Farmers’ markets, a huge potential source of new and exciting sausages
for us to review! Why we didn’t think of
it before I don’t know. Our first visit
was to the market in Ely, the famous and beautiful cathedral city in the county
of Cambridgeshire, on a sunny but heavily showery Saturday in August. To my surprise there was also a French
traders market running alongside – as Dolly Parton might say “My cup runneth
over!”
The first sausage I tried from the market was the Traditional Pork
variety from Cambria Farm. The stall
shouts “Rare Breed Pork” so I simply had to visit, and the array of tempting sausages
gave me a real headache as to which ones I should choose. Fighting back curiosity I plumped for the
Traditional Porks, as this is our default variety, and decided to try something
a little more adventurous next time round.
I was served by Steve, who was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about
his products, but very wary of the whole Rate My Sausage experience and
reticent to provide any personal colour for this review, or to even let me photograph
the stall!
Meat Content:
85%. Wowzer, I soooo have to try
their “Meaty Sausage” variety next, because these are practically oinking on my
plate. Volvo-size (and I mean eighties,
gigantic Volvos) nuggets of mouth-watering pigginess burst out, and the pork is
obviously reared with a lot of TLC.
Sweet and tender meat, firm and juicy, just like Nigella. But please allow me to introduce the boss of
Cambria Farms, Jane Wilton-Clark, to describe in her own words....”We use a min of 85 percent meat in our
Traditional Sausage, from cuts such as shoulder and belly. The pigs that we use are our own free range,
rare breed pigs. They are mainly The
Gloucester Old Spot, but we do use others such as The Large Black, The Oxford
Sandy & Black and The British Lop.
As the pigs are reared by us, our policy is to separate the boars and
gilts before they are 4 months and this has meant that there has never been a problem
with taint from the boars, they also have far more room to run about outside
and do what comes naturally to a pig and this helps to keeps there mind off the
girls. They are normally taken to
slaughter at around 8 months of age, when they have had plenty of time to
naturally develop the meat and the flavour; bacon pigs we give a bit longer.” Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Flavour:
Remember how your favourite banger tastes. Multiply that flavour by itself, and you’re
in the right ballpark to imagine the flavour of these Traditional Pork sausages. Sausage
squared. It’s a mathematically
impossible level of flavour, but they’ve done it, the flavour’s not
overpowering, they’re prettily seasoned, altogether delectable. Plus, it’s been a while since we had ends
that properly erupted, what an absolute treat.
For the final few words, here’s Jane again, “Sorry, the recipe is a secret, aren't they all !! But I can tell you that they made here on the
farm each week and I make sure that only the good meat is used, (no skin, bone,
gristle or any unexplained bits) I make up the seasonings weekly for each
individual recipe and no preservatives are used in any of our sausages. We make the sausages the day before each
market, which is our biggest outlet and then recommend to our customer that
they eat them within a couple of days or freeze, they freeze very well. We also used the best natural casings.”
Texture:
Steve spoke music to our ears...”Our sausages are all
different shapes and sizes”, “We make our filling fuller than most”, and just
as we have been telling you, “People’s palates are accustomed to supermarket
sausages.” A wise, yet reluctant figure
is Steve, the Yoda of Sausageworld. The
texture is super-crumbly, coarse and knobbly, just how we likes it. It’s almost difficult to cut a slice, the filling
falls apart sensuously. And they’re all
different shapes and dimensions, as promised.
Oh my goodness, the filling varies with almost every mouthful, there are
occasional BIG dollops of the pork and – fabulously – occasional grubs of
gristle. Heavenly. If you’re averse to canine nudity you’d better
reach for a blindfold, because these are the mutt’s nuts!
Shrinkage:
Average weight uncooked - 93g
Average weight cooked - 70g
Shrinkage - 25%
Not too bad, not great, so we can’t criticise too much. Suffice to say that had these shed just
slightly less during frying they’d have been serious contenders for Sausage Of The
Year, under our idiosyncratic and secret scoring system....
Value For Money:
£3.31 for four sausages, weighing 370g - this works
out as a price of £8.95 per kg, or 83p per snorker. Quite expensive, but such good quality, I
have to rate Cambria Farm’s Traditional Pork Sausages as Good value for
money.
The Next Day Cold Sausage Test:
There’s just one word to describe these sausages cold from the fridge
next morning....”Absolutely superb.”
Opening Hours:
As well as Ely Farmers Market, which is held on the second and fourth
Saturday of each month, you can find Cambria Farm and the publicity-shy Steve
at St Ives market on the first and third Saturday. What are you waiting for?
And Finally, Esther:
The last word has to go to Steve....”Incredible, these sausages are.”
May the pork be with you.
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