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The Great British Sausage
Sausages are a staple, familiar comfort food with popular mass appeal. They are easy to prepare and are a cheap and nutritious protein meal.
So, following National Sausage Week (Oct 30th-Nov 5th), and contact from a sausage manufacturer local to us here in Kent, we decided to hold a tasting of readily available sausages to discover which in our opinion is the best.
The tasting panel consisted of Phil & Steve Harris of The Sportsman, Whitstable, and The Granville, Lower Hardres, Elizabeth Carter of Ask Mario and newly appointed consultant editor of the Good Food Guide, 15-year-old Adam Shilling, and Mario Wyn-Jones of Ask Mario.
For the tasting we selected only regular Pork Sausages and all were prepared according to the manufacturer’s recommended method (where provided). On tasting the sausages we awarded a maximum of 5 marks in each of 3 categories: flavour, texture, and appearance when cooked.
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Old England Pork Sausages (Wincheap Butchers, Canterbury ) |
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Also winning Best National Brand: Porkinson’s Outdoor-Reared Pork Sausages |
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Broad Oak Farm ‘Best’ Pork Sausages |
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Famous Speldhurst Original Recipe |
The Full Results
 Wincheap Butchers’ (Canterbury) Old England Pork Sausages: 85% pork. These were the preferred sausages by a short margin – their plump wholesome appearance remained after cooking and though we felt there was too much oregano and salt, the texture, the casing and dark meaty appearance and taste were all great. ‘A real sausage’ was one comment.
Score 13/15
 Porkinson’s Outdoor Reared Pork Sausages: 80% British pork shoulder.
A very worthy runner-up, especially considering these are mass-produced sausages. Good balance between the spice (sage dominating), salt, pepper and meat flavours.
Score 12/15.
 Broad Oak Farm ‘Best’ Pork Sausages in natural pork casing: 75% pork.
The meat was nicely coarse-ground and although a few panel members thought the finish was too peppery, we agreed they were very good.
Score 11/15
 Famous Speldhurst Original Recipe (Kent) Pork Sausages: 40% pork shoulder, 30% pork belly.
A bit fatty, but we could taste the meat – on the whole a very traditional and enjoyable British banger. They were good value, too, with 8 sausages in the pack.
Score 10/15
 The Black Farmer Premium Pork Sausages: 90% prime British pork.
Somewhat disappointing in that the sausages seemed to have a dried herb taste, and the chewy casing stayed too long in the mouth. Good meaty content.
Score 9/15
 Tesco’s Organic Pork Sausages: 88% British, Danish, Dutch, Swedish organic pork with non-organic casing.
We were slightly put off by the international aspect of the sourcing. The sausages had too loose crumbly texture, though they scored on both flavour and appearance.
Score 8/15
 Debbie & Andrew’s Nana’s Favourite Harrogate Pork Sausages: 97% pork.
These had the highest pork content of the sausages we sampled, but we found them salty, and a little too spicy, with little actual flavour of pork coming through.
Score 7/15
 Tesco’s Finest Traditionally-made Pork Sausages: 85% British pork.
Came over as very fatty, but had good flavour and were not as crumbly as the organic sausages.
Score 7/15
Sainsbury’s Organic Pork Sausages: 95% British pork.
We weren’t impressed by the almost overwhelming bouillon flavour when eating these piping hot, though the flavour mellowed on cooling. The meat was also on the dry side and the casing chewy.
Score 6/15
 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Ultimate British Pork Sausages: 95% pork.
There was bouillon flavour here, too, but not as pronounced as with the organic sausages. In other respects they came over as identical.
Score 6/15
 Wall’s Favourite Recipe Succulent Pork Sausages: 32% pork shoulder, 31% pork belly.
Looked very anaemic and unappealing out of the packet, but once cooked these were immediately identifiable as the classic banger spoiled by overprocessed meat and a bland taste – they lacked spice.
Score 6/15
 Korkers’ Original Recipe Pork Sausages: 60% pork.
Their appearance was fine if somewhat anaemic, but the flavour was too salty for our palates. We felt the almost mousse-like consistency was unpleasantly soft. Too much like invalide food.
Score 3/15
 Richmond Irish Recipe Pork Sausages: 41% pork.
Dreadful artificial-looking rosy pink colour that remained even after cooking. Bland flavour and meat overprocessed, moussey and slimy in texture.
Score 2/15
Conclusion
We felt most of the sausages suffered from a strong salt presence, and there was a remarkable degree of similarity as will be noted by the bunching of the marks in the centre-ground. In the case of spicing, we felt seasonings had been too strongly applied, and in none was a there a distinct pork flavour. It came as no great surprise that an artisan butcher produced the overall winner, though even here we felt there had been a too heavy hand with the herbs, but the wonderfully coarse texture and plump, meaty appearance won over the judges, with a couple of mass produced sausages coming up a surprising close second and third. Kerry Foods own the Porkinson’s, Wall’s and Richmond brands and they came, respectively, top, middle and bottom in our findings.
Traceability and sourcing are keywords for anyone concerned about what they eat but with mass production methods can the same thing be said about our humble banger? Referring to the more ubiquitous burger Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation states ‘Like the multiple partners that helped spread the AIDS epidemic, the huge admixture of animals in most American ground beef plants has played a crucial role in spreading E. coli 0157:H7. A single fast food hamburger now contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of different cattle.’
It is grounds for thought.
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