which you can find just off the A47 in mid-Norfolk, between King's Lynn and Fakenham.  While adhering to all the relevant hygiene rules and regs, current owner Richard Cross maintains the atmosphere of a fifties meaterie, from the original (and absolutely beautiful) hand-cranked bacon slicer, through to the meat hooks dangling around, the original maker’s plate on the door of a now-unused meat cooler and the huge scales hanging near the windows.  The original, partitioned payment booth is still in use.  It’s almost a shrine to the butcher of the Famous Five era, and that alone should encourage you to visit, gaze in awe and nostalgia, and enjoy.  If he could cut and paste this place straight into a trendy part of London overnight he’d be a millionaire within a week.

We first visited P J Kew’s in April 2011, and tried out their KEWS-SAUSAGE .  The sausages were “properly tasty bangers” and the shopping experience was unparalleled – Richard is mega-genial and will talk about every aspect of meat, Norfolk, food in general, you name it, reeling off an abundance of interesting tales.  At the time of our previous visit Richard’s standard pork sausages were simply called “Pork Sausages” but have since been renamed as Banquet Sausages, which better reflects their appetite-busting bounty.  A return trip was always on the cards....  

When I recently spotted Richard posing on Page Three of our local paper, the Lynn News (no, NOT the same kind of pose as, say, Keeley, 22, from Cheltenham) my curiosity was piqued.  Have an ogle for yourself: LYNN-NEWS-ARTICLE .  Upon reading the piece I was intrigued by his new idea of selling delicious, home-cured bacon through the post!  What an utterly fantastic idea.  And of course I wanted to try more of Kew’s sausages....

Read on for a review of Richard’s Pork & Sage bangers, and at the foot of the page we’re offering three lucky readers the chance to receive a pack of their high quality bacon through their very own letterbox!  I have tried some myself, and wow, the difference compared to the water-saturated supermarket rubbish is immeasurable!

Meat Content:

These sausages seem to weigh twice as much per forkful as others.  The meat is dense and juicy and satisfyingly substantial. 

Flavour:

Dark, brooding, and rather rewarding.  There’s a thick, knobbly porkiness for a start, which is soon joined with the mild but tasty warmth of the sage.  The ingredients suggest that this is almost a Lincolnshire sausage, but the flavour is more compact and a little less spicy than its brother from just over the border.  Mind you, if they were labelled as “Lincs” I’d probably say they were good ‘uns – and the day after cooking, when cold, they did a VERY good impersonation, and tasted even better than on day one.

Texture:

Wow, these sausages stick together tighter than the 24^th Foot Regiment at Rorke’s Drift.  Cut open, it’s actually difficult to push the innards apart to see what’s what.  When you do succeed, surprise surprise, it’s pretty finely chopped pork, probably too fine for my personal preference, but resulting in solid, manly bangers

Shrinkage: 

Average weight uncooked - 80g

Average weight cooked - 61g

Shrinkage - 23%

Value For Money:

£2.57 for four sausages weighing 320g - this works out as a price of £7.99 per kg, or 64p per snorker.

The Bisto Factor:

Hmmm, a sore point, but not in a bad way – I cooked these in the morning for inclusion in a later meal and the delicious aroma was so, so tempting and provocative.  How I resisted I’ll never know – when you cook yours be ready for a huge, appetising bouquet.

Opening Hours:

Eccentric!  See photo.

Win Post-A-Pack Bacon!

P J Kew’s innovative Post-A-Pack bacon is very high quality, and absolutely delicious.  We have three packs to be won by three lucky Rate My Sausage readers.  You can choose from four different cuts - smoked back bacon with either a lean, medium or higher amount of fat, or smoked streaky bacon.  Guaranteed gorgeousness!

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is to visit the  NORFOLK-BACON  website and find out “how many years have Richard’s family been making bacon?”  Then simply send an email to sausage-blog@live.com containing your name, county of the UK that you live in, and the answer.  Please write “Bacon” in the subject line.

Only one entry per email address, open to UK residents only.  Entries must be received on or before May 16, emails received after that date will not be entered in the draw.  The winners will be chosen at random from all correct entries at noon on Thursday 17 May, and we will contact you by email. If you don't hear from RMS on that date then you haven't won, sorry.

Good luck!

The pictures below show Post-A-Pack bacon just after I popped it into the pan, just before I took it out, and also the home-made letter-box template that Richard uses to ensure your bacon will fit through your door!