The Happy Sausage Dealer

The happy sausage dealer

I put in an order with the German Butchery in Haruru Falls in the Bay of Islands for a few feeds of their fabulous smoked pork bratwurst (see review dated 13 May 2013).

These arrived today in two polystyrene boxes. I was in sausage heaven. Great smoky aroma, the stack of newly made sausages and the anticipation of a great feed to come later in the evening.

 

 

Various friends and workmates meant put in orders and I arranged for 40kg of the beauties. With the help from my super hero son, Sausage Boy, we cut packed and delivered to the expectant sausage purchasers. It did occur to me that I had ordered more than the body weight of my son in sausages. When the stacking was completed 306 sausages were on display on the bench. They were then packed into one or two kilo bag lots.

 

 

Luckily the weights and measures police were not present. Fifty grams either side of the kilo was fine by me.

For dinner I cooked sausages and went down to Castaway Fish and Chip Shop in the Northland Shops. This is a very good chippie. A very pleasant feed of sausages and chips was had by the family. The sausages were as good as I remembered from our visit up north.

I performed the sausage delivery to friends last evening, and again this morning at work.

Thanks to Michael and Patrick at the German Butchery.

Then tonight I got this email

OMG the smokiness!!!!!!!!!!!
From the Angels. I think it could have been the best sausage I’ve ever eaten?
Count me in for your next order but make mine a double.

Annette

The first of many satisfied customers….

And then the second email.....

Stu reckons that your sausages are the best he has ever tasted!!

When you put in another order can we order some more please?

Cheers

 

Paula

Almost a sausage crisis

Almost a sausage crisis

I may not have confessed this up until now but I have a "not so secret" stash of sausages. They are kept in the deep freeze, in our shed. I don’t want to give anyone ideas but it’s unlocked, behind the garage. There is also a mountain bike, lawn mower and various garden tools in there. So burglars and nefarious thieves, you know where the good stuff is.

Over the last 24 hours Wellington has through the eye of a big storm. They say it was worse than the Wahine storm of 1968. There were fifteen metre waves in Cook Strait, which you can see from our house if your eyesight is good. There were two hundred kilometre an hour winds on Mt Kaukau, which you can see from our place, even if your eyesight isn’t so good. We are on a ridge and, to put it mildly, we do get the wind. Needless to say it was a little breezy last night. With the wind coming from Antartica, the mercury was low.

The power went off for short time around 6pm. Then at 6am it went off again. Schools were closed and we had one kid at home, as his school was closed. He was closely supervised at all times by my wife, well apart from when she ran off with friends for coffee….. After six hours and a visit by the electrician the power was back on. What was my main concern? The sausage stash in the deep freeze defrosting....

I am pleased to report that the stash remained intact, phew.

Mittelgrobe Bratwurst

Mittelgrobe Bratwurst

We ate these sausages on our trip to the far north of New Zealand. They emanate from the German Butchery in Haruru Falls in the Bay of Islands. I bought a few packets to take home and put in the freezer. These were eaten last night. As one of the kids said, "Dad is happy, it is a winter evening, the fire is going, sausages for dinner and the All Blacks are playing." My kids are quite perceptive, and my needs are quite simple - warmth, food and rugby. It’s quite good when the whanau are being nice to me as well!

I cooked the classic sausage and bean dish. An old standby - a recipe of onion, garlic, cannelloni beans and tinned tomatoes, with a splash of balsamic vinegar to add some acidity to the dish, with capsicum to round off the vegetable component. Good solid, warming winter comfort food.

I also used sremska from Park Avenue Quality Meats. These are the new longer version that Gordon the butcher is making. He says he sells more of this sausage in the thinner longer form. (see review 24 Nov 2012) This offers a choice for the kids. A mild sausage and a very spicy sausage. My boys thought the sremska was too spicy, however they did try it. My daughter thought it was spicy, but nice. My wife liked it. The education of the children in the pleasures of spicy sausage eating does not occur over night, and while they still prefer the milder sausages it is more for me.

 

The guys at the German Butchery in the Bay of Islands are friendly and, more importantly, they know how to made excellent sausages. The mittelgrobe bratwurst is a mild sausage with a pleasant meaty taste. Mittelgrobe translates into medium coarse bratwurst, with bratwurst being German for sausage. The meat used is pork. It is a precooked sausage with one third being a coarse grind and two thirds being a fine grind. Only pork is used - there is no filler. This is reflected in the taste. The sausage is lactose and gluten free. There is no colouring or chemicals used. It is made in the bowl cutter at the butchers, meeting the specifications for a 100% German bratwurst. The Germans are very good at ensuring that the standard is maintained for important products as sausages and beer.

Patrick and Michael the butchers tell me that this sausage was entered into a competition in Germany in 2002 where it won its class. 

 

 

But the key issue is what does it taste like? It is good, it has softer taste and will appeal to a wide range of people. It is a meat sausage as opposed to a spiced meat sausage. The kids really liked it. My wife was very keen. I was keen. I would definitely buy this sausage again.

I cooked six for the evening meal and six for Sunday. The sausages all disappeared from the fridge by lunchtime. A favourable verdict from the kids. They had eaten five of them before I got to fridge to consume the last one.

Cost per kilo: $16.95

Celebrating the Ascent of Everest

Celebrating the Ascent of Everest

Last evening we went to a friend’s house for an excuse to enjoy fine food, wine and convivial conversation. The 60^th anniversary of the ascent of Mt Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary was the focus. This required dressing for the occasion. I wore shorts, a polyprop and a tramping shirt - ideal clothing for a climbing expedition. My wife decided to wear clothes that celebrated the royal coronation of May 1953. The diamonds were worn. This bracelet is not made of faux jewels; it must have tens of carats of diamonds set in platinum.  

