Bavarian Sausages from Island Bay
These sausages won a silver medal in the Pre Cooked Barbecue section at the recent Devro NZ Sausage awards, see report. They are made by Island Bay Butchery. I did not judge this section of the competition, so I was interested to see how they tasted.
I cooked these on a Friday night recently. Friday nights at our place are often a "fend for yourself" dinner. I tend to get home from work, have low motivation for cooking, and don’t feel inclined to the "hunter-gather" routine searching out food for the whanau in the local community. As we don’t eat pets, and barbecuing the neighbour’s cat or dog doesn’t do a lot for neighbourly relations, the term "hunter-gather" in our household is a euphemism for takeaways. The Northland shops over the years have changed from a couple dairies, post office, hairdresser, chemist, butcher and green grocer to being a strip of takeaway joints comprising three pizza places, fish and chips, burgers and, the latest innovation, an Indian curry cafe. If the "hunter-gather" option is not pursued, it is often fend for yourself in the kitchen. The food on Friday night generally ranges from sausages, tins of baked beans, eggs, to the odd sandwich.
So what were the Bavarian sausages like? They were good. They are precooked so only need heating through. The butcher told me they are made from free range pork, that is finely ground. They have a hint of caraway seed and cayenne pepper. I should emphasis these are just a hint of flavour - very slight. This a sausage aimed at the NZ barbecue market so the predominant flavour is meat. The whole whanau liked the sausages. My sister even popped in and sampled one, and she was keen on it too. I did get a whole caraway seed, after the rest of the mouthful had disappeared down the gullet. I crunched it between the teeth and I got that intense burst of caraway flavour, the only one of the meal.
I would buy these sausages again, however the preferred sausage is the gold medal winner. You can see a review of the gold medal winner in this category here.
Cost per kilo: $19.95
However I still judge all plain meat sausages against the Dutch Braadworst made by Park Avenue Quality Meats. This sausage is superior in both taste and price. Although it is not a pre cooked sausage. See review.
