Historic recipe Irish pork sausages from Doherty's in Northern Ireland

Doherty's in Northern Ireland, a leader in quality meat products, has introduced pork sausages from an old Irish recipe.

The company, which is based in Derry, county Londonderry, is a family business which has been producing meat products, especially Irish pork sausages, burgers and other meats, since the 1830s.

It is one of the best known food processors in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland especially the North West region. But sales now include other parts of the UK and Ireland.

Doherty's has been a major supplier of sausages, meatballs and burgers in the UK to customers in both retail and foodservice for many years.

The new thick pork sausages are based on a recipe stretching back generations and are available in 454g packs each with eight sausages.

Brian McQuaid, Doherty's sales manager, says the sausages have a 60 percent pork content, have a more pronounced pork flavour and a firmer texture than many others currently on the market in the UK and Ireland.

"The sausages have a rich pork taste and are a response to a market trend towards 'old style' flavours. This encouraged us to delve into our archives and to come up with the recipe for a traditional Irish pork sausage from another generation. We worked on the recipe for several months to perfect the new sausages.

"Our taste panels subsequently produced very supportive feedback and this encouraged to push ahead with bringing them to market. Several of our retail customers have already expressed interest in listing them," he adds.

Apart from its traditional Irish sausages, Doherty's has developed an extensive range of gluten-free meat products such as thick pork sausages, cocktail sausages, meat balls and burgers.

"These are supplied to leading retailers including Tesco as well as foodservice wholesalers in Britain for hotels, restaurants and bars.

The company, which now employs 45 people at its modern and HACCP approved processing plant, produces sausages, minced beef products, bacon, ham and black and white puddings. Ingredients are sourced from a network of local suppliers, ensuring complete traceability.