Fruitpig Company - Creake Abbey Farmers Mrket - Rare Breed Pork, Apricot, Red Onion & Ginger Sausage

The Fruitpig Company, where to begin. I really ought to put my cards on the table before going any further, and state that the sausages made by Ace Butcher Matt Cockin are the best quality, and have been my personal favourites, since Rate My Sausage began. They won our Sausage Of The Year awards in 2010 and 2012 and have been the only bangers that moved us to poetry. With this in mind, if you're hoping for one of our more acerbic trashing-type reviews you "probably" won't get what you want. But then again....

Where To Find Them:
As with all this series we found The Fruitpig Company at Creake Abbey Farmers Market. In the tin shed at the far end to be precise. Their stall is jam-packed with porky goodies. As well as at Creake Abbey you should be able to find them at many excellent food outlets around our area, click here for an up to date list.

Flavour:
There's a great mix of flavours here, which varies by the forkful. Just ogle the photos, large chunks of quality ingredients mean that each mouthful is different and very enjoyable. To compliment the great flavours the juiciness of the pork wraps the whole package up perfectly, and adds a sparkly little bow on top. I was hoping that the ginger would be more prominent but it seems to have gone for an early summer holiday, which is a surprise and a bit of a shame. Overall a lovely spicy and sweet mix.

Texture:
Soooooo meaty. Quality rare breed pork makes the filling chunky, bordering on knobbly. Or gnarly. You certainly can't squidge these sausages through your fork - try it and the sausage laughs mockingly in your face, and returns almost to its original form. Our one word summary for the texture - Manly!

Vital Statistics:

Average Weight Uncooked = 72 grams
Average Weight Cooked = 48 grams
Meat Content = 75 %

Value For Money:
£4.00 for 6 sausages weighing 433 grams. This works out as £9.24 per kg and 66p per banger.

We rate this as fabulous value for money. 

Before we came back to re-start RMS I asked 
around a lot of people what they thought we should do with the pricing and cost side of things. The overwhelming feeling was to comment on the value for money, whether the product was worth the price, as opposed to simply reporting on the actual cost in pounds, shillings and pence.

Junior Sidekick's Three Word Verdict:
As so often when Fruitpig sausages are on the table, JS was coincidentally not around. Purely down to bad luck, obv. Nothing to do with the fact that I WILL NOT share.


The "Aah, Bisto" Factor:
The notes say "open pack and WOW! So deelish smelling. When cooking smell so F good!" So you can take that as a positive olfactory endorsement.

And Finally, Esther:
I love these sausages. They're of a quality you will struggle to find anywhere else. But they're not my favourite Fruitpig sausage. And writing that seems a bit odd. I was going to go with the "how do you choose which of your children is your favourite" line, but Fruitpig bangers sont les enfants terrible du Coquin. So I'll re-visit a theme from a previous review, and christen Matt Cockin as the Van Dyke to Lisa Scothern's Andrews. Truly the sausagey Dick to the practically perfect Julie.

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!).

Fruitpig Company - Rare Breed Sausage

The Fruitpig Company has been reviewed on Rate My Sausage before. We tried their Toulouse, and man alive, were they good! Our cod-French poem of praise was a hit at the company and may even be used by them in future….guys, you can have that one for free. After all, they did give us the bangers for nothing.


If you’ve never heard of the Fruitpig Company then you need to put that right straight away. Suppliers of impressive meat products to some of the top chefs working in the east of England, but only a couple of years old. Check out their website here: FRUITPIG_COMPANY


Fruitpig are very grounded in their local area, which is very endearing. The Boss, mister Matt Cockin, personally popped into The Woolpack (venue for King’s Lynn King Of The Bangers 2010!) to hand over some of their new Chiang Mai sausages, which will be appearing here in due course. But that’s in the future, what were their Rare Breed Sausages like? Read on….

Meat Content:
Extremely piggy, and claimed at 85%. That’s a jolly fine figure in itself, but all the more impressive when you consider the provenance of the pork. Fruitpig pork is special – and it shows in these sausages. Build a cathedral with top-notch Lincolnshire limestone and yet get Lincoln Cathedral….try the same thing with breeze blocks and you end up with Homebase, Grantham. These sausages are very meaty, and it’s bloody good meat to boot.

Flavour:
Sweet sweet sweet! And so juicy too. These sausages are simply delicious. The rare breed pork meat shines through, and would produce fantastic bangers on its own, with nothing added. However, after you savour the sugar-sweet meat there is an after burn of spiciness, as mustard and pepper join hands and romp in spicy-coloured Doc Martin boots all over your taste buds.

Texture:

An excellent texture to these beauties. The way you likes your banger is subjective of course, and I like mine coarse. These are chunky, very chunky. Think Spinal Tap. Picture the scene:

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...

Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?

Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.

Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?

Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?

Marty DiBergi: I don't know.

Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.

Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.


Fruitpig’s mincing machine must be turned to eleven, a la Tufnel, St Hubbins and Smalls (and the many drummers, who all seem to die in mysterious circumstances). Is there a higher compliment I can pay? The skin crisps up quite well but I like mine a little firmer, however these are natural casings and we’ll let them off.

Shrinkage: Average weight uncooked - 60g
Average weight cooked - 47g

Shrinkage - 21%

Value For Money:
I’m sorry, but I don’t have pricing information for these sausages. You will definitely pay top dollar though, and that’s fair when you consider the outstanding quality. Give Matt Cocckin a call to find out!

Through A Child’s Eyes:“Very nice, and I would eat more.” High praise indeed from the Seven-Year-Old Sidekick!