Sausage Review - we review sausages

On a trip out the other day near Brentwood, and anyway trying to avoid a nasty traffic hold up at the A12/M25 junction, we stumbled on a small village butchers. I paid cash for some Italian sausage and the butchers being low on change bunged us a pack of Essex Farm Foods, Butchers Hook sausages for the difference, with the phrase "If that's alright guvnor"...

I must admit in our travels sampling sausage delights over the last 11 years we haven't come across this particular brand, and given the business being in it's current location since 2016, which isn't that far from us, I'm surprised we've not seen such before now. 

Essex Farm Foods Ltd are a family run specialist sausage and burger manufacturer with over 30 years experience in the meat industry. From their web site they inform that they supply wholesale, retail, home delivery and click & collect to customers and take pride in producing consistent high quality premium products, with a second to none customer service. Essex Farm Foods have gained AA Grade BRC Accreditation which is the highest food safety standard accreditation awarded which sets the benchmark for good manufacturing practice, helping to provide standardisation and assurance on safety, quality and operational criteria.  They say that they only source their meat and ingredients from their own list of approved likeminded quality assured suppliers. Excellent we say.

80% UK/EU pork go in to these premium pork sausages, with spices including white pepper, nutmeg, coriander and cayenne chilli. Not to mention some herbs notably sage and thyme. All this loaded in to natural hog casings. Proper sausages then and looking nice in the tray packaging. However, they do contain rusk, which doesn't make them gluten free if you are interested.

Cooked up the skins browned really well with no major splits or ruptures and very minimal residual oil in the pan. None of that pale ooze we sometimes see either which is an excellent start.

Around a medium texture we found with a fair succulence and a very good feel to the sausage when bitten. Skins were good, not at all rubbery and taste-wise very good. The salt was managed well and the spices and herbs were pleasant.

All in all, a very good sausage at a very reasonable price as far as we are concerned.

Would we buy again? I'd say, yes.

Butchers Hook (Basildon, Essex) - Premium Pork    (Oct 2023)

Here's the sample details:
95x32mm before cooking, 90x32mm after.
75g before cooking, 67g after.
That's a shrinkage of 5% & weight loss of approx 11%.
454g pack (web site price) £3.30, approx £7.26 / kg.

 
 

www.essexfarmfoods.co.uk

Essex Farm Foods Ltd
Unit 2 Swinborne Ct,
Swinbourne Road
Burnt Mills Industrial Estate,
Basildon ESSEX
SS13 1QAA ​

Tel: 0208 977 2753W