Sausage Review - we review sausages

R&M Butchers (Harpenden, Herts) - Pork, Garlic & Herb

If you are big on garlic, you'll certainly like these!  We dropped by Carpenter's Nursery & Farm Shop in Sandridge near St Alban's recently and noticed that R&M Butchers stock a small butchery display within the farm shop. The display was very well stocked I will say and looked excellent, so who could resist not buying a couple of items?...

We'd actually travelled to have lunch in the Potting Shed Cafe within Carpenter's, and although we didn't choose any specific R&M product for lunch, we did notice that their produce was very obvious on the cafe menu and specials board. Excellent food (and service) at the cafe by the way...you may need to book at busy times though.

Now we as a family don't baulk at a good measure of garlic in some of the food we enjoy, so reading the ingredients of these sausages we did note that they contained not only garlic powder but also dried garlic. As I removed the packaging it was obvious that these sausages are not shy in coming forward given the garlic aroma!

Now let's cut to the chase here, there is only 5 sausages in this 500g pack. Our test sample was 104g measuring 120x30mm which is a fair size banger on it's tod. So I'm not sure who decided sausages should be in packs of 6 as some sort of unwritten standard, but certainly even numbers are easier to share. Mind you 2 packs of 5 does sort it I suppose? In saying that, we bought some samples from a butchers in Norfolk at the weekend and they come in packs of 8 ???  Hey ho.

While I was pondering all that, the pan had come up to temperature and we were noticing the garlicky aroma as these very well made 80% meat bangers as they were gently sizzling away. Quality natural skins I hasten to add too which browned very nicely. We did have a few splits and a burst though, which I agree doesn't affect the taste, but again doesn't look the best when dishing up.  Shrinkage when cooked was next to nothing but a little weight loss was noted.

Now also to note, these sausages have bread rusk in them so are probably not gluten free if you are interested.

Buying from this outlet, did however pose a problem for us as we couldn't easily ask a few questions about the making and ingredients from the butchers themselves. Suffice to say I have it on my "To Do List" to call in to the butchers shop personally when next over Harpenden way, and then update this review. Yes I could ring them, but a visit would be better. Also we note, a butchers open on a Monday, well well, there's a thing!

So the bottom line, a very succulent and very eatable sausage we did agree, and mighty powerful in the garlic department!  Even eaten when cold it was there!  In fact a client of mine commented that morning, "Whoa, you been at the garlic?" Hmm, that'd be the sausages...

Would we buy them again? Certainly.


 


R&M Butchers (Harpenden, Herts) - Pork, Garlic & Herb (Jan 2024)

Here's the sample details:
120x30mm before cooking, 120x30mm after.
104g before cooking, 93g after.
That's an overall shrinkage of 0% & weight loss of approx 10%.
5 sausages in a (500g) £4.45 (£8.89/Kg).


R&M Butchers (Facebook)

R&M Butchers 
10 Station Road,
Harpenden,
Herts., AL5 4SE

Tel : 01582 969819

Hours of Business:
Monday 08:00 am — 05:00 pm
Tuesday 08:00 am — 05:00 pm
Wednesday 08:00 am — 05:00 pm
Thursday 08:00 am — 07:00 pm
Friday 08:00 am — 07:00 pm
Saturday 08:00 am — 04:00 pm
Sunday Closed