Three winners combine in new gourmet sausage

Three award winning Northern Irish artisan enterprises have teamed up to create an innovative gourmet sausage for Love Lamb Week in the UK (1 -7 September 2016).

The new Moroccan Lamb sausage is being marketed by Buchanan's Foods of Upperlands, county Derry, which recently gained UK Great Taste Awards for its Yo-Yo Lamb Burgers, which include Greek spices, as well as Turkey Burgers.

The gourmet sausage is based on the company's lamb blended with a Schawama-style relish developed by Deli Muru, a Belfast-based business which has also won Great Taste Awards for its products, and Passion Preserved of Lisburn county Antrim, another Great Taste winner. The new sausage features Spiced Damson Jelly from Passion Preserved.

Jonathan Buchanan, who runs the farm-based Buchanan's Foods, says: "Our new gourmet sausage is a spicy option for people interested in different charcuterie-style products.

The existing range includes pork and mango, pork and apple, pork and leek, curried pork, honey and mustard, and sweet chilly.

"We've been working on a number of innovative products to help set us apart in a very competitive marketplace. We've set out to be different and now have a 12-strong range of gourmet sausages which we are now marketing actively around Northern Ireland and through our recently opened farm shop.

"We'd certainly be interested in talking to any retailer here and further afield about our products including the sausages and burgers.

"The idea for the Moroccan sausage came from discussions with other artisans at markets and events around Northern Ireland during the current Year of Food and Drink. The campaign is creating awareness of the quality and innovation underpinning products here from artisan enterprises. Winning Great Taste awards is benefiting us because it's a tremendous endorsement by a panel of expert judges," he adds.

Buchanan's began as a producer of free-range turkeys in 1990 and has since diversified to include a broad range of other meat products including dry-aged lamb and mutton from its own Texel flock, dry-cured pork and dry-aged beef.

Deli Muru is owned by Kay Armstrong and has developed a range of jams, relishes and cakes.

Claire Kelly owns Passion Preserved, a small business specialising in savoury products including relishes, pickles and jelly, growing many of the ingredients in her own garden and polytunnel.