Meridian Meats - Louth - Best Lincolnshire Sausage

If you have perused Rate My Sausage previously then you will probably already know the name Meridian Meats. They’ve progressed from a kitchen-based tiny operation, through many awards and prizes, into the town centre in Louth, and are now a must-visit establishment. Headed by former UK Young Butcher Of The Year – Jim Sutcliffe – I have never had a bad product from this shop – which is just what you would expect from a member of the elite butcher’s Q GUILD

Of course we’ve reviewed sausages from here before – amazingly it was about eight years ago. Time flies when you’re frying bangers eh? One lovely fact to emerge is that the cost per Best Lincolnshire sausage has only risen six pence over the years, well done chaps. If you’d like to read the previous reviews you can find them in the list of reviews just to the right – but you might have to scroll down a bit ==========>>>>>>>>>

Where To Find Them:

Stroll along Eastgate in the lovely market town of Louth and you can’t miss them. Look for the little pigs dangling over the footpath and you’re there. Alternatively look for the metal banding set into the ground – this marks the passage of the zero degrees longitude meridian which gives the shop its name. If you’re using SausNav the postcode is LN11 9AA.

Opening Hours:

Monday – 0830 to 1700

Tuesday – 0830 to 1700

Wednesday – 0830 to 1700

Thursday – 0830 to 1700

Friday – 0830 to 1700

Saturday – 0830 to 1500

Sunday – Closed

Stanwatch:

There always seems to be a couple of knowledgeable and very helpful Stanettes beavering away at the front of the shop, serving customers with a lovely smile and good advice. Whenever I’ve visited the top man, Jim, has been grafting away toward the back, also more than willing to engage with the punters. Service here is exemplary.

Flavour:

Occasionally when I return to a previously-liked butcher I feel that I have to be extra critical so that people don’t think that there’s any favouritism going on. This was one such case. The flavour of Jim’s Best Lincs is full and well rounded, there’s a little less pepper here but there is added mace and nutmeg. The seasoning blend is made in the shop rather than bought in as occurs at many places. As usual I asked for the exact recipe and as usual it was refused. Ho hum. The star turn in these sausages is the great light flavour of the local pork, which almost squeaks as you chew.

Texture:

Really firm, and extremely juicy. These sausages firm up so much in the frying pan. They go in like Limp Bizkit and come out like Nine Inch Nails – real Boyz 2 Men stuff. If you scaled up these items you could build a decent log cabin out of them, but them you’d probably eat your own home. What a way to go though. Very hearty sized chunks of rare breed pork abound, and they simply ooze goodness when you press the fork down. The skins are natural and I loved them, however my breakfast partners thought they were slightly on the thick and tough side. Heathens.

Vital Statistics:

Average Weight Uncooked = 68 grams

Average Weight Cooked = 62 grams

Meat Content = 85 %

Really low amount of shrinkage, ensuring you really do get what you pay for. Fab.

Value For Money:

£3.44 for 6 sausages weighing 405 grams. This works out as £8.50 per kg and 57p per banger.

We rate this as good value for money.

The "Aah, Bisto" Factor:

Superb sizzle and smell in the pan. So tempting to dive in and start scoffing...

And Finally, Esther:

Lovely bangers from a great producer – buy some soon!

Meridian Meats of Louth - Best Lincolnshire Sausage

Meridian Meats present their Best Lincolnshire sausage. It’s the first version of the much-loved Lincolnshire banger that Rate My Sausage has tried, but won’t be the last. But before the review, a little background information. I recently visited the market town of Louth, which nestles in the heart of the Lincolnshire Wolds, and was pleasantly surprised by the place, which is one I thoroughly recommend to visit should you have the opportunity. The local council, or the populace, must have taken it upon themselves to try to keep Louth as a traditional small town, and the lack of big chains in the shopping area is wonderful. Instead you find a Pandora’s box of individual, often quirky, shops that are a delight to mooch round. No mass corporate gentrification here, well done Louth!

And one of those small independent shops is Meridian Meats. The name holds a curious coincidence in itself – Meridian Meats was founded as small-order firm and upgraded to a farm shop at nearby Tetbury in 2005. Later they moved into the current premises in Louth, and the building straddles the “Zero Degrees” line of longitude upon which Greenwich lies – how superbly apt for a company called Meridian! Check out their awards for yourself at: http://www.meridianmeatsshop.co.uk/


(Incidentally, if you notice on the photo, the shop next door is called The Cheese Shop – no explanation needed – and what a bloody great shop that is too. I bought some lovely stuff there. And you may also notice the pic of the Hairy Bikers – they’ve obtained cheese from there for their shows, so the quality must be – and is – exceptional).

So, the “Lincolnshire Sausage”. It’s being put forward as a protected brand within the European Union guidelines – nobody outside Lincolnshire should be able to claim their bangers are Lincolnshire ones unless they’re made in Lincolnshire to traditional methods – hopefully this will be a major kick in the teeth for some of the major producers of utterly disgusting “sausages” like Walls, Tesco, etc, who peddle their own low-quality versions of the “Lincs”. With no previous “rating” of a Lincolnshire, Meridian’s offering will blaze the trail.


Meat Content:
85% according to Meridian, and these do taste VERY meaty – I think 85% may be another deliberately low figure to ensure that the bangers pass any Ministry examinations with flying colours. With any good quality sausage it’s fantastic to chew down on some obviously high quality pork – Meridian use rare breed meat in their sausages and it is extremely flavoursome.

Flavour:
This is an unassuming sausage that delivers an eating experience more complex than you may expect. Subtle, and juicy, and herby, with no “sharp corners”, simply a rounded fulfilling home cooking flavour that ticks all the boxes of a classic comfort food. These bangers look so inviting before you cook them, with the livid red hues of the pork contrasting with darker herbs and light fatty bits (hey, we’ve all got them).

Texture:
A most solid sausage and delightfully firm, offering an enjoyable amount of resistance to both knife and teeth. The casings are natural and therefore rather unpredictable - two of these chaps split slightly, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the sausages cook differently to each other and provide a range of crispness. Meridian’s Best Lincolnshires are bound together very well, and took quite some pulling apart. They were quite a coarse cut as a Lincolnshire sausage should traditionally be (correct me if I’m wrong, please!).

Shrinkage:
Average weight uncooked - 76g
Average weight cooked - 60g

Shrinkage - 21% - higher than I had expected. But maybe Lincolnshire sausages shrink s bit more? We shall see.


Value For Money:
£2.06 for four sausages weighing 305g - this works out as a price of £6.75 per kg, or 51p per snorker. The advertised price is £6.65 so a little something is lost in translation here. On the pricey side, but these are a very good sausage, and I class them as good VFM.