MOR - Moroccan Spiced Pork, Cauliflower & Chickpea

We had an email from Jim of Aylesbury earlier this month alerting us to the MOR sausages that Tesco have started to sell. He suggested we try the Pork, Super Green Veg & Lentils (green box wrapper).  Sorry Jim but we chose to start with the red wrapped Moroccan Spiced Pork, and we'll try the others shortly...

Now I will honestly admit that gluten free pork, super green vegetables and lentils as a concept does nothing for me, but Moroccan spiced pork even if it is gluten free, well there's something.  Mind you I was a bit concerned that with only 55% pork onboard and the rest what amounts to veggy, these may be an interesting texture when cooked up...but on the upside, I suppose you'll be getting some of your 5 a day!

Definitely not what you'd call a normal sausage. They are very "unconventional" as MOR say themselves.  Agreed that being different is key to sales and popularity but are these too different?  When Jim contacted us we had already clocked the MOR range appearing in Tesco, and I did call in a couple of times over that particular week to see if they were selling.  The packaging is bold and bright in colour and are located on the shelves at that key height where you would struggle to miss them.  They don't appear to be flying off the shelves though, well not unless the shelf stackers are filling up hourly any way. Incidentally we have looked for the MOR range elsewhere and from a quick online search as of today it appears Tesco are the only current retailer, but please let us know if you find them elsewhere. 

The ingredients loaded in to what appears to be good quality natural pork skins list as, British pork, cauliflower, chickpeas, red pepper, onion and harissa marinade along with honey, coriander and seasonings of smoked paprika, cumin and cayenne pepper!  Rock and roll!

As we prepared to pan fry these as we do all our samples, we note that MOR recommend oven or grill cooking only.  Your call on this entirely if you do try yourselves but we'll cook the way we want.  Also we noted that the sausages were all cut (ie. they weren't linked) a bit close so as they warmed up we got a slight eruption from the ends as the skins tightened down and squeezed the contents.  Initially we thought this would be an issue but the final cooked up result was thankfully OK.  Weight loss and shrinkage were OK too in comparison with other "conventional" sausages.

The texture was quite open though as we expected given the lower meat content combined with the cauliflower, chickpeas and other veggy.  OK we're not saying this is detrimental, but the sausage is pretty soft as you cut it, and the bite and chew is certainly not like you get with a traditional 78-85% plain pork British banger! 

MOR say you'll get the flavours of "north African street market" with these if you use them in a fragrant sausage and bean casserole.  Well we'll take their word for that but on their own the taste is very good with noticeable cauliflower and a touch of harissa on the edge. Not bad at all!  Mind you one of troops wasn't impressed as she doesn't eat cauliflower!  Ho hum...

It would be wrong to refer to these as JASS (just another supermarket sausage).  We agree that these MOR sausages are unconventional so can't be compared with some of the JASS we do see.  It'll be interesting if any artisan producers follow the idea themselves and do something similar?

Eaten cold later, well, a very odd texture and taste. Not my cup of tea when cold, however would we buy again?  Probably yes to be honest, perhaps for family barbeque time.


MOR - Moroccan Spiced Pork, Cauliflower & Chickpea      (Apr 2017)

Here's the sample details:
105x30mm before cooking, 90x32mm after.
67g before cooking, 62g after.
That's a shrinkage of 8% & weight loss of approx 7%.
6 in a 400g tray £3.00  (£7.50/kg approx)

 

                                                      

www.morfood.co.uk

 

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