Edis - Ely - Pork & Leek Sausage

Oh, how sad to come to the end of our Ely odyssey.  We are ending on a high note though, with a return visit to Edis Quality Butchers which you can find on High Street in this pretty cathedral city.  The boys behind the counter were way too busy for me to consider interrupting for a chat, thus causing their customers a slower service, so I can’t share any gossip or snippets on this occasion.  In 2010 we road-tested their Premium Pork variety, which we liked a lot (“A man’s sausage!”) and rated as good value for money - EDIS-PREMIUM-PORK.  This time around we plumped for the tempting Pork & Leek bangers.

Ah, pork and leek, a great match of flavours, and a good combination for a sausage.  Believe it or not, Rate My Sausage has only reviewed one other Pork & Leek in our entire history.  When we wrote about SYCAMORE-FARM-PORK-AND-LEEK sausage early in 2011 I intended to sample more versions, but never did – until now.  Why The Heck Not?  I can’t answer that, but expect to see more of these butcher’s staples in the future. 

I am guessing that it’s no coincidence that so many meat-mongers offer a pork and leek sausage?  Why not, say, pork and broccoli?  Or cauliflower?  Or turnip?  Decades of trial and error I suspect.  Googling these four random combinations offers the following number of hits:

Pork & Leek Sausage – 2,920,000

Pork & Broccoli Sausage – 6,960,000

Pork & Cauliflower Sausage – 3,600,000

Pork & Turnip Sausage – 1,230,000

Which is an odd result and the opposite of that expected....pork and broccoli in a banger?  That’s as left-field an idea as pork and raspberry (3,690,000)....anyway, enough of that old squit, let’s rate some sausages!

Meat Content:

The meat is actually rather good but Edis encourage it to slip into the background to join forces with the leek and put on a united front.  They’ve done well in that respect, it must be tempting to make the very most of such a fine ingredient, so the restraint and judgement in allowing a Mere Vegetable (shock, horror) to share the limelight is praiseworthy.

Flavour:

My notes start with “WOW-WEE!!!”  My first reaction to these delicious bangers was emphatic, capitalised, and had three exclamation marks, and was followed with “light, fresh, great match of flavours”.  Yum yum, Edis have put together an extremely tasty product, complete with a sneaky, back of the mouth hint of heat – but I don’t think it’s anything peppery.  More likely to be the natural slightly tangy flavour of the allium family of vegetables, onions and such.  The flavour is not only instantly enjoyable but also very, very more-ish.  They also seem to taste slightly less “unhealthy” than many other sausages, more delicate, maybe the presence of the greenery plays tricks on your brain.  Sweet pork and the counterpoint of the leek, good work chaps.

Texture:

Squeak and Snap, two unusual words to apply to sausages, but regular readers or fellow sausage lovers will recognise them as most welcome in any review.  The “squeak”, of course, refers to the moist mouth-watering pork meat on offer and the sensation you feel when you bite into it, and the “snap” to the natural casings, splitting satisfyingly apart to let the hungry diner dive in.  The filling is initially firm but more fluid when you cut or push, which is maybe not surprising bearing in mind that leeks are composed predominantly of water (83% on average, to be precise).

Shrinkage: 

Average weight uncooked - 86g

Average weight cooked - 72g

Shrinkage - 17%

17% ranks Edis’ Pork & Leek bangers at 8 out of 28 so far this year in the shrinking stakes, so that’s a decent performance....again, good work chaps.

Value For Money:

£2.88 for four sausages, weighing 345g - this works out as a price of £8.36 per kg, or 72p per snorker.

I was delighted with the delicate and delicious flavour contained in Edis’ latest sausages, so bearing in mind the price and the fact that Pork & Leek is my new best friend I’d rate these as Very Good Value For Money.

The Bisto Factor:

Negligible aroma from the kitchen during cooking, but blimey O’Reilly, when you first cut into one the wonderful fragrance is an absolute treat that triples the appetite and expectation in an instant.  Irresistible.

The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:

I was impressed with these sausages last night but they’ve just gone supersonic.  Straight out of the fridge these are pure planks of porky perfection.  I didn’t accompany with any sauces or dips and I’m very pleased I didn’t – I’ve discovered an indulgent, decadent, meaty mecca.  The pork has knit together compactly, while the leek still frolics and flirts around the edges.  Edis of Ely, I Salute You!

