Superquinn sausages no longer taste as nice

leahyl

Nicest sausages are from Byrnes butchers in Ballyvolane Shopping centre, Cork City, their pudding and rashers also lovely

Jimmy Bottlehead

Dial Hard wrote: »

I've literally never had a gristly sausage in my life.

Yeow.

91wx763

Does anybody remember Wilsons from Blessington. Amazing sausages, a meatman in Waterford used fill a Hiace van every week and sell them on in Darrers and the L and N.

The Nal

RasTa wrote: »

FXB's breakfast sausages are as good as what you remember from SQ

The best sausages in the land

McMurphy

My mate leaves me in sausages from time to time, he gets them from a butcher in the south to Dublin somewhere (think Clondalkin or Rathcoole) anyway, they just come in plastic bags, no name on them, and they're fairly long and broad, about the width of a jumbo sausage, and about 1.5 times the length of same.

Lads, these things are unreal, haven't had them for a few weeks now (his grown up daughter has taken a liking to them apparently, and she's obviously priority over us) slight spiciness to them, great in the pan or grill.

After reading this thread - I decided to try Kearns sausages when I spotted them in Tesco yesterday, and had them this morning for breakfast with an egg and some toast.

I usually overlooked these in favour of Rudds/Mallons or Aldi specially selected hand tied sausages, but fair play, you lads know your stuff.

Kearns sausages do make a decent breakfast Sanger.

Faith

Mod note: I moved the pudding discussion to its own thread as it deserves it.

Dizzyblonde

Smyth's butchers in Raheny and Portmarnock make really nice sausages, they're quite like the original Superquinn ones. They make two types, the regular ones which are quite peppery, and mild ones.


At the moment I still prefer the Aldi ones though.

Annasopra

Zaph wrote: »

For years people raved about Superquinn sausages, but for some reason I'd never actually had them until I bought some a couple of years ago. What a massive let down they were, completely unremarkable and lacking in any sort of flavour. If the flavour changed a few years ago as has been mentioned previously, presumably these were post-change, because I can't see why anyone would rave about them. We'd usually buy Clonakilty, and had some Kearns a while back which were very good. But the best you can buy, imo, are James Whelan's sausages. Just had some a few minutes ago and there's a proper spicy kick from them. Well worth picking up some if you have one of their shops nearby.

I tried some James Whelan on foot of this and I was underwhelmed

Water John

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

I tried some James Whelan on foot of this and I was underwhelmed

Not to create a second side track but get the Whelan Burger. Crisps up lovely in the George.

Ginger83

I used to eat a lot of supermarket prepacked meat until I met my other half who has a family butchers that produces their own sausages and puddings and I have learned a lot about meat quality. If large volumes are being made regularly by the same person the products should be very consistent.

choo choo man

Did Superquinn ever do a curry sausage? I have vague recollection of my mother bringing curry sausages home from Superquinn when i was a kid.

Zoot1530

choo choo man wrote: »

Did Superquinn ever do a curry sausage? I have vague recollections of my mother bringing curry sausages home from Superuiinn when i was a kid.

dont remember that, but remember them doing a pastry line like sausage swiss roll

JustAThought

Definately 100% downgrade in Superquinns sausages - wouldn’t drive anywhere to get them now - used to travel miles out of my way. Major food tragedy IMO.

Back in the day when you could have visitors in your house I used use it as an opportunity to get in a sneeky fry & tried out all the major brands - wouldn’t be bothered with any of them - they’re virtually indestinguishable - kearns (meh), dennys, lidl,aldi(living dangerously) , tesco, superquinn (sadly), - all equallly interchangable & bland until ketchup added to drown the sorrow.

Smiths butchers saussages from behind the counter - especially their cocktail saussages - now there’s a day trip in the car I will be looking forward to after we are all released. REALLY worth the calories - and effort!!!

Lapsed last week and bought ready cooked Dunnes cocktail sausages - they tasted like dried cardboard with sausage flavoured oil. Devestated. Not worth the risk of covid death at all.

Bring back Superquinn secret sausage recipy!

rubadub

Shakey_jake wrote: »

Kearns all the way

Their ingredients are interesting

Irish Pork (54%), Water, Rusk [contains Wheat], Pork Fat (9%), Salt, Spices, Stabilisers (Pentasodium Triphosphates, Diphosphates, Triphosphates), Preservative (Sodium Sulphite), Flavour Enhancer (Monosodium Glutamate), Antioxidant (Sodium Ascorbate), Spice Extracts, Beef Collagen Casings

So there is 9% pork fat, I wonder why it is listed separately. Rather than saying 63% pork which would sound better to most.

1 is saying "Irish pork", maybe the additional fat is not Irish. I also wonder if it would possibly be rendered fat, which could possibly make them juicier.

Actually just found this which might explain it, The pork meat might be at the upper fat limit
https://www.fsai.ie/faq/meat_labelling.html

For example, pork meat can have a maximum fat content of 30% and a maximum connective
tissue content of 25%, whereas beef meat can have a maximum fat and connective tissue content
of 25% each. The maximum limits on fat and connective tissue apply to each species separately.
Therefore, the ‘meat’ content of each species must be calculated separately, taking into account
the limits for that species. However, the total ‘meat’ content of all the species can be declared
together in the list of ingredients. These limits also apply to all foods with comminuted meat as
an ingredient (see Section 5.8).

