Guest Review - Vinogirl - The Fatted Calf's Breakfast Sausage, Napa, California

I've have always liked a tasty sausage.  I mean, what self respecting English person does not like a good banger?  Well actually, my brother Thud had a phobia about sausages when we were growing up, after he had a nightmare about a maggot-infested sausage, so he didn't touch them for years. He will now, on occasion, suffer through a couple of Tesco's Finest traditional pork sausages.  My mother has always liked a satisfying Cumberland, those extra long sausages hailing from what is now Cumbria, as she preferred the chunky, chopped meat texture. I seem to remember that my sister, La Serenissima, likes all sausages.  Me, myself, I was always most fond of a nice chipolata (it also had the added bonus of sounding really funny when said with a Scouse accent).  However, as a teenager I wasn't above making a quick sausage butty out of a common or garden Wall's pork sausage.  I have since learned from reading Rate My Sausage that Wall's sausages are not the sausages they once were (sigh!). Sadly, now I live in America, the land of sausages consisting of nothing but fat. Consequently, I have deprived myself of sausages for years simply because I couldn't find a decent tasting US offering.  That continued to be the sorry state of sausage affairs until I recently discovered The Fatted Calf.

Located in a rather trendy area of the city of Napa, The Oxbow Public Market, and utilised by locals and visitors alike, The Fatted Calf Charcuterie reminds me somewhat of the butcher shops of my youth (still to be found in the suburbs of Liverpool).  Offering salumi, pâtés, cuts of meat and, of course, hand crafted sausages, The Fatted Calf uses only the highest quality natural ingredients including organic and hormone free meats.  They even offer classes on making sausages.  The shop itself has a befitting butcher-like decor, pleasant ambiance, very friendly and knowledgeable staff, and a tasty product line.  I now regularly buy their Breakfast Sausages, hand made and varying in size, they consist of no more ingredients than pork, sage, salt, black pepper, and a hint of garlic (which was undetectable).  No rusk or wheat fillers are used.  Now, on to the sausages.  

Meat Content:

Whilst buying my links, I inquired as to the meat content and was told instead that the sausages contain 25% fat (I can do the math, as Americans are fond of saying).

Flavour and Texture:

Very tasty.  These sausages were a hit with all of Vinoland's denizens.  Meaty texture with nice subtle sage and pepper undertones.  Really tasted like pork, which is always a good thing for a pork product.

Value for Money:

These are not cheap sausages, at $11.00 per pound (454g), the six that I bought cost $6.60.  That's a whopping $1.10 per sausage - at current exchange rates that is approximately 69p per sausage.  My six sausages weighed 270g (about 10 ounces).  A little steep perhaps, but when you have endured sausage deprivation as long as me, you would probably pay twice as much for the promise of something edible.  Besides, they are very agreeable looking sausages, big chunks of meat and highly visible chopped sage-leaf-bits.  In this case value for money is entirely subjective.

Bisto Factor:

I'm an Oxo girl myself, but these sausages gave off the most delicious aroma whilst frying.  Vinomaker and the Vinodogs sat up to attention.

Shrinkage:

Shrinkage was quite considerable I'm afraid.  From the original 270g, the six sausages shrunk down to 185g...you do the math!  But, it's OK, that means most of that 25% fat cooked out and the resulting leaner sausages were healthier to eat.  (The fat is now in the Vinodog's bowls as an evening treat with their dry food. You can thank me later girls.)

And that's it.   Yum, sausages - the height of efficiency in butchering.  Oh, and just let me go on the record here in saying that I am one English person that has never had a plate of bangers and mash - which most Americans think we eat all the time - so there!

Please join me at Vinsanity where I feel a Fatted Calf sausage and wine pairing coming on.

http://vinsanity-vino.blogspot.com/ 

Guest Review - Elspeth Velten - Whole Foods Pork Irish Style Bangers

I recently went to Whole Foods in search of English sausage to make bangers and mash. Do you know Whole Foods? It is a natural and organic grocery store over here in the US. I know there are a few locations over in London, but nothing close to the size and selection we have over here. They had a great selection of sausage, but most of them are Italian or with add-ins such as spinach, feta, artichoke, roasted red pepper, etc.

