Sausage Review - we review sausages

These are the Old English sausages we bought from the Gt Garnetts Christmas market. OK they have had a spell in the arctic conditions of our freezer over Christmas. The Flitch Royale's we bought at the same time and reviewed previously ate reasonably well so we had hopes that these would do same.

A friend who buys regularly from Gt Garnett's did say he too felt that the sausages were quite soft even when cooked, and said without us prompting that it may be because the texture of such is quite open.

Gt Garnett's of Barnston, near Dunmow, Essex is a family run farm business operating since 1970.  Welfare of their animals and the quality of their products is a priority for them. They say that their business thrives on the enthusiasm of the whole team at Gt Garnetts whose commitment to stockmanship, welfare and animal husbandry is of the highest standard. They also say they pride themselves on their ability to produce a quality pork product from a happy well cared for herd of pigs. Gt Garnett's pork comes from their own free range large white pigs and all the sausages are made and tied by hand at the farm.

The labelling like the Flitch Royales doesn't state percentage of meat, and as the farm butchery had been busy busy busy, like I said in the previous review, I chose not to hold up the queue asking questions which we can ask at another time. However going by the cooked up results, they too must be 80% at the very least.

These sausages also contain rusk, so are not gluten free.

Cooking up though, a lovely aroma was noticed, in fact prompting an appearance of one of the troops having smelt the cooking from upstairs. You'll have to wait having been my response.

The natural skins browned well as expected and indeed kept intact. Split sausages we know don't affect the taste, but presentation-wise it doesn't help.

Now shrinkage was minimum but weight loss from cooking was noticeable again unfortunately, and a little oil residue over and above what we started with was left in the pan.

Again these sausages did stay rather soft once cooked but not as soft as the Flitch Royales.

Taste-wise though really very good, herby and leaving a slight tingle on the tongue. I suppose how an "Old English" sausage should taste? Certainly the taste did remind me of sausages when I was young. Mind you that is eons ago if honest.

Now these would have been a good 4.5 however one of the troops found a rather large piece of grizzle, which I know doesn't detract from the taste but is a shame.

Would we buy again? Yes. Certainly another visit to the farm butchery is in the diary.


Gt Garnetts (Barnston, Essex) - Old English   (Feb 2024)

Here's the sample details:
110x30mm before cooking, 105x30mm after.
78g before cooking, 67g after.
That's a shrinkage of 4% & weight loss of approx 14%.
6 loose sausages 466g at £4.59, that's £9.85 / kg.

 

www.greatgarnetts.co.uk

Great Garnett's
Bishops Green,
Barnston,
Essex, CM6 1NEA ​

Tel: 01245 231 331

Shop opening hours:

Thursday – 8am – 4pm
Friday 8am – 4pm
Saturday 9am – 1pm