'I tried unusual flavours at a famous Lancashire sausage shop and now I understand the hype'
For more than 120 years, Clitheroe has boasted a well-known and popular butcher on its main road, Castle Street.
Known as Cowmans Famous Sausage Shop, the building has been a butchers for over a century and even had its own abattoir at the rear, but this closed in the 1970s. As is in the name, the Cowman family started the business, but the butchers was taken over by the similarly named Cowburn family in the late 1950s.
Nowadays, Nick Gell and Paul Howard are at the helm of the famous butchers, most known for its vast and unique selection of sausages, with people travelling from across the country to bag themselves a banger. Upon my first visit to Cowman, I spoke to Nick and asked why the butchers is so popular.
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He said Cowman's were one of the first to offer such a broad selection of sausages, with different offerings of the foodstuff taking up most of the counter. When we first walked in, the sheer choice of flavoured sausages is truly overwhelming, particularly if you are expecting a butcher with a few famous sausages thrown in.
The best way to describe Cowman's is a sausage pick 'n' mix, with weird and wonderful flavours that seem to tantalise the taste buds in different ways. Weird and wonderful flavours offered by the butchers include: pork, fennel, garlic and chilli; pork and chestnut; sweet and sour pork and a South African Boerewor beef.
Butcher's recommendation
Hit with the familiar feeling of indecision, I asked Nick what he recommends from the selection. However, it appears the sausages are all of the highest, finest quality and really, it's a choice of how to best compliment your own palate, rather than which flavour combinations are superior.
With intrigue, I note the flavour 'cheese and pickle' and as one of my favourite flavour combinations in general, I wonder what this must taste like in a sausage. Similarly, 'lemon and chilli' appeared to be a mash of flavours that couldn't possibly evoke any form of displeasure and Nick in his recommendation, did state the chilli ones were rather good.
Decision made, I went for four sausages of each flavour, which was surprisingly cheap at only £6.40 for the lot. Excited about my new affordable purchase and to finally be able to say, "have you tried Cowman's?" I bring the items home and get cooking.
Now, for me, the only acceptable way to enjoy these delights are in the bog-standard, British way - bangers and mash. Accompanied by gravy, peas and delicious mash, these bangers are surely to sing and be a completely new flavour sensation.
Cheese and pickle
As this is a treat too, I opted for grilling them to get the right colour and signature char over the sausages, which the Cowman's offerings responded perfectly well to. Now to the eating.
First up was the cheese and pickle, the one I was most intrigued by. Let me begin first, the only way to describe these sausages is in one word - delicious.
They're meaty, well-seasoned, good quality and absolutely everything you could want when you're selecting a high-quality banger. The cheese and pickle flavour was there, but I did wonder where the pickle was, it was definitely more of a cheesy background, but again, nothing to really grumble about.
Lemon and chilli
A similar thing can be said about the lemon and chilli too, it was missing a hint of citrus, but with the meaty flavour of the pork sausage and a hit of chilli, it wasn't a deal breaker.
All in all, Cowman's are certainly worth the hype and it's no wonder they've enjoyed such a long-lasting legacy.