Sausage Review - we review sausages

We noticed that Bridget B now has a brand new butchery at the very nice Pearces Farm Shop on the A10 just north of Puckeridge. However as we've not actually been to the original Bridget B Farm Shop at Sacombe Hill Farm off the A602 Stevenage Road, we thought we'd make the journey over there...

Now we noticed straightaway in the farm shop display that everything sausage was now in those collagen/synthetic skins. Oh dear. I asked the butcher on site if this was the case for all Bridget B sausages now even at the new butchery. His response was such that all their made on site sausages are now in collagen casings. We're are not big on this type, but I spotted some Wild Boar & Apple flavour in the display that were actually in natural casings/skins, so I bought them instead...

It turns out though, they're not actually made at Bridget B. They are bought in from a trade butchery, repackaged and sold on. Hey ho!

Yes it is difficult to do reviews when you come across things like this but I suppose it's much the same or similar to reviewing supermarket sausages when you know and I know, the supermarkets don't make sausages themselves and get them in from sausage factories to retail.

So I asked and was told that these ones come in from a trade butchery called Smith TaylorMade that look like they're based in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire according to a quick search on Google. They're a big concern supplying many local butchers and other trade customers including British Airways, Stena Line, and Singapore Airlines to name just a few.

We'll do the review as we would normally for these, but please bear the previous information in mind.

75% pork and wild boar, pork rinds (you don't often see that listed), rusk (so NOT gluten free), apple and spices plus preservatives E221 etc etc., all in natural skins. At £10.99 / kg that all sounds very much OK to us.

Now where the wild boar was sourced from I will need to ask some more questions, but the pork according to the Smith TaylorMade web site is best British pork from best saddleback pigs. So there you go.

In the raw I must say they do look a good sausage. Cooked up really nice too. I was concerned that being wild boar there would be a pretty strong aroma cooking, but no. Very much like a regular pork sausage to be honest.

The butcher at the farm shop did say that they didn't have a "gamey" strong flavour either, which sits well with us to be honest. Some wild boar sausages we've tried in the past were quite an acquired taste. We were pleased to sample these and the taste and flavour was very very good. However, we didn't really get the apple. You can see the bits of apple (sliced photo) but we picked a bit out and tasted that which unfortunately wasn't very appley.

The texture of the sausage was chunky, good sized bits of apple, and some greenery which although not specifically listed looked like leak.  Very tasty though all the same.

A touch more weight loss than expected, and a slight amount of additional oil left in the pan after cooking was noted.

These were a proper sausage, but a shame about the lack of apple flavour.

Would we buy again? Might / might not.



 



Bridget B (Watton-at-Stone, Herts) - Wild Boar & Apple (Oct 2024)

Here's the sample details:
110x30mm before cooking, 100x32mm after.
75g before cooking, 62g after.
That's a shrinkage of approx 3% & weight loss of approx 17%.
6 sausages in a 478g pack £5.25  (£10.99 / kg)

 

Sacombe Farm Shop
Sacombe Hill Farm,
Watton-at-Stone,
Nr Hertford,
Hertfordshire
SG14 3NL

Monday – Saturday,
6:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

01920 831082

www.bridgetbs.co.uk