Archer's Butchers to represent Porkstock and Norfolk at national sausage roll competition
The team at Archer's Butchers in Norwich have been chosen to represent Norfolk's food and drink festival, Porkstock, at the Great Sausage Roll Off in London in January 2018.
The Porkstock Festival organised its own competition for cooks, professional chefs, butchers and bakers challenging them to create the ultimate Porkstock sausage roll and showcase the best of Norfolk produce; in particular pork.
Four sausage rolls were blind-tasted at Woodforde's Brewery in Norfolk with entries from a variety of cooks across the county, the shortlisted rolls came from: Ricky Malt, The White Horse Inn, Neatishead; Hon Patrick Jonathan Needham; Jamie Archer, Archer's Butchers and Sam Bagge, Walsingham Farms Shop.
"We shortlisted our four sausage rolls based on the recipes provided and provenance of ingredients," explained Charlie Hodson, founder of Charlies Norfolk Food Heroes and patron of Porkstock.
"We asked our judges to score each sausage roll based on appearance, texture, flavour and pastry. When our top two rolls drew on points, it came down to provenance, and the Archer's roll pipped Jonathan Needham to the post."
"We buy our pork from Tim Allen at South Creake where all the pigs are outdoor-reared in superb conditions," said Archer. "And, in my view, the sausage meat needs to be quite chunky and the flavour mustn't be over-sweet or sickly; a nice crispy pastry is key with a perfect balance between the meat at the pastry."
The Great Sausage Roll Off, held at the Red Lion Pub in Barnes, London, has become an annually anticipated event on the culinary calendar; with participants representing some of the UK's most prestigious restaurants and foodie brands.
"The organisers of Porkstock were delighted when Angus McKean and Claire Morgan, of the Red Lion in Barnes, invited us to submit a sausage roll that represents everything fabulous about Norfolk food into the 2018 Great Sausage Roll Off," added Hodson. "The Porkstock Roll will be judged against sausage rolls created by high profile chefs from across the UK so it's a massive coup for Jamie Archer and his team. We just hope they win and bring the title back to Norfolk for the second year in a row."
* The Porkstock Festival takes place at the Norfolk Showground on 14 October,
