Sausage Review - we review sausages

Porky Whites (Surrey) - Chipolatas

The kind people at Porky Whites sent us a range of their sausages so we could update our reviews. We like chipolata sausages. Yes we're adults but does that matter? Chipolatas are not just for the kids...

The Porky Whites packaging has the recently been updated to a new style which we understand to be referred to as "dinner inspiration" and like their other packs it also carries a novel QR code on the back which links to some interesting recipes etc., on Porky Whites own web site. This packaging says that these are made from 82% of the finest cuts of pork blended with their unique seasoning and a hint of real honey and lemon juice.

The pork is described once again as from UK and non-UK sources, which isn't as specific as we would like to be honest given the amount of interest of such Sausage Review readers have said they would like. As we've said previously we'll continue to investigate this but we have read from the Porky Whites web site that "Almost all of the meat sourced for our products comes from within the UK with some additional supplies coming from trusted EU farms to make up any shortfall of UK supplies. We always ensure that animal welfare is a priority and over 90% of our suppliers are either RSPCA or Red Tractor accredited." (We think a figure of 100% should be the case really)

We would have preferred natural skins on these like the ones when we last sampled in Nov 2012 but it appears that quite a few manufacturers nowadays have switched to using casings that are the collagen type. These chipolatas this time are in beef collagen casings/skins.

I'm sure you've probably read previously our views on collagen skins and the difficulty we've had trying to cook such by pan frying and trying to avoid the skins splitting and in some cases going all "rubbery" and peeling off. OK yes it might not bother some, but it does bother us, and frankly, others we have spoken to.

82% pork with wheat rusk, so again unlikely to be gluten free but, they are free from any genetically modified ingredients.

Having spent a couple of weeks in the polar wastes of our deep freeze, defrosted and in the raw these chipolatas look fair enough considering, but the cooking is where the trouble usually starts so a plan came to mind. As there's 10 chipolatas in the pack we'd cook the bulk in the pan as we do for all our sampling, however we'd also pop a couple in the oven and bake (as we had the oven on for some other cooking) just to see if the skins held up, and what the numbers afterwards gave us.

We noted the recommended guidelines on the packet regarding shallow frying, however this time, given the incidence of skin failure, we'd cook at even a lower temperature (4 on the induction hob) and cook until we exceeded an internal temperature of 71°C (measured for 20 seconds) rather just the 12mins the packaging recommended. As it happens cooking time was 18mins.

The oven baked chipolatas were cooked as per the recommended guidelines: non-fan 180°C for 20-25mins.

Interestingly all 8 that were pan fried exhibited splits skins, however only 1 (out of the 2) oven baked had similar. Not sure that this was luck or what, but there you have it. There was however a difference between pan fried and oven baked in terms of weight loss in the cooking. There was slightly more weight loss in the oven baked samples and this is consistent with our previous findings click here.

Tastewise, these do taste very OK, and you do get the honey & lemon which is good. The bite and chew was good too, however these pan fried samples sadly don't have snappy skins. We have some "foodie" friends who have all mentioned chipolatas with snappy skins. It's a "thing" believe me...

The oven baked samples didn't fair much better to be honest. The skins and the outer layer of meat on those was slighly tougher to bite, but not really snappy either.

Look we are not dissing these Porky Whites Chipolatas at all as they are pretty good...for a supermarket packed sausage even at a very reasonable price!

So come on Porky Whites, how about doing the Premium Chipolatas with NATURAL skins?

Look, this is our honest opinion and of course it may differ completely from your own. If you don't agree or have yourselves a comment or two about these, we'd be pleased to hear about it.


Porky Whites (Surrey) - Chipolatas  (Nov 2012 / Jun 2025)

Here's the sample details:
100x20mm before cooking, 100x20mm after.
35g before cooking, 32g after (pan fried)
35g before cooking, 30g after (oven baked)
That's a shrinkage of 0% & weight loss of approx 8% (pan fried) & 14% (oven baked).
10 pack from Asda at £2.90 (£8.06/Kg approx).

   

 

Nov 2012
 
 

www.porkywhites.com