I found only this package of "Pork Irish Style Bangers." It's funny how anything remotely English in the US is marketed as being Irish. The sausages were 8 in a pack for a little less than $7. We lined these babies up on a pan and threw them in the oven at 400 degrees F. They cooked fully and had a nice dark color after about 40 minutes and a few turn-overs here and there. They plumped up width-wise but did shrink down a bit in length.

Upon first bite we could tell that these were quality bangers. The finely ground meat packed a firm texture into thin casings that had the perfect snap. The bangers were not herby but they had a delicious salty sweetness and were quite juicy.

I would definitely go for these again! They were acceptable American-born stand-ins with some mash and onion gravy and my craving for bangers and mash has been satiated… for now.

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Elspeth Velten lives and works in New York, and writes an effortlessly stylish food blog, about one million times better written than what this one is wrote.  Pop over, have a look, and bookmark it immediately:

http://elspeth-tostayortogo.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks Elspeth!

Guest Review - Sue Imgrund - Nürnberger Rostbratwürstchen

Germany is a sausage-lovers paradise with an amazing variety of types to seek out and try. But I thought I’d start with something really quite commonplace – a humble little sausage that is nevertheless a winner.

Nürnberger Bratwürstchen are a speciality from the town of Nürnberg and their main characteristic is that they are tiny little things – not much bigger than what we Brits would call a cocktail sausage. The idea is to eat anything from six upwards in one sitting.

“ja!” is the Own Brand of one of the big supermarket chains here and is rather like one of those “basics” or “no frills” brands that the UK supermarkets do. But despite being “basic”, note from the packaging that these sausages came out top in a test of 19 types according to the German consumer bible Stiftung Warentest – a kind of German “Which?”

One traditional way to serve these little sausages is with Sauerkraut and a scoop of mashed potato. My son, aged ten, is more keen to eat them with baked beans, but that’s his English genes showing. They are also great for when you’re trying to rustle up a full English breakfast over here.

If you’re interested in the stats, here they are:

 Cost €1.89 for 300g or 14 sausages. That’s about 1.64 GBP or 12p per sausage.

Cost per kg is €6.30 or 5.47 GBP.

The ingredients are:

Pork 95%

Bacon fat

Salt

Herbs (mainly marjoram)

Spices

Sugar

Diphosphate (sorry, not good at translating chemicals from German)

Saitling (as far as I know, the skin, which is probably sheep intestine)

There’s 31.3g fat per 100g and 351kcal per 100g but I don’t have a clue about whether that’s good or bad – these things don’t interest me!

All in all, delicious, meaty, good value little sausages, perfect for a mid-week meal.

Overall rating – not just “ja!” but “jawohl!”

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Sue has just published her first novel, a rip-roaring adventure yarn set in 1962, which will enchant and excite your 7 to 15 year old children!  Read all about the book here:  http://www.burmeon.com/

Best of all you can win a signed copy of the book, just by following these steps:

1.  Send an email to sausage-blog@live.com
2.  Put "Competition" in the subject line
3.  Tell us your first name, initial of your surname, and the county you live in.
4  That's it!

Only one entry per email address, open to UK residents only.  Entries must be received on or before April 25, emails received after that date will not be entered in the draw.  The winner will be chosen at random from all entries at noon on Thursday 26 April, and we will contact you by email. If you don't hear from RMS on that date then you haven't won, sorry.

Good luck!


Edit on 4 May2012 - the winner of Sue's book was John M from Kent.  Thanks for entering!

Guest Review - The Wartime Housewife - Waterloo Cottage Farm's Old English Sausage

Waterloo Cottage Farm produces several varieties of fantastic sausages.  But in order to really get a feel for what they’re about, I visited them at their farm in Great Oxenden, Northants.  They have a herd of Saddlebacks as well as several Petrans and Durocs and they all live in outside in the fresh air, snuffling about to their hearts’ content.  I met them all and by God they looked tasty, Sir!