Opening Hours:

Monday: 0900 - 1700

Tuesday: 0900 – 1400 (half day closing in Ely)

Wednesday: 0900 - 1700

Thursday: 0900 - 1700

Friday: 0900 - 1700

Saturday: 0800 - 1700

Sunday: Closed

And Finally, Esther:

Why, oh why, oh why have I not tried more pork and leek sausages?  I want more, More, MORE!  I think you may be seeing them regularly in the future....

Miserable Frenchie Market Trader - Ely Farmers Market - Toulouse Sausage

La Belle France!  Home of Voltaire, Joan of Arc, Claude Monet, Rene Artois, and the language of love.  On my trip to Ely Farmers Market I was intrigued to find a visiting French market too, so I had to indulge in a sample of their sausage – and that means Toulouse.  We’ve rated Toulouse sausages before, and usually liked them quite a lot, especially that of the Fruitpig Company, which is the only sausage that has inspired me to poetry:  REVIEW-AND-POEM .  So all was looking good for the Entente Cordiale....right up to the point that I actually had to interact with Jacques (made-up name) the sausage seller (lucky number 1914 and 1939, star sign Le Coquin, “The Cock”).

The sausage was rather expensive, and the Frenchie behind the counter gruffly demanded “Two twenty”, without a please or a s’il vous plait in sight.  Bad manners is a national characteristic of the french, so I attempted to make a joke of it.  I rifled my pockets and found that I had exactly £2.19 in loose change – offered it in an outstretched palm and asked “Two nineteen for cash?”

“Two twenty.” 

No please, no hint of humour, just surly bad attitude.

Now I’m a very easy-going young man, but this really riled me.  I paid up and left grumpy frenchie behind, pondering why his forebears hadn’t displayed such stubborn-ness in 1914 or 1940.  This isn’t the first example of modern frenchies showing a vastly greater degree of combativeness than their grand-peres of course....

Mind you, he’s not the only one....

In Cantona’s case he was probably hoping to wind up in a P.O.W camp for the next few years, out of the firing line, instead he was simply banned from playing football for nine months.  But can you blame him?  Things generally go wrong when Les Frogs go into battle, especially against us English....a quick scan of some latest results reveals....roll vide-printer....

Battle of Crecy (1346) – Dead Frenchies 8,000, Dead Englishmen 300 (at most)

Battle of Agincourt (1415) – Dead Frenchies 10.000, Dead Englishmen 112

Battle of Waterloo (1815) – Dead frenchies 40,000, Dead Englishmen 3,500

Waterloo was an improved performance by the cheese-eating surrender monkeys, but marked the final time that Les Bleus would actually stand and fight in any meaningful way to defend their country.  Instead they determined to take on their bogey side England “by proxy”, and equip England’s enemies with the arms and ammunition needed to take a cowardly sucker-punch at their old adversary.  French-made Exocet missiles, carried by French-made Mirage jets, were responsible for the vast majority of British losses during the Falklands conflict in 1982. 

At least the french are more successful when it comes to creative activities, and have produced some half-decent artists and poets in their time.  The architecture is generally easy on the eye, but labour costs are extortionate due to the punitive tax regime in place – indeed the only thing that goes up faster than French taxes is a French soldier’s hands in battle.  And despite the misleading myth that French roads are lined with trees to make them look more attractive, the real reason is so that German soldiers can march on them in the shade.

It’s not all bad for France.  Their national anthem is my favourite of all the world’s anthems.  Shame that their national costume of stripey shirt, beret and mask makes them look like camp burglars.  But enough of this historically accurate examination of the country, how did Monsieur Morose’s sausage rate?

Meat Content:

Unknown.  The stall signage didn’t tell and there was no point asking the stroppy patron.  The sausage was solid though, so there was definitely meat present, although it may not have been pork I guess?  If this was indeed horsemeat then it was definitely carved from a rocking horse, dense and thick.  Not too bad.  But super-solid, bound together firmer than Old Man Steptoe’s lower colon after an omelette for breakfast.

Flavour:

Quite juicy despite the lack of pull-apart-ability.  Garlic-y, d’accord, but not as in your face as I’d expected.  Richly herby, many flavours try to push to the forefront, giving a “quite nice” overall taste.  Not totally hee-hawful.

Texture:

Very dense, very solid, extremely log-like.  Not easy to stick a fork in!

Shrinkage: 

Average weight uncooked - 178g

Average weight cooked - 134g

Shrinkage - 25%

A monster of a thing uncooked, and still huge afterwards.  Losing a quarter of paid-for weight is never a good thing though.

