Picture the scene. The Famous Five are riding their
bicycles en route to Aunt Fanny’s cottage on Kirrin Island where they expect to
discover and take down a counterfeit cigarette operation run by the Albanian
mafia. All of a sudden one of them clips a kerb and falls off in a shower of
satchels, cardigans and middle-class superiority.
“DICK!” yells....Dick. “George, you’re such a flipping
dick!”. Dick immediately loses three fingers when he is attacked by George’s over-protective
and un-micro chipped new dog Tyson. Poor old Timmy was knocked over by a pantechnicon
just after the Autumn hols last October.
I know you will have enjoyed that brief nostalgic
vignette. And if you want to imagine what the background of the scene looked
like, take a glimpse at Picks Butchers shop frontage, in the sleepy
Lincolnshire village of Dorrington. It is pure picture-postcard English
perfection. Red brick facade with a pleasingly simple sign, a red telephone box,
a red pillar box on a, errrrm, pillar
and hand-written blackboards. Beautiful.
I had heard great things about Picks, especially
about their pork pies, so was excited to step through the Lincoln City coloured
chain-link door screen. At this year’s prestigious Poacher awards Picks bagged
Gold for their pork pies and dry cure bacon, silver for Lincolnshire sausage
and pork & tomato sausage, and a bronze for their haslet. These awards are
not given out willy-nilly, so you know you’re dealing with a good quality
producer here. But how did their Lincolnshire sausages rate for us? Read on....
Where To Find Them:
Picks are on Main Street in Dorrington, easy to find
and with easy street parking. If you’re using SausNav type in LN4 3QA. You can’t
miss them.
Opening Hours:
As per the picture, but just to reiterate:
Monday – 0700 to 1700
Tuesday – 0700 to 1700
Wednesday – 0700 to 1700
Thursday – 0700 to 1700
Friday – 0700 to 1700
Saturday – Closed
Sunday – Closed
Nice and quirky, just how we like it. These guys
obviously enjoy their weekends!
Stanwatch:
What a treat! Two delightful and welcoming Stanettes
serving the steady flow of customers, and enjoying a chat with all-comers. In
the background a solitary Stan a-chopping and a-slicing like the clappers, at a
bench placed just behind the counter. I hope the intention is for us punters to
see the produce being created, which is a bold move and demonstrates their
obvious confidence in their goods.
Flavour:
Warm, herby, delicious. BUT there was a BIG issue
with these sausages. Despite using the same pan, same heat, same oil as with
every review, seven out of eight sausages split their sides during cooking.
This is obviously a bad thing – we love small eruptions from the ends of
bangers, but so much bursting is disturbing. The fluid that leaked from the
broken bangers was coagulant and clogging.....and TOTALLY buggered up the
home-made hash browns that are always cooked in the pan after the sausages
depart. Look at ‘em, just look at ‘em. Hash splodges they became.
Texture:
The skins were obviously compromised as they had
split. You could say there was no Snap or Crackle, cos they Popped.
Disappointing. The filling was actually really good, large pieces, crumbled apart
beautifully when pushed but clung together to provide a most excellent
sensation in your mouth. A great texture.....but let down...
Vital Statistics:
Average Weight Uncooked = 68 grams
Average Weight Cooked = 49 grams
Meat Content = 95 %
Value For Money:
£3.82 for 8 sausages weighing 542 grams. This works
out as £7.04 per kg and 48p per banger.
We rate this as not bad value for money, which would
have been much better without the bursting drama and weight loss. If you buy in
a more “bulk” kind of way the price reduces.
The "Aah, Bisto" Factor:
No noticeable aroma in the pan, but I “was” heartily
annoyed with all the bursting carnage going on so may have been distracted.
The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:
There were no sausages left over for the next
morning, which in itself must say something about the flavour. Crap bangers
tend to last longer....
And Finally, Esther:
I want to give these tasty sausages another try.
Surely the split personality of these was a one-off event. Potentially good
sausages I feel, but a slight disappointment on the day.
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