Gold snag in the bag

A beloved snarler on a banging 20-flavour sausage shelf at Fresh Choice Nelson has sizzled golden.

Butchery manager Bryce Goodall says its brisket, jalapeno and cheese sausage has proven to be a hot dog with customers and can’t be one of the ‘wurst’ after winning a gold award at this year’s Great New Zealand Sausage Competition.

He says he was surprised by the win given it was their first time entering the premier event for New Zealand smallgoods producers, and says the sausage had been tried and tested up to five times to achieve the gold standard meat to fat ratio.

“A perfect sausage has to have the right amount of fat in it, too much fat and it’s not good, and not enough fat and it gets too dry,” he says.

“It’s 100 per cent beef brisket mince, it has two different types of cheese, and the other thing is that it’s in a natural hog casing, so that’s a big thing as well.

“It’s one of our most popular flavours… we’re probably making about 20kg a week and we have about 20 different flavours, and the cogs are churning in my brain for more flavours.”

Bryce says the winning sausage, which he says is best prepared smoked in a pellet barbecue, was entered in the gourmet beef category, and Fresh Choice Nelson also entered its boerewors into the flavours of the world category, but it achieved not a sausage.

“There were 640 something entries [nationwide]… we had to prepare them and send a certain quantity up to Auckland and when they receive them, they basically code them so they’re anonymous for the judging,” he says.

“Once they’ve received all the entries, they get the judges together and taste all the sausages… and the gold medals are basically given to the top five per cent of entries in your particular categories, the silver will be the top ten per cent and then the bronze the top 20 per cent.

“[The brisket, jalapeno and cheese] is the best sausage we make, and we thought it had the best chance of getting a decent medal.”