Cumberland Sausages product reviews

Having worked behind the scenes at a supermarket butchery in my Uni days, I know a fair few horror stories about what can happen in a meat processing area. I especially know what can end up in some of the 'budget' sausages... and a lot of it is not anything a reasonable person would class as actual meat. So, I was really glad to find some affordable sausages that, upon careful inspection before and after cooking, clearly contain actual, genuine meat... and not a lot else.

The pack I got had 6 sausages in it, so I decided to split them up and do 3 in the frying pan and 3 on the BBQ. I chose to do that, because each cooking method can produce drastically different results, depending on the quality of the fillings. Too much 'fillers' and the sausage will end up really gluggy, too much low-grade meat and the sausage weeps liquid fats if you prick the skins, or may form a raging hot grease-blister that can cause severe injury if it bursts. Too much lean meat, and the sausage ends up really dry and crumbly. A good snaggler is easy, but a great one takes a lot of delicate balancing of ingredients.

What really surprised me the most about these sausages was that when eating them, if I closed my eyes so I didn't see the grill-marks on the skin of the BBQ'd ones, I couldn't actually tell which had been cooked in the pan and which on the grill. Normally, the results are really obvious - the added heat from the BBQ grill will render the fat out of most sausages in short order, but both sets were moist without being overly greasy, and had a wonderful meaty texture.

I ended up serving these with a side of steamed beans, carrots and peas, and topped with some onions I cooked on the BBQ, and a splash of home-made herbed garlic butter. This was a wonderful mean for a miserable wet day, and I am just grateful that my BBQ lives under the carport! Sitting inside on a filthy day, eating such a tasty meal was a blessing.

Overall, these are stunning sausages of such a high standard I know I will be buying more again in the near future... and you won't regret trying them for yourself too.