Powters - Newmarket - Celebrated Newmarket Sausage

We reviewed Powters pre-packed Newmarket sausages in 2011, and saddled them with the slightly negative overall impression that although they were pretty good for a shop-bought sausage, they were still just a shop-bought sausage.  Gotta be honest.  So when a helpful colleague offered to bring back some sausages straight from Powters’ shop on the market place in Newmarket I jumped at the opportunity to compare the two.  Had I been on the wrong tack, or would my original verdict stand the test of time?

Now, instead of galloping headlong into the review, let me briefly mention the afore-mentioned helpful colleague, for he is a true gent.  Known as Neil, and married to the fragrant Mrs Neil, you’d be hard-pressed to find a nicer guy to bring home the bangers for you.  As well as being a good egg at work, Neil provides commentary for blind fans at all Cambridge United’s home matches – and his vocal chords will have been knackered last weekend as Cambridge thrashed Stockport County by four goals to one.  He probably kisses babies too.  For being a top bloke we’re making Neil our first informal RMS staff member, and he shall henceforth hold the title Official Newmarket Excellent Sausage Importation Expert.  Which means he’s the Rate My Sausage "ONESIE", but beggars can’t be choosers when the jobs are being dished out.

On to the sausages.  Powters is a traditional butchers located in the horse racing mecca that is Newmarket.  I love the attention to detail with the packaging of their sausages, which are sold in sealed wax paper bags (see pic), thus ensuring that the sausages are in tip-top condition when you want to use them.  Great idea!  The company is linked very closely with the racecourse and the racing fraternity, as you can read for yourself by visiting their neat website:

Powters Cool Website

A right riveting read it is too.  However, this is not Rate My Website, it’s Rate My Sausage, so let’s get under starters orders and go!

Meat Content:

80%.  A goodly percentage, but the headline news is the utterly amazing juiciness of this pork, sorry but it’s difficult to rein in my enthusiasm right now.  These sausages literally ooze with gorgeous porky yumminess, ooze I tells ya!  When you push a fork through the pork it manfully holds the rest of the filling together, splodging apart just enough to let you think that you’re in charge, then closing ranks quicker than the Met after they’ve shot another “definitely guilty m’lud” citizen.

Flavour:

Sagey and very much like a number 53 Volkswagen Beetle – herby!  The filling tastes delicious, it’s light and very sweet, and rather different to other sausages.  There’s a hint of salty hotness too, which contrasts neatly with the herbs.  Maybe that accounts for the PGI status that Newmarket sausages have been awarded (and rightly so).  If you see a Newmarket sausage being offered outside of the town itself, they’re breaking the law, call the sausage police immediately!

Texture:

Squidgy, in a very good way, succulent, grainy, and would tickle my taste buds even more if more roughly chopped.  But these are a Rowley mile away from the minging meat-lite mush of the average supermarket sausage.  Yes I know I’ve said that many times before, stop nagging.  The natural skins provide a perfect snappy cutting sound and a very satisfying chew, all in all most excellent.

Shrinkage: 

Average weight uncooked - 70g

Average weight cooked - 55g

Shrinkage - 22%

On the high side....not the worst we’ve seen but far from the best too – jockeying for position in the lower-middle reaches of the league table....on balance, we’ll don the blinkers and turn a blind eye this time.

Value For Money:

£4.18 for 8 sausages, weighing 558g - this works out as a price of £7.49 per kg, or 52p per snorker.

The great flavour and irresistibility to junior offspring make Powter’s Celebrated Newmarket sausages very good value for money.  They’re not the cheapest banger around, but don’t bridle at the price, go and buy some today.

The Bisto Factor:

Smelled tantalisingly sweet during cooking.  Became very sticky in the pan too, which shouldn’t be a handicap as long as you stay on your toes when you’re cooking yours.  

Through A Child’s Eyes Combined With The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:

Junior Sidekick wasn’t around when I fried these sausages, but he was the following day.  He didn’t say a word about the bangers actually, but the fact that all four leftover specimens, together with a bowl of cold mashed potato, disappeared from the fridge over the course of a weekend tells you that he must have liked them - a lot.  What do they taste like cold?  Dunno, I was left sausage-less by a nine-year-old who kept trotting back to the fridge to polish them off himself....

And Finally, Esther:

These sausages are way better than those bought in the box.  If you don’t have your own ONESIE go and buy some yourself as soon as possible.

And even more finally, sorry to say, I have been laughably predictable.  I haven’t been this close to a combination of horses and sausages since I lived in Germany for a few years, so I couldn’t resist including ten references to horses and horse racing in this review, can you spot ‘em all?  Don’t phone, it’s just for fun.