You‘ll find T&M Quality Butchers on the High Street in Downham Market. Downham is a nice little market town about ten miles south of King’s Lynn (it‘s free to park!), and its residents seem to take pride in their town, and in living there. This seems to be embodied in T&M Butchers, which is a splendid establishment with a shop window full of wonderful-looking meats. I had an enjoyable visit to T&M, and they happily welcomed me in my investigative mode, even after I’d admitted that the website was called Rate My Sausage. Much “Carry On”-style giggling ensued, exactly as intended. Thanks girls and boys!
I think I will be going back to this butcher‘s. You see, as well as the standard sausages that you’ll find in most butchers, T&M prepare a “Sausage Of The Week”, which changes…well…weekly…..and contains such a deliciously tempting range of varieties! Take a look at the picture of the choices….I dare you not to start imagining how some of those would taste after you’d cooked them, and settled down to eat…..
I’m wandering away from the task at hand. Let’s talk T&M Pork & Apple…..
Meat Content:
Didn’t seem as pig-packed as a lot of the bangers tested so far, but you have to leave room for the apple! Still a hearty sausage, you wouldn’t be disappointed if these appeared on your plate, and you WOULD be seriously grumpy if you dropped one and the dog ate it.
Flavour:Delicious. Different. Mild and sweet-tasting, it must be the apple’s influence. I ate these as part of a great big, unhealthy comfort-food tea, and they tasted lovely. I do think that the slightly more refined taste would work better in a dish like a sausage casserole maybe…mind you, what do I know?
Texture:
The uncooked picture shows that these sausages contain lots of larger, different coloured lumps, and this is confirmed when you cut into them. There’s plenty of resistance as you slice in, and they’re great to chew on, and so far removed from the soft paste we’ve seen in others, such as TDRs.
Shrinkage:Average weight uncooked - 59g
Average weight cooked - 40g
Shrinkage - 33%
High shrinkers! No idea why. Do pork & apple sausages need more binding to keep them together? Or was this a rogue group of bangers? 33% does seem a lot to lose.
Value For Money:
£1.45 for four sausages weighing 234g = £6.15 per kg, or 36p per snorker.
It’s a shame these sausages lost so much during cooking, but they still taste great, look mouth-watering, and won’t break the shopping budget. Get some tomorrow!