Value For Money:

£2.20 for ONE sausage, weighing 178g - this works out as a price of £12.00 per kg, and of course £2.20 per snorker.  Absolutely BLOODY AWFUL value for money, AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

And Finally, Esther:

Another well-balanced Rate My Sausage review added to the archives.  Next week, Pork & Leek from Edis of Ely....

W Rayment - Ely - Norfolk Pork Sausage

Rayment was the first butcher I found when I first visited Ely back in 2010, and we reviewed their   Traditional-Pork  sausages, finding them herby, meaty and excellent value for money – could their Norfolk variety match up?  I introduced myself when I walked in and was alarmed to see a crispy, yellowing copy of the original review produced from under the counter!  Checking that my exit route to the door was clear in case the next below-counter surprise was a finely honed meat cleaver with my name on it, I tentatively asked if I could run another review.  “Of course you can” was the reply, leading to immediate blood pressure reduction and significant sphincter readjustment.  Phew!

Everybody has heard of the famous Lincolnshire sausage, right?  Of course they have!  But Norfolk is a very important county for the production of top quality pork, so why isn’t there a Norfolk sausage?  Well, there is!  And you can find them on sale at W Rayment in Ely.  Enigmatic boss Lawrence (star sign Cancer, lucky number 3) was behind the counter when I recently visited, as part of my Ely Farmers Market expedition in August, and he filled me in on the whys and wherefores of the whole Norfolk Sausage story.  To cut a long story short the recipe was designed by “old school legend Derek” (Lawrence’s words, not mine) as an attempt to invent a banger worthy of the title. 

Are the sausages up to the task?  Read on to find out.  And, whatever you do, do NOT ask Lawrence if all women are the same, or whether there’s a wife number four on the horizon - that meat cleaver may yet be raised in furious anger!

Meat Content:

Listed as 68%, tastes more.  The pork is flavoursome in a slightly different way – it tastes.....hot and sweaty, like pork straight out of the piggy gym (that isn’t meant as a criticism by the way).  It’s juicy and there’s plenty of chunkiness to satisfy your carnivorous cravings.  I didn’t find any “dodgy” bits either, which is slightly disappointing for Rate My Sausage but good news for the more normal sausage-buying public.

Flavour:

Have a quick look at the uncooked sausages, and note the abundance of different coloured flecks lurking under the skin.  I was expecting herby, spicy yumminess judging by the pre-cooked look, and this was backed up by the way that the individual slices appeared.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Lawrence and his crew are trying to create a variation on the Lincolnshire recipe and they’ve done a pretty damn good job with their Norfolk Pork Sausages.  This banger is warm and well designed, with a tasty combination of seasoning and a delightful slap of heat to boot, and were just the job after a very soggy afternoon on the allotment.

Texture:

Quite small cut, unlike the stereotype Lincolnshire recipe, but when you probe and push the individual pieces they separate very nicely and obediently.  If you keep a slice in your mouth for a few moments the texture comes into its own and you can taste and feel the component parts splitting apart and delivering a lovely sausage-eating experience.  And, as a bonus, different slices give you slight variations in texture when you eat – very good!

Shrinkage: 

Average weight uncooked - 94g

Average weight cooked - 81g

Shrinkage - 14%

What a fine statistic for Rayments, big bangers before and after visiting the pan.  Good work Lawrence and Derek, keep it up!

Value For Money:

£2.38 for four sausages, weighing 375g - this works out as a price of £6.35 per kg, or 60p per snorker.  That’s not a low price, but then again, these aren’t bad sausages – rated as Good value for money.

Through A Child’s Eyes:

Junior Sidekick not on duty.

The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:

I kept half of the largest sausage in the fridge until the next day – which probably weighed as much as two and a half “regular” samples.  And yay, I did slice the banger into many pieces, And It Was Good.  Biblically good, chilled solidly into paving slabs full of guilty flavour.  You just Have to try these cold!

Opening Hours:

Mea culpa, I didn’t note the opening times.  What a plum.  I heartily recommend a visit though, so you may be well advised to call beforehand to check that they’re open.  The number is 01353 662900.

And Finally, Esther:

Variation from slice to slice?  Check.  Erupted ends?  Check.  Excellent candidate to be used as a template for a “Norfolk Pork” sausage?  Check.  I couldn’t really criticise these sausages, and you should buy some soon to see if you agree with me.

Thank you Lawrence and team for a most enjoyable visit, hope to return soon!