 

 

She also wore black spotted tights, she thought they symbolised a snow storm. I thought they were the beginning of frostbite and gangrene.

 

We had to take food. I did the old standby of sremska and blue cheese on crackers. See review dated 24 November 2012. Gordon at Park Avenue Quality Meats has started making sremska in a longer thinner casing. He tells me that he is selling more of them in this casing. I had four of these highly spiced sausages in the freezer. Here is a photo of the plate next to my pack with ice axe and crampons. You never know what the snow conditions will be like on the western face of Creswick Terrace, Northland in Wellington.

 

I made my entrance to the soirée, by tackling the technically difficult western face, this involved ascending a retaining wall and clambering over a fence onto the host’s deck. On a scale of difficulty in climbing, this has been compared as comparable to the Hillary Step, just below the summit of Everest. I did not have to use the ice axe or crampons, but was glad I had them in case of an unexpected blizzard. I had offered my wife the role of lead climber on the expedition. She declined. Although I would have enjoyed her company, the satisfaction of completing a difficult technical solo climb was immense. All other guests had taken the easier eastern route made up of a concrete path and steps. Needless to say the other guests were surprised when I entered the room through the western door.

 

 

My wife made a dessert, a mountain of meringues, hazel nuts and chocolates. This was chewy, gooey and delicious. As guests tucked into the dessert I thought, as the last of it was consumed, the words of Ed Hillary resounded around the table, and "We had knocked the bast@rd off."

Black Pudding from Kerikeri

Black Pudding from Kerikeri

 

 While in the far north we also visited Kerikeri. Along the main street is Churchills, a butcher’s shop and deli. This is a well presented butcher’s shop. The butcher I talked to said their sausage selection was smaller as they were now operating on their winter sausage menu. In the summer he said they had double the cabinet space devoted to sausages. He said they sausages just fly out of the door over summer. Coming from Wellington, I considered that as the temperature was above twenty degrees, and even though the month was May, it was still summer. The pleasures of living in a semi tropical climate. I brought some pork bratwurst and black pudding. 

The black pudding was eaten as part of an evening meal at Opua. This was a fine ground black pudding with chunky bits included. You could taste the onion that had been added to the sausage. There was a little kicker of an after taste, maybe pepper or chilli.

 

This was a pleasant sausage both my wife and kids liked it, even once I told the boys what goes into black pudding sausages. I would describe this as an averagely good sausage but the family disagreed and rated it higher than I did. I would buy this again. The butcher told me they sell this in Wellington at On Trays in Petone and the family are keen to have it again so a visit and purchase is very likely. 

 

The suasage in the photo is one a smoked pork bratwurst from the German Butchery in Haruru Falls. See the previous posting for a review.

Cost per kilo: $14.95

Fabulous Smoked Pork Bratwurst

Fabulous Smoked Pork Bratwurst

 

It was the school holidays so our whanau headed to the far north of New Zealand seeking some warmer weather. We found this sailing on a friend’s yacht, the Undine. This is the orginal cream boat from the Bay of Islands. Built in 1887 this is the oldest commercial yacht in NZ still sailing.

 

 

 

 

Very pleasant weather, swimming in the sea, sailing and more. The search for the ever elusive quality sausage would also be part of this trip. In today’s post I will review the best of the north, iche grobe bratwurst, smoked pork bratwurst from the German Butchery in Haruru Falls, just outside of Paihia.

 

 

This is an unusually located shop. As the business card says it is located at 5 Te Kahu St, Haruru Falls Industrial Estate. Across the road is a car groomer, next door is a kitchen manufacturer. This is not exactly your normal locale for a butcher’s shop. It is in a semi industrial area, with no other retail shops. On the main road is a sign identifying the existence of the shop, which was how we found it. Behind this plain industrial facade are great sausages. As Patrick the butcher says, they are gluten, dairy and egg free. The smoked bratwurst tastes fantastic. These are giants amongst the sausages we found in the far north. They family thought they were great. My wife described these as beautiful.

The flavour is a gentle smoked flavour. Below is a picture of the smoker, it is out the front of the shop. They were using manuka wood to smoke the sausages. You could see the smoke wafting out of the smoker. I was told that parsley and lovage are to be found within the secret mix of herbs are used for flavour. Patrick tried growing lovage in NZ but the crop failed, so he imports this herb from Germany. This was a medium ground sausage.

 

 

This sausage will have wide appeal. In my view it could be the next NZ sausage of the year, it really is an exceptional sausage. I would put it in the same class as Park Avenue Meats kabonosy, or Island Bay Butchers chicken sausages. A magnificent sausage with wide appeal. Highly recommended.

 

 

Cost per kilo:$16.95

Patrick also makes prosciutto, which we sampled. Very nice and a third of the price in the supermarket in Paihia.

Venison Herb and Garlic

Venison Herb and Garlic

I was at the Island Bay Butchery recently and was keen to purchase the continental garlic sausages but unfortunately they had sold out. This is small sausage which is obviously popular - See review 9 September 2012.

So instead I brought some venison herb and garlic sausages. These are a good sausage. I asked what herbs they use in the sausage and the response I got from the butcher was that it was a "trade secret". These sausages do have a garlic flavour and taste of some herbs but I can't identify exactly what they are. The venison taste is not really overt, rather its more of a subtle taste. Some venison sausages have a really strong gamey taste, but these sausages are not like this. The sausages are a medium ground sausage. I will definately buy these again.

Cost per kilo: $19.95