Sausage Review - we review sausages

Foxholes (Hertford) - Pork & Leek

We last sampled some Foxholes sausages a way back when and we needed to do a bit of a catchup to be honest. We'd heard that the butchery had had a bit of an upgrade/refit so popping over to the Hertford farm's shop seemed the right thing to do...

Foxholes is a family run arable farm of over 1000 acres growing crops for bread, oil, animal feed and bedding. We read that they also rear there own rare-breed saddleback pigs and to comlement and extend their own pork production they source additional free range pork from local producers. Having a special cure room on site enables the butchers to dry cure their own hams, gammons and bacon. The farm shop albeit modest in size does carry some very good produce, plus the tea room does some very nice cakes etc.!

There is also the Foxholes Farm Park which opened in 2017 starting as a small petting farm for chickens, lambs and goats originally. Now homes for rabbits, guinea pigs, goats, chickens, geese, ducks, sheep, pigs, donkeys, mules, alpacas, cows. Foxholes Farm is on the outskirts of Hertford, just off the A414 / A10. Easy to find and plenty of onsite parking.

From a previous review of ours we note that the strange 5 sausages in a pack is now 6 thankfully. Not that that really matters although we have noted some producers putting un-even numbers in a pack for probably encouragng increased sales no doubt. However this pack of 6 looked really interesting. Lovely colouring and the fact they are all odd sizes shows they are truly hand made and tied.

80% pork, fresh leeks, wheat rusk (so perhaps not gluten free) plus the usuals, mind you the added flavour enhancer doesn't sit too well with us but there you go, all in natural skins. Bring it on.

Cooked up we found a medium to coarse texture, the skins browned nicely, very succulent and they tasted very good. The seasoning was spot on to give a good flavour and the bite was good too.

One criticsm however we did get just a touch of that pale ooze come out of the sausage in cooking. We managed to scrape this away before it stuck to the skins and burnt. No splits or ruptures of the skin though.

All in all, a pretty good sausage that we would definately buy again.

Foxholes (Hertford) - Pork & Leek (Nov 2024)

Here's the sample details:
120x30mm before cooking, 110x30mm after.
66g before cooking, 58g after.
That's a shrinkage of approx 8% & weight loss of approx 12%
6 sausages in a 450g pack £5.38  (£11.95/kg)

Foxholes Farm Shop
London Road
Hertford, Hertfordshire
SG13 7NT, UK.

Telephone: 01992 552900

Opening Hours:
Mon - Sat 9.00am - 5.00pm
Sun 10am - 4pm

www.foxholesfarm.com