Sleaford Sausage Shop - Pork, Leek & Stilton Sausage

 In these times of mass closures of independent butchers shops it's great to be able to report the arrival of a new kid on the block. Not the complete butchery shop, but a lovely, little shop dedicated to selling sausages! Heaven.

Ian is the creative genius here and first opened the doors of Sleaford Sausage Shop on Saturday 13 November last year. The sausages completely sold out two hours before the intended closing time. The same thing happened the following Saturday. And amazingly has re-occurred every weekend since then. What better recommendation do you need than a product selling out week after week?

Where To Find Them:

Sleaford Sausage Shop is located in the quaint Victorian-era Bristol Arcade in the market town of Sleaford, Lincolnshire. The arcade has two entrances, one opposite the market place, the other where Clarks shoe shop is.

Opening Hours:

Monday – Closed

Tuesday – Closed

Wednesday – Closed

Thursday – Closed

Friday – Closed

Saturday – 0800 to 1300

Sunday – Closed

Yes the shop is only open on the early part of Satrudays. Plan a trip and bag some bangers. Ideally visit on the first Saturday of the month when the farmers market is held just across the road in the shadow of St Denys church.

Stanwatch:

No Stans on show, this is a one man band. Also the shop is...compact...so you probably couldn't fit any Stans behind the counter anyway.

Flavour:

The good quality cut pork is sweet and innocent, the leek adds more background sweetness. We've tried more “leeky” versions which is more to my taste, but producers these days are trying to appeal more to the masses than weird individual sausage lovers like me. The Stilton aroma is great, the flavour a little harder to capture, but the rich, laid-back creaminess sneaks up on you, and leaves a delightful cheesy after-taste. The flavour is probably better suited to maybe a cassoulet than for your breakfast, as the elements come through clearly and “do exactly what it says on the tin”. And if you remember that advert, you're older than you claim...

Texture:

Coarse chopped, and we love coarse chopped! The natural hog skins are snappy to cut into, just how it should be. Inside the filling it is easy to spot decent sized bits and pieces of the ingredients. These are succulent sausages, when you push a fork onto one it simply oozes sausage-y goodness.

Vital Statistics:

Average Weight Uncooked = 82 grams

Average Weight Cooked = 71 grams

Meat Content = minimum 75% pork shoulder or loin

Value For Money:

£4.21 for 6 sausages weighing 495 grams. This works out as £8.50 per kg and 70p per banger.

We rate this as very good value for money.

The "Aah, Bisto" Factor:

A subtle but interesting aroma before cooking which developed into “Are they cooked yet?” during frying.

And Finally, Esther:

Several butchers have told me now that tastes have changed in recent times and there is more demand for a blander, less challenging flavour profile, think mass produced pigswill like Richmonds. These bangers from Sleaford Sausage Shop are the polar opposite, full of grown-up flavour and texture. Recommended!

West Norfolk Butchery - Heacham - Pork, Leek & Stilton Sausage

Sausages with cheese in them were a surprising and enjoyable revelation for me when I discovered that such a combination existed, in 2012  What started out as a potential assassination of a supermarket banger ended up being thoroughly positive about Tesco Pork & Red Leicester Sausage.  And then we visited Ely Farmers Market in Cambridgeshire and found Grasmere Farm's Pork & Stilton who took my new-found adoration for cheese-in-bangers to a whole new level. Grasmere Farm’s offering featured on Sausage Of The Year 2012  which speaks volumes for its quality and for how RMS saw the light last year.

So fast forward to our awayday to Norfolk coastal village Heacham, and we visited West Norfolk Butchery, a tiny shop affiliated to the West Norfolk pub next door.  As soon as I clapped eyes on the Pork, Leek & Stilton sausages I just HAD to have them. The same emotion that King’s Lynn’s womenfolk feel when they see me walk into the bar in Chicago’s on a Saturday night. Helpless desire (oh yes, they try to disguise their desire with obviously-fake pure indifference, or occasionally blatant disgust, but we all know that deep down, I am the top dog in Battersea Dogs’ Home. Not intending that metaphor to reflect the women, natch).

That was a slight tangent.  Back to Heacham, and the cheesey sausages.  Having spotted the bangers and waited for maybe six or seven minutes for the Stan behind the counter to finalise his golfing arrangements for the next day, I introduced myself and explained a little about Rate My Sausage. I never expect or want the red carpet rolled out but on this occasion the reaction was practically ridicule. When I asked if I could review the sausages Stan replied “If that’s what ya wanna do soldier!” The whole encounter left me feeling or knowing that the butcher seemed to be cocky, self-interested and not particularly customer oriented.

As Peter Griffin once said to Chris, in one of the Star Wars tributes, “That’s good kid, don’t get penis-y”.

But! This is Rate My Sausage and not Rate My Butcher, so ignore all that and let’s see how the sausages got on....

Meat Content:

I didn’t note the percentage, sorry. And the butcher was way too “in yer face, geezer” to even consider quizzing him about the amount or provenance of the pork.  These sausages are not overly piggy, but I guess there’s enough pork going on to contribute to this quite nicely balanced banger.  

Flavour:

The first slice was all pork and leek – our current fave variety – but where is the stilton?  Second slice was porky and deliciously cheesey, no leek!  And so it continued, with each successive forkful handing you a different combination of flavours.  I quite like this, it hints that the sausages are hand-made and mixed, and not done by machine. Don’t know if that’s true or not, maybe West Norfolk Butchery may tell me?  Overall this is a good mix of ingredients giving a nice banger, the pork generally takes a back seat and allows the zingy cheesiness to romance your taste buds along with sweet leek.  This all adds up to a flavoursome, enjoyable product, well done.

Texture:

Certainly not the worst, but ever so, ever so regular.  There are hardly any nuggets of porky variety, be it fat, gristle, whatever, which regular readers know we love.  So – the texture is the weak point in this otherwise half-decent sausage.

Shrinkage: 

Average weight uncooked - 61g

Average weight cooked - 51g

Shrinkage - 16%

Quite good.

Value For Money:

£3.20 for 8 sausages, weighing 484g - this works out as a price of £6.61 per kg, or 40p per snorker.

The concept is really good, the flavour is varyed and interesting, the texture’s average to disappointing. So overall we’ll have to describe West Norfolk Butcher’s Pork, Leek & Stilton Sausages are “not too bad” value for money.

The Bisto Factor:

Great cheesey aroma towards the end of cooking process, unusual and great!

Opening Hours:

Monday: 0900 - 1500

Tuesday: Closed

Wednesday: Closed

Thursday: 0900 - 1500

Friday: 0900 - 1500

Saturday: 0900 - 1600

Sunday: 1000 – 1600

Opening hours are obviously aimed at the tourist trade from the surrounding caravan parks. Fair enough.

And Finally, Esther:

I liked the sausages but deplored the buying experience.