Taylors - Bottesford – Traditional Sausage

Rate My Sausage was created in Norfolk, moved westwards to Lincolnshire, and now finds itself in Nottinghamshire. We've rated a few sausages from Newark butchers but there's a whole new, big county for us to explore. The starting point for this new chapter was the small village of Bottesford.

But hold on. Is Bottesford really in Notts? Well, after some time looking into this I have no idea. It might be. Or it could be Leicestershire. Politically it's Rutland. And local government is South Kesteven. Beyond my brain power to work it out so if you have the answer please let me know.

We visited Taylor's butchers to start exploring the bangers of this new area.

Where To Find Them:

You'll find Taylor's the butcher at 1 Grantham Road, also known as The Cross. It's really rather a pretty location and there is room to park on the side of the road nearby. There is no bold brassy signage here just a couple of blackboards listing special offers, but you can't miss it. Check the ceiling in this shop, old butchery items make it look like Frank Bough's basement. If you're using SausNav type in NG13 0DF.

Opening Hours:

Monday – Closed

Tuesday – 0700 to 1700

Wednesday – 0700 to 1700

Thursday – 0800 to 1700

Friday – 0700 to 1700

Saturday – 0700 to 1700

Sunday - Closed

Flavour:

Notes say “Wow, it's a powerful Lincolnshire”. Which for RMS is absolutely marvellous, bring on the bite. These bangers are almost, but not quite, over-powering. Taylor's have started to supply a local cafe, and the cafe bods have asked if they can be made less grabby and more herby. I don't get that myself, but I suppose they have to offer to a wide variety of customers, not just sausage maniacs like us. I love the flavour here, well done chaps.

Texture:

Real hog casings used, which bodes well. Inside coarse and crumbly, just how we like them. They squish OK too, get through the fork but boldly maintain structure. The skins held up perfectly in the pan and manfully held little pools of molten fat inside – a good thing as it makes them not too dry and not too juicy. Is there even such a thing as too juicy? Once cooked some skins proved to be just a little bit too chewy but that could have been down to my cooking I guess.

Vital Statistics:

Average Weight Uncooked = 41 grams

Average Weight Cooked = 30 grams

Meat Content = forgot to find out, sorry...

Value For Money:

£1.70 for 6 sausages weighing 245 grams. This works out as £6.94 per kg and 28p per banger.

We rate this as very good value for money.

And Finally, Esther:

This is usually a short, snappy (ha!) summary, but I can't do that this time. The flavours and the lovely coarse texture are wonderful. But the physical dimensions left me feeling a little short-changed. I want Taylor's to reproduce these bangers as they are but double the size. Triple! Lads, does your sausage machine need a bigger nozzle? I'll crowdfund you. Just please, please make these scoffable sausages more sizeable! When you've done that I am coming back for another review.