BUTCHERS faced off in an annual competition over who has the tastiest sausage.
The finalists for the taste Cheshire Food and Drink Festival Sausage competition were revealed after a blind tasting at the NoWFOOD centre at the University of Chester.
Now in its 12th year, the event has proved incredibly popular with butchers from across Cheshire, The Wirral and North Wales competing in the ‘Best Traditional Sausage’ and ‘Best Flavoured Sausage’ categories.
Ten judges, headed up by chief Judge Steve Vaughan of Vaughan butchers of Penyffordd, tasted over 30 sausages on Tuesday (February 26).
The finalists in the Best Traditional Sausage category are: Cheerbrooks Farm Shop in Nantwich; Pen Y Lan Pork in Overton on Dee; and Muffs of Bromborough.
And emerging top of the pile in the ‘Best Flavoured Sausage’ category are: Hawarden Farm Estate in Hawarden; Gourmegg from Frodsham; Muffs of Bromborough; and Cheerbrook in Nantwich.
Mr Vaughan said: “Our judges were looking at the appearance of the sausage both pre and post cooking; they concentrate on the texture of the sausage as you eat it and then most importantly, the flavour.
“The first two categories are judged out of five marks and the final and most important 10 marks. Each year the job gets tougher as the standard of butchery gets stronger and stronger. These really are artisan sausages made by very skilled people.”
Gavin Matthews, Drive Time presenter of Dee 106.3, has been a judge for 10 years and looks forward to it every year.
He said: “When I was first invited to be a judge I thought it was just a bit of fun but now 10 years later I can tell the difference between a natural and synthetic skin, spot air pockets in the meat and identify when rusk hasn’t been mixed as well as it should be.
“I really enjoy this event and marvel at just how talented the makers of these sausages are.”
Taste Cheshire CEO Stephen Wundke added: “We know that competition brings out the best in people and having been a judge since its inception when Carole Faulkner at the Cheese Shop started the event, the standard has, each year, just got higher and higher.
“You see that when you add up the judging sheets and we now need 10 judges to separate our finalists. It’s been another cracking year and our 40 judges at the festival will have their work cut out to find a champion.”
The next stage of the competition is for each of the finalists to have their sausages tasted by the first 40 people who make it to the Chef auditorium at the Taste Cheshire Food and Drink festival on Easter Sunday, the April 21 at 11am.
After these 40 people have voted the winner of each category will be awarded their prizes at the Taste Cheshire Food and Drink Awards on Wednesday April 24.
For more information or to purchase tickets to the festival and become a sausage judge visit www.chesterfoodanddrink.co.uk
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