Sausage Review - we review sausages

Following a very nice pre-Christmas lunch with friends at the Ransfield Brasserie in Coggeshall we had a little walk about to let lunch go down and found a rather neat butchery and provisions shop that just appealed to us, as it really is "Shopping the old-fashioned way"...

Buntings is one of those "old school" shops that it's a pleasure to go in to. Yes it's a family butchers but it also offers bread, pies, dairy, fruit, vegetables, local free range poultry and eggs. The two chaps behind the counter must have known we weren't locals, and no doubt followed their motto that "Everyone is special" we read from their web site, serving us with a smile, offering advice and also answering my quick questions about the sausages that they make themselves in house without any air of obvious suspicion.

There is something wonderful about these village shops that supermarkets these days just cannot match. Lets face it supermarkets are impersonal. Displays of produce and very little interaction available with knowledgeable people about those provisions. Try asking one of the many "shelf stackers" (I do apologise about that and I don't want to cause offence) or "pickers" about how to cook the pork fillet, duck breasts or beef rib you are considering buying. Even your paying process is more than often a "smart shop" with the old barcode reader thing, so speaking to supermarket staff may only be limited to when the system deems you are in need of a basket check or if you can't fathom out how to get the money off voucher to work!

So, 90% pork sausage in natural casings at £6.76 for 8 sounds pretty damn good to me. The pork is from local suppliers and going by their web site is likely to be Gloucester Old Sport or Tamworth it seems. Ticking all the boxes as we go on this then...the only information we don't have as yet is with regard to the actual suppliers and animal welfare or whether we are talking outdoor reared or not. We will address this and call in next time to find out.

However talk about take you back in time...I asked for the sausages and a long string of them was lifted from the display tray, clipped to eight, and then they were rolled and wrapped in a sheet of white greaseproof paper!

I cooked off two out of the eight for sampling as the intent is to share the remaining six along with quite a few others from different butchers / makers locally as part of a soon to happen sausage supper banquet for the same friends we lunched with at Ransfields.

These porks cooked up really well, browning evenly when gently sizzled in the pan (as we do for all our sampling to keep it consistent) and showing no signs of splits or bursts of the sausage skins. No residual oil in the pan and a very good aroma as they gently cooked. We had a few family members in whilst I was doing the sampling so rather than eat these with a meal I sliced up and used some cocktail sticks to allow people to taste what was a very succulent and tasty plain pork sausage. Plain pork is not a very good way of describing these as they were far from being "plain". There was none of that really porky taste we find sometimes, the seasoning was good, salt was under control, and in two shakes the whole lot was gone!

As an everyday sausage these really hit the spot.

Would we buy again? Of course it goes without saying. I may even bulk buy and freeze them.


Buntings (Coggeshall, Essex) - Pork      (Dec 2023)

Here's the sample details:
100x32mm before cooking, 92x32mm after.
62g before cooking, 60g after.
That's a shrinkage of 8% & weight loss of approx 3%.
8 loose sausages (500g) £6.76  (approx £13.50/kg)

 
                                                

www.buntingfoods.co.uk

Buntings
18a Church Street,
Coggeshall,
Essex CO6 1TU

01376 561233

Opening Hours
Monday 7:30am - 5:00pm
Tuesday 7:30am - 5:00pm
Wednesday 7:30am - 5:00pm
Thursday 7:30am - 5:00pm
Friday 7:30am - 5:00pm
Saturday 7:30am - 5:00pm
Sunday Closed