Waitrose - Jumbo Hickory
Pork, Butter Bean & Red
Pepper
Calling in to our local Waitrose this
week to pickup a spot of
lunch whilst out and about
on business, I spotted these
and given there's only 4 to
a pack, didn't inspire me to
buy them that much, however
hickory flavoured pork and
butter beans jumbo sized
with American mustard
sounded intriguing...
Concern that I've gone "veggy"
what with the fact these
sausages are labelled as 25%
vegetables, was keenly
expressed by the troops
here, and my senior partner
(The "missus") added that
after all these years, she
still didn't like butter
beans, so getting sampling
going became a task and
half!
I have to say, cooking up
the aroma from the pan was
very good with a good whiff
of smokiness. The natural
skins did the business and
worked well, browning nicely
and retaining their contents
very well without splits and
bursts. We did have a few
eruptions though from
sausages ends, which
detracts a bit from the
overall look, but given the
quantity of "veg"
(vegetables, pulses and
fruit) in the mix I'm not
surprised to be honest. The
bite and chew though was a
tad heavy going. The
skins were notably chewy.
The texture of the cooked
sausage was quite soft and
open (see photo of sliced
sausage) and very moist and
succulent. The
smokiness of the hickory
pork was OK but far less
than I expected, but the
butter bean flavour was a
bit too much here for a
couple of the troops.
The American mustard though
wasn't that evident and a
bit disappointing however to
be fair, overall not a bad
flavour with a touch of
spiciness.
These sausages have quite a
reasonable percentage of
British outdoor reared pork
at 54% in them along with 8%
butter beans and 6% red
pepper, plus a whole
orchestra of carrot, onion,
rice flour, green pepper,
maple syrup, spirit vinegar,
smoked demerara sugar, pea
fibre, smoked paprika, sea
salt, sugar, hickory smoked
tomato purée, yellow mustard
flour, black pepper, salt,
dried red pepper, vegetable
fibre, cornflour, ground
ginger, onion powder,
mustard powder, garlic
powder, turmeric,
caramelised sugar syrup,
ground cumin, cayenne
pepper, paprika extract...a
complex flavoured "Gluten
Free" sausage no
less!
Complex flavours and
British outdoor reared pork
though however didn't inspire
unfortunately. The
"chewiness" of the skins and
the overall butter bean
flavour didn't impress
either and given the amount
of noticeable shrinkage and
weight loss in cooking
resulted in these sausages
being judged, as just about
an OK sausage.
Price-wise at £3.29 a pack
(£8.23/kg) puts these in to
approaching premium sausage
status which they are sadly
not. We bought them on offer
at 2 packs for £5 which was
better but would we buy again?
No, probably not.
Waitrose - Jumbo Hickory
Pork, Butter Bean & Red
Pepper (Jun
2018)
Here's the
sample details:
140x30mm before cooking, 120x30mm
after.
102g before cooking, 79g after.
That's a shrinkage of approx 14% &
weight loss of approx 25%.
(£8.23 per
kg)