Sausage Review - we review sausages

Now we would like to avoid repeating what can be read on their web site about the ethics for Natures Rest Collective, so please use the link provided below.

Tracey Slocombe (The Artisan Farmher) has told us that all their sausages are made from their own free range, pastured, rare breed Welsh White pigs, using their own unique blend of ingredients and are hand tied in natural casings. They also benefit from being both totally UPF and Gluten free! 

Tracey added that all the pork was outdoor reared on a nature reserve, fed fruit daily, antibiotic free, nothing artificial, no preservatives, no allergens, homegrown ingredients used beyond organic garlic and bought in organic Duchy Oranges as she hadn’t managed to grow any of those…yet it was great that the public were waking up to the tricks of the commercial convenience food industry at last but were they prepared for the real price and inconvenience of doing real food properly?  Now this is a very good point.

I asked as they didn't use any preservatives at all, how would they get samples over to us? Tracey said not to worry as she would send a cold box over with frozen product. True to her word, the following morning a suitably insulated cold box arrived...with still frozen contents I might add. Being February and still a bit fresh at this time of year did no doubt help.

I will add though it's a bit of fun here when we get samples sent to us in cold boxes. Just like when my old mum (bless her) used to order a "Christmas hamper" for delivery, and we all stood round eagerly to open it. Mind you as soon as I did, the aroma of garlic hit us like a steam train! Whoa, there's some powerful garlic in there somewhere!

So as it's shouting the loudest, we'll sample the Garlic & Black Pepper first then. 

6 standard butchers sausages in the raw looking a very much OK. There's no meat percentage given but we'd estimate were are talking 80% plus I'm sure. Ingredients of garlic, curly & flat leaf parsley, black pepper, sea salt flakes and organic buckwheat flour clearly labelled. We are told also that there's no pork belly meat in these so may be mainly shoulder AND their in natural skins!

Cooked up (we pan fry as you no doubt know) they browned really well, with no splits or bursts at all, but we did get a small amount of that white emulsion appearing in blobs on the outside of the sausage skins. I contacted Tracey to be informed that this is more than likely because they don’t use chemical emulsifiers either like factory made sausages would contain.  The emulsifiers act as a binder to help hold in the fat. This though did disappear quite quickly as the sausages came up to temperature.

The aroma in the kitchen was serious stuff. I like garlic but a couple of the troops did comment that they were not big fans and indeed did say that a little less strength of garlic in these may of been better.

The cooked texture was the fine side of medium, and with some very good natural skins, did give a good bite and chew. Natural skins do make a difference.

The seasoning was spot on, and the black pepper gave a very nice tingle on the tongue. Nicely succulent too.

So at £18.90 a kilo these are well in to premium sausage territory, however as Tracey has said, you need to be prepared for the real price and inconvenience of doing real food properly!

All in all these Garlic & Black Pepper sausages are really very good.


The Artisan Farmher (Halwill, Nth Devon) - Garlic & Black Pepper (Feb 2025)

Here's the sample details:
115x30mm before cooking, 110x30mm after.
69g before cooking, 63g after.
That's a shrinkage of approx 4% & weight loss of approx 8%.
6 loose sausages / 370g @ £7  (£18.90/kg)

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