Sausage Review - we review sausages

Yes it's true to say we like Cornwall and do visit whenever we can. The youngest daughter as it happens also lived in Wadebridge for a couple of years, sharing with a friend, and it was from Williams & Son we got their meat and provisions delivered throughout that Covid lockdown period...

Williams & Son have a very good reputation as an award winning butcher and are members of the Q Guild of Butchers. Now before we go any further on this review we will say we cooked and ate these sausages, and they were very much an OK sausage that we enjoyed as part of our sausage and mash supper, however...

The labelling boldly says "Award Winning Honey Roast Sausages", but no mention of which or what award and when? Doing a big of digging it would appear Williams & Son did win a Gold Award for these particular recipe sausages in a Q Guild competition, but it was 10 years ago in 2014. Yes Williams have won further awards since, but not for the Honey Roast recipe.

Incidentally the skins on this pack we bought are that collagen/synthetic type, so I'm not entirely convinced that 10 years ago for the Q Guild competition they would have been in the same. Also Williams & Son shop staff confirmed that they don't make these nowadays on site at the Molesworth Street shop. It would appear that these sausages are produced for Williams & Son shop elsewhere.

I was advised that the pork used is local, and 80% although the packaging doesn't list as such.

Very interesting in terms of there being 7 sausages in the pack. I had to count twice! Good value at £4.47 (£9.55/kg) for a 468g pack though on the face of it.

Then we come to the cooking. You will be aware we are not keen on sausages with collagen/synthetic type skins as we see 99% of the time the same thing happen in the frying pan, the skins split big time lengthwise and almost roll off the sausages. You'll see from the photo below the same happened with these. Yes yes, oven bake, air fry or grill you'll probably not get this but we pan fry all our samples for consistency. At least this time the skins didn't go rubbery and where they were still around the sausage, did cut without tearing. So there you go.

There wasn't any residual oil in the pan after cooking to speak of thankfully, so that's good. Split skins usually result in juices leaking into the pan and creating burnt bits sticking to the skins.

The feel of the sausages in the raw was medium to firm to the touch, and when cooked did become quite noticeably firmer. The texture was very close, not so much you'd call it dense, just very close. One of the team commented that they were "almost" like a frankfurter or brat in texture. It looks like the filling may have been minced quite fine or indeed put through the mincer a few times during the making.

Now we've sampled honey roast sausage previously, and usually you get larger "bits" of the honey roast within the sausage. You'll see from the sliced photo the sausage is quite uniform with no obvious larger pieces which got me looking again at the labelling. There's no mention in the makings except citric acid, spice extracts and dried honey, so I suspect that the honey roast is "flavouring" rather than the real thing. An off the shelf catering flavouring or seasoning mix probably.

The taste was not too bad actually, yes they did have that honey roast meaty taste, but I also note that E621 MSG (flavour enhancer) is in the mix which may account for the meatier taste.

It is also notable that the ingredients list E120. This is red colouring, a food dye in essence. To make the sausage look pink?

These sausages also contain WHEAT, so are unlikely to be classed as gluten free.

The team agreed that they were OK for a now and again sort of sausage perhaps.

Would we buy again? Probably not.


   


Williams & Son (Wadebridge, Cornwall) - Honey Roast Pork  (Sep 2024)

Here's the sample details:
110x28mm before cooking, 100x30mm after.
54g before cooking, 49g after.
That's an overall shrinkage of 2% & weight loss of approx 9%.
7 sausages in a 468g pack £4.47 (£9.55/kg)


www.williamsbutchers.co.uk

WILLIAMS & SON 
13 Molesworth Street
Wadebridge
Cornwall PL27

Tel : 01208 812304

Hours of Business:
Monday - Saturday 8am - 5pm
Sunday Closed