Leech & Sons (Melbourn) - Special Pork

We'd been told that Leech & Sons of Melbourn, Hertfordshire were makers of some very good sausages, and have been doing so for many, many years, so if we were out that way it would be "worth our while" to find the shop.  Now that's a 50 mile round trip then just for sausages?  You know us...hope the shop is easy to find?...

Leech & Sons is a long established butchery business since 1934 in the Hertfordshire town of Melbourn on the A10 about 10 miles south of Cambridge.  The shop is right on the cross roads, so you can't miss it, and there's free parking just up from the shop at the roadside outside the church.  The shop itself has both a butchery and a deli counter selling all sorts of "foodie goodies".  The young butcher that served me did so with a smile and it was obvious he liked his job!  I got a really good customer service feel about my visit today.  Excellent experience.

So what about these very good sausages then?  Well I chose some SPECIAL PORK and was advised that these were Mr Leech's own recipe using local Hertfordshire pork, yeastless rusk, pepper, sage, mace, nutmeg, pimento, mustard powder and cayenne!  Special porks are 86% meat content with a "bit more" meat and seasoning, than the regular ones evidently.  Good natural skins too.

We pan fried with an absolute minimum of oil as we try all our samples, and these sausages cooked up really well, browned nicely and sizzled well in the pan. A lovely sight!  No additional residual oil in the pan at the end of cooking we hasten to add too. 

The meat is minced so that there's a texture we'd say that's fairly coarse, but far from crumbly which is fine by us, and still retaining good succulence for such high percentage meat.  The skins worked well with no splits or bursts.

The taste was, very good, but just a tad too much salt perhaps we thought, but although you get that on the initial bite, which was very good, the chew releases the other ingredients and then you get the "hello!" from the cayenne and pepper!  A bit too peppery for one of the "girlies" in the team unfortunately.

For me though I thought these special pork sausages, just like we'd be told, were very good.  I'd certainly if passing through near Melbourn again, make a point to drop in to the shop to buy some more.

BTW. I bought some Leech & Sons regular chipolatas too, so the review on those, will no doubt appear very soon...


Leech & Sons (Melbourn) - Special Pork
  (Mar 2017)

Here's the sample details:
120x30mm before cooking, 112x29mm after.
68g before cooking, 61g after.
That's a shrinkage of approx 9% & weight loss of approx 10%.
6 loose sausages £3.53 (£8.78/kg).

     

www.leechandsons.com

1 & 3 Station Rd,
Melbourn, Herts,
SG8 6DX

01763 260255

OPENING TIMES
Monday         8.30am - 1.00pm
Tuesday        8.30am - 5.00pm
Wednesday   8.30am - 5.00pm
Thursday       8.30am - 5.00pm
Friday           8.30am - 6.00pm
Saturday       8.30am - 1.00pm
Sunday                       Closed
Bank Holiday Monday  Closed

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