Creake Abbey Farmers Market - What A Haul!

Just in from the fabulous farmers market at Creake Abbey, where I managed to find a bounty of beautiful bangers to review. Yes dear reader, Rate My Sausage is back in business and the sausage reviews will start to appear soon....

The market is bootiful, really bootiful, and judging by the crowds thronging each area it's a firm favourite with local lovers of great local produce. Of course we are mainly about the bangers and we snaffled and stashed away the following:

Lisa Scothern's Pork, Leek & Bacon sausages

Sam  Papworths  Johnson Flyers and Sandringham sausages

Fruitpig Company Rare Breed Pork, Apricot, Red Onion & Ginger sausages

Ian Wright Norfolk Pork sausages

Fen Farm Venison's Venison & Pork sausages

Alburgh Lamb's Lamb & Mint sausages

We've reviewed sausages from some of these butchers before, if you would like to read what we wrote simply click on the blue links in the lines above.

It was great to meet up with some old friends and to meet some new (to me) and talented producers of high quality produce. The morning was a huge success, a major step back to productivity for RMS, and the breakfast in the cafe was lovely (the teapot was a three-cupper!).

Papworth's Farmhouse Pork Sausage

This week we return to Swaffham market place, and the warm welcome found at Papworth‘s Butchers & Graziers.


Our first visit saw us trying the Papworth‘s Champion pork sausage. Now, I would have thought that with the name “Champion”, this was their best banger. I would have thought wrong. Read on….

Meat Content:
I believe each of these sausages may be the entire leg of a tiny breed of pig, genetically engineered by Papworth’s in a lab somewhere, possibly just off the A1065 Fakenham to Swaffham road in one of the Weasenhams (my money’s on Weasenham All Saints). Superbly meaty, these bangers are deliciously chunky, a carnivore’s delight. Bravo!

Flavour:
Porky. Peppery. Perfect! Every single bite was an absolute joy, and I found myself cutting them smaller so that the meal would last longer. That’s a first for me, as I still have the military mindset of “Eat as fast as you can”. When you buy some, relish every mouthful.

Texture:Would “fabulous“ do them justice? Could I risk a “sumptuous“? Papworth‘s sure know how to make sausages, and these are even better than their Champion Porkers. Sliced into six the slices stood defiantly upright, daring me to “come and have a nibble, if you think you’re hard enough”. So I re-sliced each slice, and they still stood firm. To say that these chaps are “firm” is inadequate. Perfection in a pig-skin.

Shrinkage:Average weight uncooked - 79g
Average weight cooked - 72g

Shrinkage - 9%

Unprecedented single-figure shrinkage. The lowest score of any banger so far, with 12% being the next lowest (Vancouver Butcher’s Pork Sausage and Papworth’s other banger, the Champion Pork). GREAT work Papworth’s.

Value For Money:
£3.05, for 6 sausages weighing 476g - this is a price of £6.58 per kg, or 51p per snorker. 51p is maybe in the top quarter of the table price-wise but you need to ask - “Is this sausage what I is scoffing worth 51p?” For me, it’s a no-brainer, “YES!” Great VFM, buy some right now!