Sausage Review - we review sausages

The kind people at Porky Whites sent us a range of their sausages so we could update our reviews.  Way back in 2012 when we last sampled we think they were just called Porky Whites - Surrey Pork...so let's give these Premium Traditional Porks a go...

82% pork. Labelling just says the finest cuts of pork. Web site says, "only the finest cuts of pork belly and shoulder goes into a Porky White pork sausage ", so we'll go with that.

As for the source of the pork used we note the following from their web site: "Almost all of the meat sourced for our products comes from within the UK with some additional supplies coming from trusted EU farms to make up any shortfall of UK supplies. We always ensure that animal welfare is a priority and over 90% of our suppliers are either RSPCA or Red Tractor accredited." As we have said previously, we really think that this figure these days should be 100% rather than only 90%.

Now as with the rest of the Porky Whites range we've been sent, these again are in collagen cases/skins. We would have preferred natural skins on these but it appears that quite a few manufacturers nowadays have switched to using casings that are the collagen type. I'm sure you've probably read previously our views on these and the difficulty we've had trying to cook such by pan frying and trying to avoid the skins splitting and in some cases going all "rubbery" and peeling off. OK yes it might not bother some, but it does bother us, and frankly others we have spoken to. In 2012, they were in proper natural skins and scored half a point higher. Just saying...

In the raw they looked OK weighing in at 67g a go and a fairly standard size at 105mm x 28mm. We note also "rusk" containing wheat in the ingredients, so these are unlikely to be gluten free.

Cooked up, they held their shape ok, but skins failures all round as expected even with cooking at a much lower temperature than we normally do, and for a bit longer. OK the "outsides" browned up. We say outsides as the skins had mostly come off.  No shrinkage as such which is good, but a 12% weight loss is a bit too much to ignore.

Not bad succulence we'll admit, and not a bad bite and chew. These however may be a firm favourite for some but we'd only rate them as an average sausage at best to be honest. The seasoning was very light, and needed more in our opinion for what we feel would be a "traditional" sausage.

Look these are a fair sausage and would work reasonably ok in a casserole or sausage toad for sure. In a sandwich however they were a bit lacking and needed a dollop of mustard.

This is our honest opinion and of course it may differ completely from your own. If you don't agree or have yourself a comment or two about these, we'd be pleased to hear about it.


Porky White's (Surrey) - Traditional Pork  (Nov 2012 / May 2025)

Here's the sample details:
105x28mm before cooking, 105x28mm after.
67g before cooking, 59g after.
That's an overall shrinkage of 0% & weight loss of approx 12%.
6 in a 400g pack at £3.50 from Tesco (£8.75/Kg approx).


 





  2012  2012
 

www.porkywhites.com