The Decent Company - Abergavenny - Pork Sausage

Is it too soon to mention Christmas? In my humble opinion it definitely is. Having said that, is it too soon to mention Sausage Of The Year? Weeelll....maybe. But you might well be looking at it right here...

Do the names Tom and Barbara mean anything to you? They were the main characters in the classic sitcom The Good Life, in which a couple left the rat race behind and tried to live a self sufficient life. The story of The Decent Company has echoes of this story, in that the founder, Martha Roberts, also quit a life of spreadsheets and meetings to become, in her own words “A former suburban, corporate woman, gone rogue!” They share values and beliefs but the difference between the two is that Martha shares her vision, and the meat that it creates, with a loyal following of extremely satisfied customers. The most common way to purchase the end product is via the half pig, quarter pig or taster boxes. I'd love to describe Martha's life and her smallholding to you but it's done much better on her own website (a link can be found further down the page).

Before ordering my quarter of a pig I did a little research online, and asked people for their opinion on the sausages – here are some of those views:

“We like them so much we bought a year's supply!”

“I highly recommend them (and Martha's pig-keeping skills/high welfare standards).”

“Oh yes, loved them. And reordered.”

Previous customers seem happy enough eh?

Where To Find Them:

The Decent Company is of course a real-life smallholding, but you can only purchase their piggy products online. The website is beautifully designed and gives a great insight into the high welfare standards employed. As it's such a small scale operation the meat is not available all day every day, and becomes available only when the current broods are ready. For this reason I would seriously advise contacting Martha via the order form on the website, or via Twitter (@MarthaRoberts). The online form also let's you know when the next batch of pork will be available.

If for no other reason, visit this website for lots of lovely pictures of piglets doing what piglets love to do: THE DECENT COMPANY

Opening Hours:

The internet is open 24 hours a day, every day, except Easter Sunday. Early closing Thursday afternoons.

Flavour:

The pork from the mostly Gloucester Old Spot pigs is so sweet, it provides a prominent yet delicate flavour here. My notes say “Absolutely bloody lovely”. There's seasoning here but it's subtle, just enough to give the taste a boost but not so that the meat is overpowered. It's a smooth, old-fashioned deliciousness that I loved, and frankly can hardly wait to get the next lot in the frying pan!

Texture:

The filling is quite fine but beautifully firm at the same time, you're hard pushed to squish these through your fork (unlike poor quality offerings from the likes of Richmonds, Iceland, etc). In the mouth the sausage breaks apart allowing thousands of tasty bobbles of flavoursome pork to run riot. The skins snap just perfectly when cut, and squeak in the mouth. Near perfection...

Vital Statistics:

Average Weight Uncooked = 59 grams

Average Weight Cooked = 48 grams

Meat Content = 85 %

Value For Money:

Our sausages came as part of our “quarter pig” box so it's impossible to separate their price. The webite though lists a kilogram of sausages for £10, so I'll use that. We ordered the quarter pig box, at £90 which iis a good price for the large amount and variety of meat that you receive.

£3.51 for 6 sausages weighing 351 grams. This works out as £10.00 per kg and 58p per banger. Far from extortionate for such a quality item.

We rate this as fabulous value for money.

The "Aah, Bisto" Factor:

We've always fried sausages for our reviews, and this time was no different. As I've recently moved house I am still trying to get the hang of using a gas hob (had a couple of disasters so far too), so these sausages were fried very slowly. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness....the whole house was filled with the most mouth-watering aroma, which just got better as the bangers browned. Lovely.

The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:

Yeah, right. You think any of these beauties would survive overnight? No chance.

And Finally, Esther:

From start to finish there is nothing not to like about The Decent Company and its products. Sausage Of The Year? Maybe. Martha Roberts is a food heroine.

Oaktree Farm - Norwich Farmers' Market - Rare Breed Pork & Leek Sausage

I stumbled across Oaktree Farm at Norwich Farmers’ Market in February.  (As an aside, this is a super little market which you can find right in front of The Forum in beautiful, downtown Norwich, and is held on the second Saturday each month (except June, for some reason)).  The genial chap beneath the Oaktree Farm stall was the one and only Brian Parkin, who is the ringmaster of the Oaktree set-up along with his wife Jane.  Brian is a truly lovely and fascinating chap, and I thoroughly recommend that you approach him for some fabulous and knowledgeable insight when you see him.  Hope that’s OK Brian?  Tell him Rate My Sausage sent you....

There is a website for your online pork-based browsing pleasure: http://www.sheltonfarms.co.uk/index.html which includes details of the various farmers’ markets where you may be able to meet them.

If you don’t want to visit the website, here’s what Brian has to say about their smallholding: “Oaktree Farm is located on the plain above the Waveney Valley at Shelton Common. The farm itself has been nestling in the landscape for several hundred years, although the house was rebuilt in the late 1800s and has been modernised and remodelled since.

Like most smallholders we raise a variety of rare-breed and native livestock, but we are particularly proud to be home to the Shelton herd of Pedigree Large Black pigs and the Shelton flock of pedigree Wiltshire Horn sheep. In addition to these we run a small flock of Soay sheep, have a couple of cattle and assorted ducks and chickens. Helping us with the sheep are Eve and Sam, our two Border Collies, and keeping them in order are our four (yes, four) cats.”

So, you’re up to speed with who Oaktree Farm are, now read on to find out how we rate their sausages:

Meat Content:

70% according to the list of ingredients.  Rare breed pork carries a reputation for being higher in quality and finer in flavour than yer normal pig meat – would that be reflected in these sausages?  It sure is!  The meat is light and delicate, and pale in colour.  It’s sinew-ey (sp?), you can see the make up of the filling with plenty of decent-sized nuggets of pure high-class pork interspersed with the fragments of leek.  This is chilled-out pork, and marvellous for it.  Less High Street greasy spoon, more Amsterdam coffee shop.  And impressively, there’s the occasional glob of pure fattiness, thank you!

Flavour:

The flavour is subtle, and on the sweet side for a sausage – that’s what you get with pork and leek.  The relaxed and natural rearing process definitely seems to shine through in the taste, which is not in yer face, but more of a delicious porky arm around your shoulder.  The combination of leek and pork is the current Rate My Sausage favourite and Oaktree Farm’s version is seductive, gentle and full of flavour,  These bangers will lure you behind the summerhouse and fondle your taste buds.

Texture:

Very good, nice large lumps in the filling, crumbles nicely.  Good natural skins which almost disappear during frying but have the distinctive kind of squeak when you’re eating.  Filling is soft, moist, bound nicely together.  Altogether, a jolly good offering.

Shrinkage: 

Average weight uncooked - 72g

Average weight cooked - 59g

Shrinkage - 19%

Not too bad on the shrinking scale, which helps towards the following paragraph’s verdict....

Value For Money:

£4.42 for six sausages, weighing 431g - this works out as a price of £10.26 per kg, or 74p per snorker.  This is pricey, so the sausages have to punch above their weight to have any chance of a decent VFM rating.  Rest assured, these are fabulous bangers and I class them as Very Good value for money.  Treat yourself, you will not be disappointed.

The Bisto Factor:

No particular aroma during cooking, which is a slight shame – take care when cooking yours as they went from “not ready” to slightly over-cooked very rapidly.  You may be left smelling a faint burnt aroma.

The Imaginatively Titled Next Day Cold Sausage Test:

Very good when hot, Oaktree Farm’s bangers were simply divine when cold.  Muscly and solid to the touch contrasting marvelously with the delicate sweetness of the flavour. 

And Finally, Esther:

On the expensive side here, but definitely worth it for a treat.  Lovely.

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!