I was saying before that superquinn used to sell at the butchers counter, so were exempt from revealing ingredients. As some have said, many do not like high % meat sausages, but they might have decided to make them high % as if they previously were low % and they suddenly had to declare them when sold prepackaged they might have upped the meat content so as to avoid bad press. People are saying they are not as good, but it is not clear if they mean its a recent thing, or thinking back to the 90s or something.

EDIT: I now see lots of others list pork fat too, but most do not have a % so it never really stood out to me before.

beachhead

L1011 wrote: »

After whatever the first cheapening measure was, we did a test of sorts and settled on Clonakilty - weirdly we don't actually like their pudding as much as a few rivals (Kellys of Newport is our normal choice).

Everyones tastes differ on this, but if you've got the time - and who doesn't this time of year - grab a few packs from different brands and gorge yourself senseless in the name of food science.

Clonaklity-disgusting fat ladn tripe with strong offal flavour(it is offal,supposedly)

beachhead

Zoot1530 wrote: »

so a league table would look something like
1. Kearns
2. Clonakility
3.Tesco
4. Aldi
5.Olhausen
6.FX Buckleys
7.O'Flynns
8.Buckleys
9.Dennys
10.Galtee
11.Superquinn
12 M&S

This list is crazy mixed up quality wise.It must be the MSG effect.

jiltloop

the beer revolu wrote: »

The reality is that it also went out of business.
It's a shame but that's economics.
Why would supervalu succeed doing the same thing that sq did when sq failed?

I'm not sure what you're basing "went out of business" on? Fergal Quinn saw the game changing with property becoming wildly expensive (he always bought the retail space rather than rented it), this was pushing his business model to the point where he couldn't keep expanding the way he wanted to and would have to either change his business model or just get out, he chose the latter and it was a wise choice.

On the topic at hand, I agree, those sausages have sadly gone downhill. Kearns sausages for me are my current favourite and far nicer than SQ sausages.

Zoot1530

jiltloop wrote: »

I'm not sure what you're basing "went out of business" on? Fergal Quinn saw the game changing with property becoming wildly expensive (he always bought the retail space rather than rented it), this was pushing his business model to the point where he couldn't keep expanding the way he wanted to and would have to either change his business model or just get out, he chose the latter and it was a wise choice.

On the topic at hand, I agree, those sausages have sadly gone downhill. Kearns sausages for me are my current favourite and far nicer than SQ sausages.

Yes got out at the right time, the blueprint for change and their central warehouse plan failed miserably. Superquinn and Wincanton a poor match

Zoot1530

But the only product that carries the brand ( Superquinn ) the sausages; are now extremely poor. this surely damages the legacy

Brian?

beachhead wrote: »

Clonaklity-disgusting fat ladn tripe with strong offal flavour(it is offal,supposedly)

What's wrong with offal?

jippo nolan

Brian? wrote: »

What's wrong with offal?

Do they still taste offal’y nice?

Davexirl

They haven't been the same for years.

Sebastian Dangerfield

Brian? wrote: »

What's wrong with offal?

It's a kip.

Edit - sorry, thought you said Offaly

Kearns sausages, O'Neills bacon, Barcastle black pudding (if it can still be got - probably have Galtee if not), fried egg, couple of fried tomatoes, couple of lumps of fried boxty, soda bread with proper butter, and about 4 cups of tay to wash down the peppery sausages. If that was my death row meal, I'd go happy.

I'd eat Superquinn sausages if that was all that was on offer, but they'd be well down the list.

grindle

beachhead wrote: »

This list is crazy mixed up quality wise.It must be the MSG effect.

The fact that Denny's is on the list at all makes me queasy, they're absolute filth.

the beer revolu

jiltloop wrote: »

I'm not sure what you're basing "went out of business" on? Fergal Quinn saw the game changing with property becoming wildly expensive (he always bought the retail space rather than rented it), this was pushing his business model to the point where he couldn't keep expanding the way he wanted to and would have to either change his business model or just get out, he chose the latter and it was a wise choice.

On the topic at hand, I agree, those sausages have sadly gone downhill. Kearns sausages for me are my current favourite and far nicer than SQ sausages.

The company went into receivership and was subsequently bought by SuperValu.

the beer revolu

beachhead wrote: »

Clonaklity-disgusting fat ladn tripe with strong offal flavour(it is offal,supposedly)

There is no offal in Clonakilty black pudding, not tripe, for that matter.

L1011

the beer revolu wrote: »

The company went into receivership and was subsequently bought by SuperValu.

That was many years after the Quinns sold out and the company was run in to the ground, though.

Exceptional timing on the sale really.

BailMeOut

The sausages made in house by your local craft butcher are always the best.

BailMeOut

BailMeOut wrote: »

The sausages made in house by your local craft butcher are always the best.

Not too many left so a lot of people wouldn't have one even close to local. Most butchers these days are just putting packaged stuff on a shelf.

Dizzyblonde

I seem to remember that the reason Superquinn went out of business was because the group who bought it also bought all the properties the Quinns owned, for example the one the supermarket in Sutton was in. It was mainly the buildings they were interested in. As a result they had huge loans and weren't making enough profit to pay them, unlike the Quinns who owned the buildings outright. So they then sold it all to Musgraves.