Sizzling along very nicely

Three years ago Adam Stratton bought a Hornsby butcher's shop and, in his words, "brought it back from the Stone Age".

"We try to appeal to the younger clientele and they want things that are ready to go - fancy stuff," says Tender Value Meats' 31-year-old owner.

Gourmet sausages had been growing in popularity for the previous seven years but it was around 2001 when the trend really kicked in.

He sold about 500kg of snags weekly when he bought the business.  Today, sales are one tonne weekly - all through the Florence Street shop.  From representating about 10 per cent of his business, sausages are now closer to 30 per cent.

At 6am daily, two apprentices start non-stop snag making.

Their line-up is 30 varieties but there's a top 10 which includes butter chicken and yoghurt with a chorizo; chicken, rocket and boccoccini; Irish breakfast; black pudding; white pudding; sun-dried tomato, lamb and rosemary.

With sales of 250kg weekly, the best-seller by a country mile is sweet chicken and corn.  In the recent national sausage king competition, it was judged third best gourmet sausage in the country.

"It's an original recipe and people come from Cronulla and the Hunter Valley to buy it," says Adam.  A 30kg container of ironbark honey, one of its ingredients, lasts him about two weeks.

It's also a flavour attracting a whole new Asian clientele, says Adam.  "They don't traditionally eat sausages but they've gone wild over this one.

"They come in and we explain how to cook them, off they go and they're rapt.

"All our sausages are gluten free and we cut down the fat content and that appeals to a lot of people.  By law you can put 27 per cent fat in a sausage but we cut it back and put in about 12 per cent across the board.

"All the ingredients are fresh, raw ingredients - no powders or anything.

"Because meat prices are a bit high due to the drought, people find a gourmet sausage is more in their price range.

"Instead of meat and fillet steak at $35kg, they'll go for a really great gourmet sausage at $8.99 to $12.99kg."