Ludlow is a wonderful place to get good food, and once a year they have a fantastic festival that celebrates local and regional food. The festival grows every year with new events and new foodie fanatics displaying their wares.
Some of you may remember that I was a judge for Shropshire’s Tastiest Sausage back in January and I blogged all about the wonderful time I had tasting delicious sausages. Well, luckily for me, one of the expert judges, The Sausage King, had other commitments this year and found my post about judging sausages and asked if I could step in for him as an Expert Judge for this year’s Sausage Trail. This was quite an honour, and when you take a look at The Sausage King’s website, you will see that I had a lot to live up to. The Sausage King certainly knows his sausages.
The Sausage Trail is a great part of the festival. There is a People’s Choice, where you pay £3.50, then you set off around Ludlow to taste the sausages in the competition and mark your score on the sheet you have been given. This year there were five sausages to judge. This is the busiest I have ever seen the festival and I can tell you that the queue I saw for one butcher’s sausages was long!
Then there is an Expert’s Choice and this year there were four judges, including me. The other judges were Dave Gurr-Gearing, chef at The Queens, Ludlow, Howard Lyons of Taste Real Food, and Anthony Harrison, who bravely volunteered his services from the audience.
The entrants were all local or regional butchers, four from Ludlow and one from Bromyard in Herefordshire.
We decided that the sausages would be judged by taste, smell, appearance, texture and the salability of the sausage. This last one was the hardest to judge, as I think you are either a person that prefers a plain pork sausage or you are a person that loves to try the more unusual varieties and so that would form the basis of judgement on the potential for commercial success of a more unusual sausage.
All of the sausages in the competition are new flavours that haven’t been sold by the butcher before.
Ludlow butchers are very proud of their sausages and the competition between them to create the best is strong.
The Expert’s Choice this year was A H Griffith’s Pork with Wild Hedgerow Berries sausage. It was a difficult decision to make because all the sausages were very delicious. It was the fact that they were all so good that meant that the vote wasn’t a unanimous one and the decision was made after a tot up of the scores we had given for each sausage.
The other sausages in the competition were:
Legges of Bromyard’s Pork and Black Pudding sausage
D W Wall & Son’s Pork with Wild Mushrooms and Blue Cheese
Andrew Francis’s Rare Breed Pork with Sage and Black Pepper
Ludlow Food Centre’s Pork with Honey Roasted Onion
It was a great experience being an Expert Judge and so thank you Sausage King for finding me and asking me!
I really like the sound of a sausage trail.
I realise that makes me sound far too much like Julian Clary.
Oo-er missus. You do have to be very careful when discussing sausages!
You were obviously in your element – well done you, hopefully they will have you back again next year.
Thanks Choclette. That would be great. I do love a sausage! Now I sound like Julian Clary.
I think this makes you the sausage queen.
Oh wow, I would love to be the sausage queen – again that makes me sound like Julian Clary ( although you may not know who Julian Clary is, has he travelled across the atlantic?)
Kath, I looked up Julian Clary on Wikipedia and got quite a laugh, ideed.
What an honor, Kath. Not to mention how much fun that must have been.
Hi Michele, it was an honour indeed and great fun.
Sausage Queen.
Interesting flavour combinations to perk up the traditional sausage, but I was wondering and it may be a Silly question perhaps, but were there no vegetarian sausages on offer 🙁 Perhaps not on the trail, but any of the stalls there?!
Have a relaxing weekend.
Thank you Mangocheeks, it has been a busy weekend of celebrating my eldest’s sixth birthday and clearing the garden ready for winter. Do you know I didn’t see any veggie sausages, but I think there is a very good chance that there were some on offer. They had the Street Food Awards which I am sure would have included a veggie sausage or two.
Sounds as though you had a great time. I couldn’t make it this year, but hopefully next year we will be going again. I have yet to do the sausage trail but I know it’s hugely popular with everyone. In my daughter’s village there is a shop that sells nothing but sausages and excellent they are too.
A whole shop full of sausages, that sounds wonderful!
Shall I put you forward for next year when I also hope to return myself?
Hi Stephen, I have sent you an email to say yes please.
Kath
Are you still up for this year Kath?
Kind regards
SK
Are you visiting this year?
I might need a little favour if you don’t mind…
Kind regards
SK