Ashley Gray of Retail Meat New Zealand reviews the 2011 Sausage Competition.

The search for New Zealand’s best sausage involved many in a process which began months out and culminated with a public tasting at Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter on November 4.

Record entries were received in the 2011 Devro New Zealand Sausage Competition, with nearly 500 sausages entered by supermarkets and independents nationwide. Over 20 mystery shoppers then scoured the country purchasing sausages to send to the Retail Meat New Zealand (RMNZ) team in Auckland. The team removed all branding from every product and coded all 470 entries anonymously.

The initial judging on November 2 and 3, also sponsored by Kerry Ingredients, was staged at the Auckland Fish Market over two days where the expertise of 50 judges (comprising chefs, food writers, polytechnic tutors, past and present butchers and culinary staff) was recruited to help determine a winner from each of the 12 categories.

The category winners were:

• Beef: Ellerslie Meats, Beef

• Pork: Te Rapa New World, Pure Pork Sausage

• Saveloy/Polony/Cocktail: Angus Meats, Plain Saveloy

• Frankfurters & Rounds: Greerton Quality Meats, Black Pudding

• Traditional: Brookfield New World, Country Pork

• Flavoured Precooked: Franklin Country Meats, Smoked Paprika & Cheese Precooked

• Precooked: NZ Farm Co, BBQ Pork Precooked

• Flavoured: Brookfield New World, Pork Flavoured

• International Bratwursts & Boerwors: Peter Timbs Meats, Hot Hungarian

• International Spicy: Hellers Ltd, French Merguez & Ashby’s Butchery, Italian Casalinga Pork Sausage

• International Mild: Ashby’s Butchery, Italian Fennel

• Gourmet: South City New World, Chicken & Bacon & Angus Meats, Pork, Stilton & Apple

The finalists were again put to the test in the final round of judging on Friday, November 4, to decide the Supreme Award and the People’s Choice winner. The panel of final judges comprised head judge and food writer, Kerry Tyack; food author and media presenter, Allyson Gofton; celebrity judge, Oscar Kightley and Foodstuffs South Island training advisor, Matt Grimes. These four final judges had the challenging task of tasting and deliberating over the 14 category finalists to determine an overall winner.

Once the panel of judges had selected a winner, the public was given a chance to vote on a ‘People’s Choice’ favourite via ‘tastings’ around Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter area. Members of the public enthusiastically sampled the 14 top sausages and provided their opinion.

New Zealand’s best sausage, from Ashby’s Butchery in Christchurch, received a resounding unanimous vote from both the public tasters and the expert judges. The winning sausage, an Italian Casalinga Pork sausage, was entered under the International Spicy section and was the subject of rave reviews and commentary from judges.

Corey Winder, owner of Ashby’s Butchery, felt overwhelmed by his win and the accomplishment of two prestigious accolades – the 2011 Supreme Winner and the 2011 People’s Choice Award Winner.

“I was really happy to be announced as the People’s Choice Award winner, but to then be announced as the overall Supreme Winner as well was really something. It’s going to be huge for our business,” said Winder.

A number of other stores received gold, silver and/or bronze medals for their entries and are being acknowledged through news releases, the RMNZ website and on-pack stickers.

This is the essence of the competition; recognition of the best of New Zealand, and providing an opportunity for sausage makers around the country to achieve publicity about their ability to produce top quality and great tasting sausage products.