Bradford & District | Archive | 2005 | September | 15
From the archive, first published Thursday 15th Sep 2005.
Sausage-maker Darren Spauls could soon be sending his bangers abroad thanks to sizzling sales at home.
The 31-year-old, who trained as a legal executive before giving it the chop to become a butcher, makes 6,000 sausages a week to be sold across the counter of his shop in Cottingley.
Whether it's the bucks fizz sausages made with oranges and champagne, the spicy chorizo, the chilli and coriander, or the Wharfedale banger - crammed with venison, rabbit, pork, cider, apples and leeks - customers cannot get enough of the speciality sizzlers. They even come up with new ideas for his brother Mark whose shop is in Burley-in-Wharfedale to try out.
According to a report from consumer analysts Mintel, upmarket sausages are helping to power the humble banger's current sales boom.
The report predicts Britons will eat around 189,000 tonnes of sausages this year which is more than five years ago.
Sales are forecast to hit £530 million by the end of 2005 and sausage specialists say the banger's popularity is partly due to the launch of posher varieties
Mr Spauls could not agree more. He said: "Sausages aren't an excuse for a cheap meal anymore, they are a classy choice for all sorts of occasions because of all the different taste combinations."
"The meat we use is all farmed locally. We know exactly where it comes from and that's what people are interested in. People are turning their backs on cheap, pink packaged sausages with mechanically removed bits of meat from the supermarkets and are going to their local butchers instead."
Sales are so good that now the brothers Spauls are starting to look at the possibility of exporting the big-sellers to restaurants and food stores out of the UK.
Darren said: "Sales have been sky-high here so the idea of sending our sausages further afield keeps crossing our minds. It's something we need to look at. Bangers are a true-Brit food and that's got appeal."
Sausages are considered now as such posh-nosh that they have even made it on to the menus of upmarket London restaurants such as The Ivy, a favourite celebrity haunt.
Ilkley's award-winning butcher David Lishman said: "For comfort food you can't beat sausages and mash.
"Sausages might cost more now than they used to but people are happy to fork out for them because they know they aren't filled with God knows what."
© Newsquest Media Group 2008