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Sadly we have almost arrived at the end of our series of reviews of the sausages we harvested from Creake Abbey Farmers Market. The penultimate banger in the spotlight is a new experience here at RMS - a sausage made with lamb. To be precise, the Lamb & Mint Sausage produced by Alburgh Lamb.
We tried to find some web presence for Alburgh Lamb but couldn't, really. There is, however, a wealth of mentions and reviews of their produce, all featuring namechecks of the main man - Jimmy Denny. Briefly, Jimmy breeds mainly Texel Sheep and they are fed on a waste product from the nearby Grain Brewery - the leftover barley mash. But you can read more about it on the fascinating Mrs Portly's Kitchen blog, which if you click the link will probably have you reading for waaay longer than you intend to visit. But do NOT go there and forget to come back here! That's an order.
Where To Find Them:
We bought our Alburgh Lamb sausages at Creake Abbey Farmers Market , although they do sell at several others in East Anglia. Again, it's tough to find much online which is a shame. Maybe Jimmy prefers it this way so that he can match his supply to the demand better?
Stanwatch:
Absolutely zero Stans on show. Mister Denny however was as beamingly cheerful as in every photo that you can find of him.
Flavour:
The first two words in our notes for this review are "Absolutely delicious". Not a bad start. The flavour is unmistakeably lamb with mint - that sounds incredibly obvious but we hadn't tried a lamb sausage before and didn't know what to expect. The lamb treats your tastebuds to a sweet, light and slightly fatty flavour, perfect! And then the mint coughs politely in the background - "Ahem" - and suddenly there's your Sunday roast leg of lamb with mint sauce in your mouth in the shape of a sausage. How cool is that!
Texture:
Firm but break-up-able. The squidge test (see Silver Spoon Cafe report) was applied and the sausage filling resisted attempts to splosh the fork through it admirably. Large chunks of resolutely lovely lamb confirm these as super sausages. We will have to try to find more lamb bangers (which has a completely different meaning in Wales) as soon as possible.
Vital Statistics:
Average Weight Uncooked = 87 grams
Average Weight Cooked = 70 grams
Meat Content = Dunno % OK I ballsed up again and don't know the figure, sorry....
Value For Money:
£4.36 for 6 sausages weighing 522 grams. This works out as £8.35 per kg and 73p per banger.
We rate this as marvellous value for money.
The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:
Oh no mate, not this time. Do you really think any of these beauties survived the night? It seems the fridge-dwelling sausage pixies stole them all.
And Finally, Esther:
Jimmy Denny proudly boasts about his daughter "Our beautiful Rachael brought up on Alburgh Lamb!!" Can't give a better recommendation than that.
I first found Fen Farm Venison at Docking Market, all the way back in September 2012. The stall was inviting on a drizzly day and there was a sizzling sound combined with yummy aroma in the air as they grilled some sample sausages for shoppers to taste. You'll receive a warm welcome and be able to take home some very high provenance and healthy venison products.
The proprietors tell us that venison "is one of the healthiest red meats available, having only 207 calories per 100gms. Not only is it low in fat, but it is very low in cholesterol, high in iron and high in protein. Therefore, it is excellent for low-fat diets, medical or otherwise, and in the case of some of our customers, the only red meat they eat." All of which sounds rather good.
Where To Find Them:
Fen Farm Venison's natural habitat is the farmers market, and they are present at lots of these in the East Midlands/Lincolnshire/Norfolk area. You can find the full schedule on the "Markets" page of their informative website - Fen Farm Venison Or if you prefer, you can have these high quality meat products delivered to your door - see the "Ordering" page for the full details. However you decide to get hold of their produce, hurry to the current website as there's a newer, shinier version on the way....
Stanwatch:
We spotted our first ever Junior Stan! Check the picture of the stall and you can see the smart turnout of the staff, bravo!
Flavour:
RICH! Gamey and intense meaty flavour with just a hint of pine forest. Venison is a powerful flavour and not to everybody's liking, but if you love a tasty sausage you'll really enjoy a venison banger. There's a peppery after-taste which compliments the meaty maelstrom that goes before. OMB (Oh My Bambi), these sausages seem to be made up of 137% meat. Don't mess with them.
Texture:
Solid scaffolding poles of meat, but somehow super-juicy at the same time. These looked kind of aggressive in the frying pan and on the plate. Brooding looks and gnarly texture is a macho combination. These really are a carnivore's dream. Solidly chunky filling that is actually chopped quite fine but sticks together tightly like neutrinos subjected to a weak nuclear force. True dat.
Vital Statistics:
Average Weight Uncooked = 78 grams
Average Weight Cooked = 72 grams
Meat Content = 80% venison combined with 19% pork
Value For Money:
£3.02 for 4 sausages weighing 310 grams. This works out as £9.74 per kg and 75p per banger. These are high quality bangers and so we rate this as very good value for money.
The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:
There were two of these venison & pork sausages lurking, snarling and muttering expletives in the fridge the next morning. After putting on some meat-proof body armour I plucked up courage to tackle them - a cold sausage sandwich made with the cheapest, whitest bread that money can buy. It was a meal in itself! The red sauce half was yummy but the brown sauce half was "off the chuffing scale". The sausages bond together even more fiercely in the fridge and this means that a simple sausage buttie will take you quite a while to tackle. Delicious!
And Finally, Esther:
I bloody loved these man-sized, manly bangers. The full-on flavour may be a little too powerful for some palates but if you're a sausage fan (and if you're not, why are you on this website?) don't just take my word for it - I thoroughly recommend trying out some of Fen Farm Venison's delicious produce for yourself.
