Sausage Review - we review sausages

Elveden Estate (Suffolk) - Wild Venison & Guinness

We had a bit of a family weekend away in Norfolk and my sister called in to the very good Elveden Farm Shop on route (not far from the Centre Parcs) and bought a few packs of some suitable sausages for the barbeque...good choice as it happens, they were very good...

All but a couple went on the BBQ, and those found their way in to the pan for a sampling...

Interesting history about the Elveden Estate. Owned away back by members of the Guinness brewery family evidently. Venison and Guinness sausages, how appropriate. The farm shop is pretty extensive with the butchery, vegetables, fruit, bread and other goods, not to mention the enormous gifts and homeware department. We didn't visit the restuarant and courtyard but by all accounts these are very good.

The venison comes from the estate, and from what we have read, is professionally managed to "ensure a healthy and balanced population that is within a tolerable capacity". The venison (and other game) is sold through the farm shop.

Now the Guinness element of the sausages isn't just the black nectar sloshed in. The butcher in the shop told us that infact the farm shop kitchen make a reduction of Guinness, with herbs and cloves for adding into the sausage mix. Yes there is an element of pork added too. Venison on it's own is quite lean so you'd end up with a rather dry cooked sausage otherwise. About 10% the butcher told us.

These do however contain Barley and Wheat product (rusk) so would not be Gluten Free. But on the plus side, these beauties are in NATURAL SKINS.

A very dark well filled high percentage meat sausage in the raw. Cooking up the aroma is something else!

In the cooked state they are a "dark" sausage. Texture-wise close to medium, still retaining firmness, yet easy to bite and chew.

Now taste-wise, I really liked them. They have a deep barley/stout flavour from the Guinness no doubt. There was a slight spice tingle we noticed, which on our way back from Norfolk we called in to the farm shop to ask about. The butcher said his thoughts were that the spice taste could be the cloves in the reduction. Personally I didn't get a cloves taste but there you go. Blooming good anyway as far as I'm concerned, however the team were divided over the depth of flavour. We have 2 "girlies" who don't really like Guinness. Doh!

Shrinkage and weight loss from raw to cooked in the sample was OK, yes average figures. The natural skins performed very well though containing the sausage. Infact even the BBQ'd sausages didn't burst or do anything other than sizzle like they should.

Absolutely minimal extra oil in the pan after cooking, and the cooked sausage retained quite a nice level of succulence.

They all went so no chance of an "eaten when cold" statement unfortunately.

So let's get to the bottom line. Would we buy again?

Well, we had another long discussion about this and we agreed, yes. The "men" will have these and the "girlies" the plain pork! You just can't win...


Elveden Estate (Suffolk) - Wild Venison & Guinness   (May 2026)

Here's the sample details:
105x32mm before cooking, 100x30mm after.
81g before cooking, 71g after.
That's a shrinkage of approx 16% & weight loss of approx 10%.
6 sausages in a 470g pack £6.56 (approx £13.95/kg)

 

    

Elveden Farms Ltd
London Road
Elveden,
Thetford
IP24 3TQ Z

Estate Shop: 01842 898068 

www.elveden.com
www.elvedencourtyard.com/food-hall

Opening Times
Courtyard Shops & Restaurants
9:30am to 4pm on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays.
Sundays 10am to 4pm.