Newmarket sausage

The Newmarket Sausage is a sausage made to a traditional recipe from the English town of Newmarket, Suffolk. There are two very different types of Newmarket Sausage because two different family butchers claim the name. Both are very popular and sold around the United Kingdom in supermarkets and specialist sausage shops. There has been discussion over whether Newmarket Sausages should receive the status of Protected Geographical Indicator of Origin (PGI)^[1]

The Musk’s Newmarket Sausage variety is produced by the Musk family butchers, located in the Newmarket town centre. James Musk and/or Elizabeth Drake (his wife) originally conceived the recipe in 1884 and it has remained unchanged since.^{[citation needed]} The Musk’s creation was awarded the Royal Warrant by various Kings and Queens throughout British history, most recently by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.^{[citation needed]} The more widely known Powter’s Newmarket Sausage is the younger of the two recipes, conceived in 1896 by William Harper when trading under his own name. Powter’s Sausages used to have a larger presence in British supermarkets than Musk's.^{[citation needed]} Both varieties have won several awards.^[2][3][4]

In 2005 the European Union and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs tried to persuade the two companies to merge recipes and gain Protected Geographical Status, from which products such as Parma ham and Stilton cheese have benefited. It would mean that their use of the Newmarket label would be protected to them for the sausage market, but it would also mean that only one of the two recipes could exist. Faced with this problem, each party stands firmly by its own recipe, and neither wants to bow down nor merge recipes.^[5]

Musk variety

Musk’s sausages originated in the small village of Stetchworth, 3 miles from Newmarket. Elizabeth Drake, the owner of a butchers shop in Tea Kettle Lane was widowed in 1882 and, in 1884, remarried to butcher James Musk in Depford, Kent. She then began (or possibly continued) to sell the Musk's variety of sausages. These are believed to have been produced at Ivy House Farm where the Drakes were tenant pig farmers.^{[citation needed]} Drake and Musk also had a shop in Market Row, Newmarket from which they traded until moving to the High Street of Newmarket.^{[citation needed]} James Musk died in 1905, a few months after opening the main shop on High Street, where the business traded until 1979.^{[citation needed]} After his death the business passed to James' stepson, Louis Frederick Drake (the Musks had no children), and later to his grandson Louis Gilbert Drake.^{[citation needed]}

Musk’s sausages were favoured by royalty and Warrants were issued to Musk’s from George V in 1907, Prince Edward of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) in 1929, Queen Elizabeth, later Queen Mother, in 1965, and Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.^{[citation needed]} It is not known whether Elizabeth Drake created the Musk’s recipe and her new husband was the business influence to make it a success or whether James brought the idea back to Newmarket from Chiswick (near London) where he had been working as a butcher in 1881.^{[citation needed]}

The main difference between Powter’s and Musk’s recipe is that Powter’s uses rusk as a filler and Musk’s uses bread, but each has a secret spice mix recipe locked in their own safes.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ "Farming Today This Week". Anna Hill. Farming Today. British Broadcasting Corporation. BBC Radio 4. 12 December 2009. Retrieved on 1 July 2010.
2. ^ "Firm takes 'best bangers' award". BBC News (Suffolk). 4 December 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/3291253.stm. Retrieved 2009-05-06. 
3. ^ (PDF) BURY ST EDMUNDS & NEWMARKET - Your Essential Guide to a great time in West Suffolk, Forest Heath District Council, p. 18, http://www.forest-heath.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/FF536719-98E3-44D0-9A95-77C8FB4B53FA/0/BuryNewmarketMaster08web1.pdf, retrieved 2009-05-06 
4. ^ Prince, Rose (23 February 2007), "The best of regional British food. This week: Newmarket", The Daily Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/3336689/Shoplocal.html, retrieved 2009-05-06 
5. ^ Sapsted, David (4 Jan 2006). "Butchers do battle over Newmarket classic". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1506928/B.html. Retrieved 2009-05-06. 

Easom, Sandra, Newmarket Sausages, Railways & Skulduggery, Newmarket Racecourses, http://www.newmarketracecourses.co.uk/about/11763246501988.html, retrieved 6 April 2009