I bet you didn't know that Ian Wright's sausages have graced these porky pages once before? Way back in March 2012 they were the subject of a guest review written for us by author and sitcom genius Alex Marsh . Here's what he had to say - Jonny B's Review - a positive write-up on the whole.
Now it's time for us to run the RMS rule over Mister Wright's Norfolk Pork sausages, having found them at Creake Abbey Farmers Market, just as Jonny B described. Ian Wright is a lovely chap, gentle in nature, helpful and a pleasure to buy bangers from. Let the rating begin!
Where To Find Them:
Creake Abbey Farmers Market (satnav NR21 9LF). I don't know if they are available elsewhere. But please do pop along, as well as Ian Wright's you'll be spoiled for choice for good produce.
Flavour:
Mildly salty, but a warm taste of home and childhood. There is more of the salt than pepper, it works quite nicely. Mellow, melting, inoffensive and.....nice.
Texture:
The skins are great, nice work Ian. The texture is quite even throughout, mid-size pieces. When you push this sausage apart you get lots of nice crumbly crumbs. Overall it's slightly disappointing, very uniform all the way through, every slice pretty much identical. Not terrible, far from it, but not mind-blowing either. Just.....nice.
Junior Sidekick's Three Word Verdict:
Not very chewy.
Vital Statistics:
Average Weight Uncooked = 57 grams
Average Weight Cooked = 50 grams
Meat Content = Don't Know - sorry, my bad, won't do it again, etc....
Value For Money:
£3.37 for 6 sausages weighing 341 grams. This works out as £9.88 per kg and 56p per banger.
We rate this as good value for money.
The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:
There were none of these sausages left to test out in the morning. We "will" re-start this part of the reviews soon, promise.
And Finally, Esther:
Nice....
On 7 March this year I took a trip to Creake Abbey Farmers Market and came home with a splendid haul of new sausages to try out. We ran a poll to let you, our beloved readers, decide which sausage we should fry first, and the winning butcher was Papworth's. I chose their unusually named (more on that later) "Norfolk Flyer" sausage to review first, dug out the RMS pans and here we are. Our first new review since July 2013. Not a lot has changed, we'll still be frying not grilling, but instead of olive oil we've changed to rapeseed oil from the most excellent Yare Valley Oils.
It's nice to be back, and we hope you enjoy reading about our often ill-informed and irreverent adventures with sausages....
Where To Find Them:
As already described I found these sausages at Creake Abbey Farmers Market, but this is definitely not the only place that you can buy them. Papworths also have bricks and mortar shops in Market Place, Swaffham (postcode is PE37 7QH for your SatNav), Miller's Walk, Fakenham (NR21 9AP) and Station Road, Sheringham (NR26 8RG).
Stanwatch:
Have a peek at the photo of the stall. On the right is Sam Papworth himself, with an enthusiastic Stan on the left. If you're new to Rate My Sausage you may wonder what the heck I'm on about with the Stan stuff? Well for years I called a local butcher Stan, before he eventually told me that his name was "Terry. It's bloody Terry. TERRY!" Since then we have used Stan as the collective noun for all the staff diligently beavering away behind the counter. The more Stans on view the better we like it.
Flavour:
Subtle-y peppery, discreet seasoning but done well. This is an old recipe with no modern frills, and has been tried and tested over many years. Do not add any of your own salt or pepper as I think you'd overdo it and spoil the taste. If this is how bangers tasted during the second world war then it's no wonder that Adolf got a butt-kicking.
Texture:
The filling is chopped to a medium coarseness, which works well. But how juicy and succulent when you slice one open and press the meat with the flat of your fork. The goodness simply oozes out. The skins are natural and keep these sausages supremely moist through the cooking process.
Vital Statistics:
Average Weight Uncooked = 81 grams - big and bouncy!
Average Weight Cooked = 70 grams
Meat Content = 80%
These sausages look big and that's because they ARE big. Solid chunky lumps of porky pleasure - don't cook too many because you won't manage to eat them all. Alternatively cook LOTS and put some back in the fridge for the next day. Picture two burly lumberjacks using a two-handed saw to carve their way back and forth through a recently felled giant redwood. The Johnson Flyers are the sausagey equivalent of that tree. Really.
Value For Money:
£2.33 for 4 sausages weighing 323 grams. This works out as £7.20 per kg and 58p per banger.
We rate this as very good value for money. Try some soon!
The "Aah, Bisto" Factor:
Delicious sausagey wafts had me clock-watching while the Johnson Flyers were in the pan. Lovely.
Why "Norfolk Flyer"?
A good question, thanks for asking. The sausage was launched to coincide with the 2013 Movember LINK campaign. I'll let Sam's own description do the rest:
The Johnson Flyer – Our Movember Sausage.
Friday 1st November sees the start of Movember, and in our case the launch of a new sausage to go with it.
Richard and Alex are going to grow their Mo's in memory of shop manager John's late father Johnnie Johnson D.F.C.
Johnnie flew over 40 missions to Germany during WWII in a Lancaster bomber.
The butchers will grow their Mo's , and at the end of Movember Johno has agreed to join them in shaving his Mo off! It will be the first time he has gone without for over 45 years.
John knows all too well the importance of good Radiography, as his wife Liz is recovering from cancer, and regularly has to visit hospital in Norwich and London.
With all this in mind we have named the banger "The Johnson Flyer".
It is a robustly flavoured Pork Sausage with black pepper and sage as its’ primary flavours, with hints of nutmeg and coriander in there too.
It is a sausage John can remember making years ago, and was always popular with his customers. With the help of our ingredients company D.F Dickens we have re-created the flavours. Made with our own local Pork we are sure you will enjoy.
And Finally, Esther:
A really good sausage to have chosen for our return, complete with a fascinating and heart-warming back story. Recommended!