Now to the sausages.  They looked very smooth and herby before they were cooked and were quite variable in size which gave them a home-produced feel and is ideal for a family as children often want a bit less.  As they cooked they had a rich herby aroma which really got the taste buds going and we ate them as part of a cooked breakfast.  They were very meaty in texture, but not coarse; mildly spicy but not peppery and the aftertaste builds as you eat them.  The skins were thin and were not discernible when cooked which was brilliant.  The nicest sausage in the world becomes repellent to me if I can separate the skins from the meat and I feel like I’ve inadvertently eaten a condom.  These skins served the purpose of holding the meat in a nice shape and then bow out gracefully.  The sausages worked beautifully with breakfast, but we felt they would be equally robust as a dinner time sausage with a fruity gravy and a heap of buttery mash.

Shrinkage:  3oz  / 90g uncooked  and 2.5oz / 75g cooked – 17% lost in the translation.

Price: I bought six which cost £4.00 which works out at 67p per snorker.

This may seem a lot, but I will happily pay that to support and encourage a local producer whose happy pigs eat the barley from the field next door and are only taken 9 miles to slaughter. 

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http://www.wartimehousewife.com/

Welcome to the home of the Wartime Housewife, a place where you will find old fashioned skills and values applied to our very modern lives.

For years my friends and family have shamelessly taken the mickey out of me for being frugal, never letting things go to waste and scavenging in skips and charity shops before I resort to buying things from real shops.

But now, gentle readers, they crave my skills and have exhorted me to take my message to the wider world.  My natural diffidence has always prevented me from doing this, but in these times of austerity and difficulty,  it seems only fair and right that I now begin the process of giving a little of this knowledge and hard won wisdom back to you.

Over time, I will be sharing recipes and meal planning; tips on budgeting, repairing things, mending, scavenging; ideas for the school holidays and outings; gardening and diy; sewing and craft; ranting and raving and anything else that I think may prove useful to you in your daily lives.

But life needn’t be all domestic drudgery you know!  Having fun is absolutely essential if one is to have a balanced life, and to this end I will also pop in all sorts of things that I find amusing and diverting – pictures, music, poems, links to other charming people who are like-minded - or even little stories about my own life that may help others to ‘put their best foot forward’ in the realisation that we are only human and sometimes need a bit of a boost.

I know only too well what it is like to manage on a tight budget and, by following the Way of the Wartime Housewife, you too can learn to make the very best of what you have.  And, after all, that is what life should be about; not only making the best of what you have but also seeing the best in what is around you and making the most of it.

Guest Review - Jonny B - Ian Wright Norfolk Pork Sausage

First thing to say: these are not generic factory sausages that carry a celebrity endorsement from former Arsenal striker and TV personality ‘Wrighty’. Actually, I can’t think of anybody less like the Norfolk Pork Butcher and Sausage Maker Ian Wright – the latter is a quiet, genial, elderly chap who’s based out Norwich way – he sells his stuff at Creake farmer’s market, although I have also seen him at Sandringham occasionally.

Creake (as I recall) was a bit poncey when it started out – but it’s settled down nicely and there is some genuinely good and reasonably-priced-for-what-it-is stuff to be had there. Ian’s pork stall is next to the popular curry lady, which is a blessing and a curse – a blessing as I’m sure he nicks the odd free bhaji; a curse because queues of curry lovers often swamp his pitch. I’ve never seen him not be good natured about it, however – he sells with a smile on his face. All his stuff is keenly-priced – I guess that he could probably invest in some fancy labels and charge double, but that wouldn’t be him, somehow.

His pigs are Essexes (not being a pig person, I can’t tell you whether that’s good or not) and his sausages – or at least the Norfolk Pork ones that I stock up on regularly – are of the beautiful, slightly bready, melt-in-the-mouth ilk. They are my favourite sausages, and I always eat too many with breakfast.

I can’t rival Simon’s dedication with the weighing and measuring, I’m afraid – but I did take a picture with my phone. I commend them to you. 

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Jonny B moved to Norfolk from London a couple of years ago, and his brilliantly written, painfully funny blog  is called Private Secret Diary - check it out here:  http://www.privatesecretdiary.com/
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