Sausage Review - we review sausages

Simon Dennis our local butchers has been very handy during the recent lockdown, and it was whilst a recent "one in / one out" visit (as to be expected to be honest, it's a small shop) we noticed that they were now offering a few more flavours of sausage delight ...Moroccan...hmm?

Simon's butchers shop has been here in Sawbridgeworth for as long as I can remember and is well respected. Like other customers if we want a particular cut of meat for a special occasion or a decent turkey for Christmas lunch, we know we can buy such and ask advice too on the best way to cook.  Add to that Simon's been making sausages in all that time by the traditional tried and tested methods too and knows how to make proper sausages.  So introducing additional flavours, when he's said to me before that he was sticking with "traditionals", he must know what he's doing.  Let's have a look at these MOROCCAN sausages then.

75%+ pork meat content, not too tightly packed, just how we like them here, and of course, natural skins. So the flavouring?  Simon told us that the flavour mix he used for these was from Lucas Ingredients, who we find are a well established company based in Bristol producing a very wide range of flavourings for the trade since 1926...and there's me thinking (dreading) there was loads of fresh apricots, apples and sultanas being diced up ready at the back of the butchers shop and being piled in to the mix! 

I'm really not personally all that on fruit sweetness with meat to be honest.  I know the troops don't mind, but I was a little anxious about what taste these would have.  In the raw there wasn't much of an aroma about them, a good looking BIG sausage, and warming up in the pan there wasn't much evidence either that these would be "fruity".  As they cooked through though you could make out a slight sweetness but definitely not over the top.

The skins browned really nicely, and looked as if they hadn't shrunk much at all. A little perhaps lengthwise, but still a nice plump banger. Very little oil left in the pan is always a good sign that the fat content of the meat was very much under control too.

Texture-wise we had previously noted a slight difference to the plain porks that we have tried before with them being perhaps minced a tad finer producing closer texture with a very good bite and chew. These Morrocan's follow a similar method. Giving a slightly firmer feel to them we thought which we liked. Now taste-wise. I needn't have been concerned because although these sausages have a sweetness, they were definitely not over the top and in fact we all liked them. 

We failed though to make the "eaten cold later on" test as they all went in one go in a sausage and mash supper, they were that good!

An excuse to buy some more then perhaps.

Simon Dennis (Sawbridgeworth) - Moroccan (Jun 2020)

150x30mm before cooking, 135x30mm after.
104g before cooking, 98g after.
That's a shrinkage of approx 10% & weight loss of approx 6%.
8 sausages (Doh...I will check next time I call in)
 

Simon Dennis - Family Butchers
2 The Square,
Sawbridgeworth,
Hertfordshire,
CM21 9AE