Made in the back room every morning from our own pork and beef, in natural casings, with the recipes on the wall
Sausages and burgers
Eight sausages made here every morning in natural casings: the Pontcanna pork, Glamorgan with leek and Caerphilly, Cumberland, pork and apple, a Welsh lamb merguez, a beef and ale, a chipolata and a gluten-free. Burgers pressed by hand from dry-aged trim and chuck. Faggots on Thursdays, pies on Fridays.
From six in the morning the back room smells of sage and pepper. Huw's father wrote the Pontcanna pork recipe in 1964 and it has not changed: shoulder and belly from the Carmarthenshire herd, salt, white pepper, sage, mace, twelve per cent rusk and water, into natural hog casings. Everything else we make started from that, and the recipes are on the wall for anyone who asks.
The eight sausages: the Pontcanna pork; the Glamorgan, with leek and Caerphilly cheese, which outsells the plain in winter; a proper Cumberland in a coil; pork and Bramley apple; a Welsh lamb merguez with harissa for the barbecue; beef and ale from the dry-aged trim; chipolatas, which become the pigs in blankets in December; and a gluten-free pork made with rice flour on a separate bench. Nothing is pre-mixed or bought in. The Saturday batch is about sixty kilos and it is gone by two.
Burgers are pressed by hand at a hundred and seventy grams, from chuck and the trim off the dry-aged sirloins, seasoned with salt and pepper and nothing else, because a burger with onion in it is a meatloaf. Lamb burgers with mint on Fridays and in summer. Faggots on Thursdays from the old recipe; pies on Fridays from Beca's: steak and ale, chicken and leek, and a pork pie with a proper hot-water crust. Ring for a tray of anything for a party; two days' notice.
What you get
- Eight sausages, all made here, in natural casings
- The Pontcanna pork recipe from 1964, unchanged
- Hand-pressed burgers from dry-aged trim and chuck
- A gluten-free sausage made on a separate bench
- Faggots on Thursdays, pies on Fridays
- Trays for a party with two days' notice
What it costs
Sausages £9.80 a kilo, about six to a pound; burgers £2.20 each or £12 for six; faggots £1.60 each; pies from £4.20. Made every morning, so Saturday sells out by two. The counter list has every cut with its price per kilo; the order page prices a joint by weight before you ring.
Questions about sausages and burgers
What is in the sausages?
Pork shoulder and belly, salt, white pepper, sage, mace, twelve per cent rusk and water, in a natural hog casing. Each of the others adds what its name says. The full recipes are on the wall by the till.
Do you make a gluten-free sausage?
Yes, the pork, made with rice flour on a separate bench every morning. Ask for it by name; it is kept apart on the counter.
Order ahead and skip the Saturday queue.
Pick the cut, say the weight, and the order page tells you the price before you ring. In by Friday noon and the joint is cut, wrapped and under your name on Saturday morning. Delivery within four miles on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.