[danconfessed]

Hi all,

Can I ask what people are paying to have their sausages butchered?  My butcher is quoting £2/lb.  Seems a lot to me but have nothing to compare them to.

Dan

[MAK]

What ! £2/pound.
It is not difficult to make your own. Time may be against you to get sorted out now but maybe have a go before next years pigs are ready. We actually bought some meat so as to practice before our first pigs were ready and have made our own ever since.
We buy the skins and seasoning from Weschenfelders and did use a very old Kenwood mincer. Last week we bought an AEG mincer/sausage stuffer for just 49€ ( on offer in the supermarkets here along with sets of butchers knives and saws).
We home kill and butcher and will thn make a range of sausages, bacon and hams. it is all straight forward really. Based on your butchers charge you will recove the investment in kit very quickly and have some fun making your own sausages.

[benkt]

This year we've been charged between £1/lb and £1.20/lb at different places, so I agree - a bit steep!

[Sbom]

50p per lb is what we pay, £2 sounds a tad over the top!

[HappyHippy]

£1.80 per kilo is what I pay to have them made - £2 per pound is on the expensive side, but if they're very good sausages and you're planning on selling them on it might be worth it ?

[Bodger]

We've made our own sausages for many years now and even if I do say so myself, we make some absolute belters.
Incidentally, as a none shopper, I don't know but how much would you folks expect to pay for a pound of real sausages in a shop?

[hughesy]

£2 per pound is on the expensive side, but if they're very good sausages and you're planning on selling them on it might be worth it ?

£4.40/kg to have them made + whatever it cost to raise your pigs, have them slaughtered etc, they'd have to be an expensive sausage.

[hughesy]

Incidentally, as a none shopper, I don't know but how much would you folks expect to pay for a pound of real sausages in a shop?

We sell ours at our local market for £7.50/kg which is £3.40/lb in old money. This seems to be about the going rate in butcher's shops round here. This is for a quality sausage not the cheap sh1te you get in supermarkets. Farmer's markets and foodie type outlets are usually more expensive for some reason.

[lachlanandmarcus]

So pretty much the OP is probably being charged not far off the cost price of the sausages for the butchers own ones - but in that case he is supplying the meat!


I think it's too much.

[hughesy]

I think £2 a pound is too much but you can't blame the butcher for wanting to make a few quid out of his labours. It all depends on what you want the sausages for. If you just want a pile for the freezer and it's an one off thing it's not too bad but if you're selling them it's a non starter unless like many smallholders, you don't really bother about making a profit. I think if I was approached to make sausages for someone I'd quote a high price simply because I don't want to do it.

[lachlanandmarcus]

It's difficult isn't it, selling meat on means you don't have the option to DIY so you are a bit of a captive market. Have a similar scenario tho not as bad with my lamb butchery ATM, chose a butcher close to abbatoir and who could get the carcasses direct chilled but they want about 40% more to butcher them than the butchers we use where it's for our own use where we transport the carcasses to them with ice packs - and the other one does more work on the butchery too :-((


I do agree that butchers probably don't want the work so it's not like you can negotiate much, they will just say  go away then. Which is their right, but if they do agree to do it I think the price should be a reasonable one for the work involved...which I'm not sure it is in these cases.


It's made worse by the ever shrinking number of abbatoirs as that means you are stuck with a more a more limited number of butchers if you want those on the abbatoirs delivery schedule.


I've decided that in future I won't mix own use and selling carcasses. Sale ones will go in one lot and be butchered costing €€ and for the others I will use the other butchers or do the butchery myself, I'm going to ask for butchery knives for Christmas!

[MAK]

Hughesy mentioned the butchers labour. An important point. The bottom line is that  most people with a trade will probabley cost their labour out at £150 a day then add whatever costs they can to the bill ( materials, travel etc etc).
I am lucky that I do not work and have plenty of time on my hands to do the jobs that I would otherwise have to pay tradesmen for. When I read comments above I translate my DIY efforts of butchering and sausage making into income rather than the "savings" I have made.  We don't sell any pork produce so do not have transport refreigeration and market stall costs either.

[P6te]

Hi,
We are in the Midlands (South Derbyshire) and today collected our latest batch. We had Pork & Cracked Black Pepper and Pork & Chives sausages made and they cost us £2.10p / kg.  This includes packing them on heat sealed presentation trays, each weighing approximately 475g with our own branding on the labels.
We sell them for £3 / tray or 4 trays for £10 and they sell very well.
Pete

[Tudful Tamworths]

£1/lb is pretty average around here. Do you have any other options re. butchers? Like someone suggested earlier, maybe he doesn't need the work, so is trying to put you off.

[danconfessed]

I have actually been very lucky and called in a favour with a friend.  His mate has a butchery and they are doing it for nothing!  Only charging for the casing and seasoning. 

Wont be as lucky next time but will do my research