Sausage Review - we review sausages

Getting a few sausages dropped off to us free of charge has become somewhat the norm at times, so when a rather smart looking pack of Jolly Hogs arrived recently that had been evidently bought at a local Sainsbury's, the kind soul that dropped them in for us to try, referred to them as JASS (just another supermarket sausage)!  Surely not...

Jolly Hog HQ based at Bristol, a brotherly run business it would seem, supply mainstream supermarkets and have a presence at the likes of Glastonbury and at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.  To add to that a couple of TV chef types have commented positively too regarding the produce, so we just had to give the Proper Porkers a go...

84% outdoor bred pork in natural pork casings is a good start, but whilst we realise that the gluten free making is so they appeal and can be "marketed" to "everyone" we're not so sure about the rice flour as an ingredient.  Yes Ok it does work but we've seen some sausages recently that the producer has changed the recipe to gluten free and the resulting product is noticeably inferior now in comparison.  However we did the sampling as we normally do (pan frying) and although yes, the chaps at Jolly Hog prefer grilling, but we'll place the results before you, cooked our way...

After a defrost from the Siberian winter of our deep freeze, in the raw these sausages are chunky, and thankfully were still very good looking with good colour and excellent skins. At £3.00 a pack (approx £7.50/kg) off the shelf that's very good value at 50p a go you have to admit, but do they taste any good?

Well cooked up you get a very succulent result considering the rather high weight loss.  A flavour that's pretty herby with sage and a good bite and chew.  We were proper surprised to be honest! 

The quality of product is very good from our view for the price, but doing a bit of investigation/observation in said Sainsbury's (Harlow, Essex) over the last couple of weeks the packs unfortunately don't seem to be flying off the shelves. In fact there were a few packs discounted further and yellow ticketed this week as they were close to the use by.  We find this strange. Good product, fair price, so what's the problem?  Location? Other products cheaper?  Yes but some of the REALLY JASS offerings are only fat sticks in comparison to these "proper" porkers!

Any way up, we liked them as an everyday sort of sausage, and we will try some of Jolly Hog's other products (perhaps the Porky Black if we can locate some) and report back honestly.  No porkies...


Jolly Hog (Bristol) - Proper Porker    (Feb 2017)

Here's the sample details:
95x30mm before cooking, 80x30mm after.
67g before cooking, 52g after.
That's a shrinkage of 15% & weight loss of approx 22%.
6 sausages in a 400g pack £3.00   (£7.50/kg)

  

www.thejollyhoguk.com