Last Friday I went with my brother (Nathan) to Brocksbushes Farm in
Northumberland, to try my hand at a bit of sausage making. The farm itself is
beautiful, they have tea rooms, a shop, and we’ve been strawberry picking there
before. (I’ll get to that another time though.) My brother had received a Groupon
for Christmas for a class for two people, and lucky me got to go with him. It
was being held by the Northumberland Sausage Company.
I had never heard of them before, but as soon as we pulled up
Nathan was excited as they are meant to be a big deal. After being in the class, making sausages and also hearing all about the history of the company I
feel like I can vouch for that. They use a good recipe base for their products
and real wholesome ingredients.
For the actual class, I didn’t really know what to expect. (Probably
just a lot of old people and a boring instructor telling us what to do.)
Well…granted there were a few oldies, but everyone was so
nice and really getting into the swing of things. The teacher ‘Timothy Sausage’
(A little nickname he’s had since working for Northumberland Sausage Company) was
amazing. He was charming and witty and so enthusiastic about not only the
course but the company itself. He had so much knowledge and great stories to
share and he honestly had us laughing the whole time. It was like being in a
little room with your mates instead of strangers that you had just met. There was
just a really nice atmosphere and everyone was up for a laugh which was great.
Timothy and Ryan (his little helper) talked us through all
of the different stages of sausage making and then let us try our hands at it. Everything from grinding the meat to adding the
different ingredients and then also feeding it into the casing and twisting the
sausages into links.
We got to make two lots of sausages. What was even better
was that we were allowed to pick the extra ingredients that we wanted to put into them.
This is where Nathan really came into his own. He is a ‘proper’ foodie and does
a lot of the cooking at home. I just let him get on with it, after all he knows
what things would go together better than I would.
We went for a chilli, lime and garlic variety to start with.
We only used the juice from the lime and the ingredients were quite small so I
found it easier to get those ones through the mincer then the second ones. They
were apple and ginger, the apple was in massive chunks so it took a lot of
elbow grease to push them through. (we got there in the end though.)
We were also allowed to dismantle to apparatus at the end
and take home the left over mincemeat. Honestly it cost £35 for the two of us and
we came away with so many sausages and meat. On their website now the courses
are £150 for two people, so we got such a good deal. That's not to say that it isn't worth the £75 each price tag because it most certainly is.
We ate the sausages over the next couple of days for breakfast and what not. They tasted so good and went down well with the whole family. I didn't even have mine with sauce they tasted that good. (I can't ever recall eating sausages without red sauce.)
Timothy sausage says that sausage making is popular with hen do's. I can only imagine it. If my mam hadn't already sorted hers I might have suggested it. It's such a fun time and plus you get to take food home. Who doesn't like eating? Hen do or not though get yourself along to one of the classes and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
Have any of you been sausage making before?
