FOOD & DR INK Sausage tasting Jonathan Craymer (L) with Stella & David Dixon - Shuckburgh Arms
John Swepstone at Swepstones in holbeach
Simon Mould outside his Nassington shop “One lady goes out to family in the Canary Islands every Christmas and religiously takes our sausages with her. I don’t know what customs must think. We’ve also had people take them out to places such as Dubai and Hong Kong. “When one of our customers moved to southern Italy and wanted to continue buying something similar, we agreed to swap our recipe with the local Italian butcher Enzo. We have slightly changed the recipe for one particular pub – The Angel Inn at Yarwell – as they wanted a bigger sausage, with local cider replacing water to bind it.” Nick Lander at The Angel adds: “We wanted cider in the mix because we’re a cider pub. We sell about 25 different varieties. We call the bigger sausages ‘Fatboys’ on the menu, serve them in a baguette, and explain they’re made to Great Uncle George’s special recipe by Moulds. The sausages have proved very popular since we started serving them four years ago.” Neighbouring Lincolnshire deserves a mention because of its huge influence in the world of sausages. One of the best-known small butcher’s shop-based makers is Swepstones of Holbeach. In 1983, the company’s bangers were declared best in the UK by a panel of celebrities including racing driver Stirling Moss, the late MP Clement Freud and a number of well-known showbiz personalities. Since then Swepstones sausages’ popularity has gone from strength to strength, and although the company still has a shop at Holbeach, for the last 17 years it has had an EU-standard factory near Holbeach producing three quarters of a ton of sausages, or 12,000 units a week, for its shops and to
24
Great uncle George Mould outside shop supply catering establishments within a 20 mile radius. John Swepstone says: “The main ingredients of a good Lincolnshire sausage, apart from good lean pork, are salt, pepper and sage. Sage is the most important. We get ours dried from a local supplier and I’m still using the recipe my father Eric created in 1958. You don’t change something when it works so well. Customers drive here from as far afield as Sheffield and Kent to buy our sausages.” Sausage hunters - it’s also worth trying the market at Oundle (every Thursday, between 9am and 3pm) and the farmers’ market (second Saturday of each month – see below).
Our taste-test We selected six sausages available in our region (though there are of course plenty of others available). David and Stella Dixon who run the Shuckburgh Arms at Southwick near Oundle, and make a point of searching out good local produce, kindly agreed to act as judges. In no particular order we aimed to test sausages from J. RG & S Mould (Nassington), Trendall’s (Oundle), Seven Wells (Oundle), Waitrose (Peterborough), Frank Brothers (Peterborough), and Swepstones (Holbeach). We awarded marks out of ten, and ended up with a few surprises. In sixth place (five points) was Frank Brothers sausages. David felt they had a nice consistency but were not very flavoursome. Stella thought they were too large. In fifth place were the Waitrose Gourmet sausages, made from 84% pork (six points). I liked them for a flavour which took me back to bonfire-night parties as a child. Stella felt they
were exceptionally good for a supermarket sausage. The legendary Moulds sausages came in fourth (seven points) – though this was hotly contested. David wanted to give eight points, but was over-ruled by Stella. Both like Mould’s sausages meaty taste and texture (after all they serve them in their own pub!). But joint first with eight points apiece were Swepstones, Seven Wells and Trendall’s. Stella loved the taste of Swepstones, but David criticised their “slightly mass produced look”, adding that he also found them delicious. Both the Trendall’s and Seven Wells traditional recipes resulted in them being declared “very flavoursome” by our judges. Where to buy or try: Seven Wells Family butchers 8 West Street, Oundle, PE8 4EF www.sevenwells.co.uk 01832 273522 trendall’s butcher and Delicatessen 22 Market Place, Oundle. PE8 4BQ www.trendalls-butchers.co.uk 01832 273503 J, rG & S Mould, 17 Station Road, Nassington, PE8 6QB 01780 782249 Swepstones, 28 High St, Holbeach, Spalding PE12 7DY 01406 425797 Frank brothers Westgate Arcade, Peterborough PE1 1PY 01733 562939 oundle Farmers’ Market http://www.oundle.gov.uk/oundle-town-councilproperties/weekly-market/ the Shuckburgh Arms Southwick, Nr Oundle PE8 5BL http://www.shuckburghpub.co.uk/ 01832 272044 the Angel Inn at yarwell 59 Main Street, Yarwell, Peterborough, PE8 6PR www.angelinnyarwell.com/index.asp 01780 782582
NENE VALLEY LIVING JANUARY 2014
23 24 SAUSAGES.indd 2
18/12/13 11:58:04