By Olivia Condous
Ballan butcher Shane Zammit is no “silly sausage”, in fact, he takes his award-winning sausages very seriously.
His shop Ballan Local Butcher took out two prizes in the Regional Victorian Sausage King competition this year, for his inventive and unexpected flavours.
The butcher achieved first prize in the Gourmet Open Class Sausage division, with a beef, chilli and chocolate recipe and his beef, jalapeno and cheese sausage took out second place in the same category.
“The beef, chilli and chocolate is one of those ones that’s raised eyebrows, as you can imagine it’s got quite a unique taste,” Mr Zammit said.
“The last couple of weeks, it’s been one that more customers have dared to try… the warmth from the chilli and the sweetness from the dark chocolate actually works really well.”
Mr Zammit said he sometimes developed his ideas for new sausages from flavor combinations that would be served up in dishes at top restaurants, combining multiple elements into one sausage.
“The biggest challenge from a sausage point of view is that all the ingredients have to be cooked at the same time, but different ingredients require different cooking times at different temperatures,” he said.
Other times, his ideas for unusual ingredients would spontaneously come to him in dreams.
“Sometimes there’s just a random idea from somewhere and I think, ‘I wonder how that would go in a sausage?’.”
Mr Zammit said he was looking forward to competing in the next level of the competition at a state level in October this year and was grateful to receive the regional awards.
“It’s great to be recognized by a broader butchering community.”
