NZ's Top Snarler - Beef and Blue, Allenton Meat Centre

NZ's Top Snarler - Beef and Blue, Allenton Meat Centre

Today they announced the Supreme Award in the Devro NZ Sausage Competition.

A beef and blue sausage from Allenton Meat Centre in Ashburton won this prestigious award. Congratulations to the team at this butchery.

I am very keen on eating sausages and also love cheese, I am quite partial to a bit of blue,
so I look forward to sampling this sausage in the future.

The gold medal winners from Wellington were Waikanae Butcher's, White Wine and Fennel. And the beef sausages from Eastbourne Village Butchers. Look out for a review.

The other medal winners from Wellington were Eastbourne Village Butcher's Black Pudding and Park Avenue Continental Meats, Polish Kielbasa. Those regular readers of the blog will know will know that I consider the sausages made at Park Avenue to be top quality. I was surprised to see that I have not reviewed these sausages.

For a full list of medallists see this link. Congratulations go to all the medal winners. As someone who acted as a judge in the South Island leg of the competition I can vouch for the quality of the winning sausages.

For a food writers view on the competition read this article from the NZ Herald. Catherine Smith writes eloquently about the experience.

If you do go to Eastbourne Butchers, I would recommend the Louisiana Reds. And if you are at Park Avenue the kabonosy and chorizo criollo are my favourites.

As the bbq season begins it is great to have a celebration of the best NZ sausages.

Waikane Butcher's Chicken Sausages with Orange and Ginger

Waikanae Butcher's Chicken Sausages with Orange and Ginger

 

 

These were purchased from Waikanae Butchery’s truck at the Sunday morning market at Chaffers St. I have taken a couple of photos of the truck. It is an impressive purpose built mobile butcher’s shop. The day I was there the two butchers were very busy dealing with customers who were seeking to buy quality meat and sausages.

 

 

I bought ten chicken orange and ginger sausages and cooked them up for the family dinner. The sausages are long and thin, giving off a delicate aroma of orange prior to cooking. The butcher told me they use whole oranges when making the sausages, so maybe you can get also get your daily dose of vitamin C through these snarlers. They are a fine to medium ground sausage and cooked nicely.

 

 

 

When eaten the initial flavour is the orange citrus taste. As the sausage goes to the back of mouth a secondary taste is one of mild ginger. The chicken meat complements these flavours. There were flecks of a green herb that could be observed in the sausage, maybe sage? But my ever alert and sophisticated palate could not detect the exact flavour. This is a quality chicken sausage and they disappeared quickly from the dinner table. My wife liked them but my daughter said she was not sure about the merits of fruit flavoured sausage. I asked her what she thought about pork and apple and she then said that I should not identify inconsistencies in her statements and got a bit huffy, in a pleasant adolescent way. Oh the joys of being a parent. My son liked them, and quickly helped himself to another.

 

 

These are high quality chicken sausages. While citrus flavours are not my preferred option and I would definitely prefer a quality chicken sausage without the orange flavour, these would be the sausage for you if you do like orange and are craving to boost to your vitamin C intake over dinner.

Cost per kilo: $21.95

It is not all beer and sausages - Part six

It is not about beer and sausages - Part Six

Yesterday I competed in the Tararua Mountain Race. I don’t consider this a race, although those nearer the front do. It is an event for those of at the back of field - we are happy to finish. There was a new route this year, starting from Kaitoke, north of Upper Hutt, to the Holdsworth road end, inland from Masterton. The track went through around 40km of tramping tracks, across three ridges and up 2300m of vertical climb on the course.

 

 

What was at the end of all that? You guessed it…. I am creature of habit, so it was the usual beer and sausages.

But before I get onto these, a quick recap of the event. I felt quite good up to the check point at Totara Flats Hut and at this stage I had been going for six hours. The running conditions were very good with mild overcast weather. On the climbs I got to the top of each ascent in a quicker time than I had anticipated. I thought I was on to finish in less than eight hours, a result I would have been very happy with. However once I started the final section I realised the knee that I knew was sore was beginning to play up. Going downhill it hurt. Once I had completed the steepest ascent on the course, I was very slow on the downward section. A guy who passed me took pity on me and offered some anti-inflammatories. I took these when he reassuringly that they were the good stuff. After twenty minutes or so I knew they had kicked in. At end when I was talking to him he said they were his wife’s arthritis medication. The good news is they didn’t have drug testing at the end of race, although the organisers could easily have had a psychiatrist on hand to certify the mental state of those who took part. I made it to the finish in 8.36. I was satisfied, but left with the feeling that I could have done better if not for the knee.

I asked my wife to bring the sausages I had cooked the night before to the finish. They were Dutch braadworst from Park Avenue Quality Meats see link, and wild pork sausages from the Waikanae Butchery.

 

 

Between Cone and Totara Flats I had seen a couple of groups of hunters, I hope they managed to get a pig or two, so they could enjoy their own wild pork.

 

 

Waikane Butchery has a mobile truck at the market in Chaffers St every Sunday morning. The friendly and affable butcher told me that they source their wild pork from Premium Game in Blenheim. The sausage is made from wild pork, and apple cider is added along with spices. This is a very coarse and chunky sausage, it has a wild rustic feel, it has not gone through a fine mincer or a bowl cutter. These sausages will appeal to people who like to know they are eating meat. There is a tactile sensation on the palate as you masticate the sausage. Flecks and chunks of red and green can be seen in the sausage - this may be capsicum but I can’t be completely sure.

When the sausage was cooked a lot of moisture, including some fat, came out. When eaten hot it is a very sweet sausage and the flavour of pork and apple predominates. When eaten cold, pork is dominant flavour and the apple component is diminished. I consider these sausages to be the sweetest pork sausages I have reviewed to date. I enjoyed this sausage and would buy again.

 

 

I offered the sausage choice to a variety of people after the event and the consistent response was they preferred the Dutch braadwurst, as they liked its meaty taste. However both these sausages are quality sausages, but the wild pork sausage is better hot than cold.

I washed the sausage down with a pale ale Dead Canary from Parrot Dog brewery in Vivian St. This was a refreshing hoppy and malty pale ale with a bit of acidity.

 

 

So after a hard day’s slog it was great to sit down, munch on a few saussies, and wash it all down with a beer.

On the drive home one of my running mates looked out the car window between Greytown and Featherston, gazing towards to the Tararuas, he said, "We ran right along there today." When you looked at the ranges, saw the height of the ridges and thought that you ran the traverse of horizon, you can reflect on a satisfying accomplishment.

Cost per kilo: Wild Pork $17.95

 

For links to other parts in this series.