Cambria Farm - Ely Farmers Market - Traditional Pork Sausage

Farmers’ markets, a huge potential source of new and exciting sausages for us to review!  Why we didn’t think of it before I don’t know.  Our first visit was to the market in Ely, the famous and beautiful cathedral city in the county of Cambridgeshire, on a sunny but heavily showery Saturday in August.  To my surprise there was also a French traders market running alongside – as Dolly Parton might say “My cup runneth over!”

The first sausage I tried from the market was the Traditional Pork variety from Cambria Farm.  The stall shouts “Rare Breed Pork” so I simply had to visit, and the array of tempting sausages gave me a real headache as to which ones I should choose.  Fighting back curiosity I plumped for the Traditional Porks, as this is our default variety, and decided to try something a little more adventurous next time round.  I was served by Steve, who was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his products, but very wary of the whole Rate My Sausage experience and reticent to provide any personal colour for this review, or to even let me photograph the stall!  

Meat Content:

85%.  Wowzer, I soooo have to try their “Meaty Sausage” variety next, because these are practically oinking on my plate.  Volvo-size (and I mean eighties, gigantic Volvos) nuggets of mouth-watering pigginess burst out, and the pork is obviously reared with a lot of TLC.  Sweet and tender meat, firm and juicy, just like Nigella.  But please allow me to introduce the boss of Cambria Farms, Jane Wilton-Clark, to describe in her own words....”We use a min of 85 percent meat in our Traditional Sausage, from cuts such as shoulder and belly.  The pigs that we use are our own free range, rare breed pigs.  They are mainly The Gloucester Old Spot, but we do use others such as The Large Black, The Oxford Sandy & Black and The British Lop.  As the pigs are reared by us, our policy is to separate the boars and gilts before they are 4 months and this has meant that there has never been a problem with taint from the boars, they also have far more room to run about outside and do what comes naturally to a pig and this helps to keeps there mind off the girls.  They are normally taken to slaughter at around 8 months of age, when they have had plenty of time to naturally develop the meat and the flavour; bacon pigs we give a bit longer.”  Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Flavour:

Remember how your favourite banger tastes.  Multiply that flavour by itself, and you’re in the right ballpark to imagine the flavour of these Traditional Pork sausages.  Sausage squared.  It’s a mathematically impossible level of flavour, but they’ve done it, the flavour’s not overpowering, they’re prettily seasoned, altogether delectable.  Plus, it’s been a while since we had ends that properly erupted, what an absolute treat.  For the final few words, here’s Jane again, “Sorry, the recipe is a secret, aren't they all !!  But I can tell you that they made here on the farm each week and I make sure that only the good meat is used, (no skin, bone, gristle or any unexplained bits) I make up the seasonings weekly for each individual recipe and no preservatives are used in any of our sausages.  We make the sausages the day before each market, which is our biggest outlet and then recommend to our customer that they eat them within a couple of days or freeze, they freeze very well.  We also used the best natural casings.”

Texture:

Steve spoke music to our ears...”Our sausages are all different shapes and sizes”, “We make our filling fuller than most”, and just as we have been telling you, “People’s palates are accustomed to supermarket sausages.”  A wise, yet reluctant figure is Steve, the Yoda of Sausageworld.  The texture is super-crumbly, coarse and knobbly, just how we likes it.  It’s almost difficult to cut a slice, the filling falls apart sensuously.  And they’re all different shapes and dimensions, as promised.  Oh my goodness, the filling varies with almost every mouthful, there are occasional BIG dollops of the pork and – fabulously – occasional grubs of gristle.  Heavenly.  If you’re averse to canine nudity you’d better reach for a blindfold, because these are the mutt’s nuts!

Shrinkage: 

Average weight uncooked - 93g

Average weight cooked - 70g

Shrinkage - 25%

Not too bad, not great, so we can’t criticise too much.  Suffice to say that had these shed just slightly less during frying they’d have been serious contenders for Sausage Of The Year, under our idiosyncratic and secret scoring system....

Value For Money:

£3.31 for four sausages, weighing 370g - this works out as a price of £8.95 per kg, or 83p per snorker.  Quite expensive, but such good quality, I have to rate Cambria Farm’s Traditional Pork Sausages as Good value for money.

The Next Day Cold Sausage Test:

There’s just one word to describe these sausages cold from the fridge next morning....”Absolutely superb.”

Opening Hours:

As well as Ely Farmers Market, which is held on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, you can find Cambria Farm and the publicity-shy Steve at St Ives market on the first and third Saturday.  What are you waiting for?

And Finally, Esther:

The last word has to go to Steve....”Incredible, these sausages are.”

May the pork be with you.