Please note: these Dickie’s bangers were received free of charge, but this in no way impacted on our opinion. We were not obliged to write a positive review, and the brand did not see this review before it was put up on the site.
The humble banger is a vital part of so many quintessentially British dishes: bangers and mash, toad in the hole, sausage casserole, a fry up… And in recent years, we’ve seen an explosion of different varieties to suit all tastes and dietary requirements, with vegan sausages, chicken sausages, low-fat options and more all coming to the fore.
But have you ever tried a boozy banger?
That’s what Dickie Kieswick, the man behind Dickie’s, set out to create. Disappointed with boring and flavourless sausages; high-meat options that are rock-hard; bangers with a low meat content and generic varieties; Dickie started to experiment with bold, punchy flavours. The result? A range of three boozy bangers that aim to deliver on both flavour and alcohol content.
Available from the Dickie’s website, there are three different alcoholic sausages available, each containing 84% high-quality pork shoulder and 9.5% booze – meaning the flavour and alcohol content are maintained during cooking, and the sausages remain beautifully moist – something that can sometimes be an issue with sausages with a high meat content. Those three varieties are:
Bloody Mary Banger: Featuring premium vodka, spiced tomato, celery and herbs
Tequila Slammer Banger: Starring tequila, jalapeño, lime and a Mexican spice blend
Swanky Prosecco & Apple Banger: Containing Prosecco, dried apple chunks and orange peel
Each of the three flavours is available as a pack of three jumbo bangers weighing a whopping 130g each (£4.95), or a pack of 12 chipolatas weighing 390g per pack (also £4.95). The packaging’s fun too, with its blend of traditional design and contemporary cartoons that depict the flavours inside – plus fun touches like the “do not tumble dry” logo on the back.
The first bangers to make it out of the packet were the Swanky Prosecco & Apple at a barbecue with the family (ignore the generic vegetarian burgers and sausages on the barbecue in the background…!)
They were certainly sizeable – there may only be three in each packet, but they’re a generous three! As soon as I opened the packet I could smell the Prosecco – a smell that remained both during and after cooking. The flavour of the Prosecco persisted too, and the sausages did still have an alcoholic kick to them – it wasn’t all lost during the cooking process. We loved the big chunks of dried apple and the texture of the meat itself, which was firm yet melt-in-the-mouth. For me, the skin of a sausage is often one of the big let downs, but this was easy to cut and bite through and its texture wasn’t unpleasant.
The Bloody Mary and Tequila Slammer sausages were up next, cooked in the oven rather than on the barbecue.
I’d say that if you’re oven-cooking these sausages, you’re better off doing so on a wire rack rather than directly on a tray – they lose fat during cooking which ends up caramelising on the bottom of the tray. It’s a purely aesthetic thing, though – it didn’t detract from their punchy flavour. I’ve got to admit that I was worried about the amount of fat that came off, but was pleased that none of the three varieties tasted overly fatty once cooked.
The Tequila Slammer sausages (right in the above photo) were flecked with chilli and herbs, and it was the tequila and lime that were the strongest smells on opening the packet. After cooking, both of these flavours still came through strongly – I loved the fruitiness that the lime added – and the addition of jalapeños gave these sausages a lovely punch of heat. Texture-wise, they didn’t seem as firm as the Prosecco bangers, but were still good and meaty.
I’m a little partial to a good Bloody Mary, so I wasn’t surprised that these were my favourite of the three. Spiced tomato rather than alcohol was the primary smell when opened – an ingredient that also gives these sausages a beautiful reddish tinge. They had the richest flavour of the lot, warming and sweetly spiced with a little kick – just like a mild Bloody Mary. I couldn’t really taste the vodka, but the overall flavour was a winner.
One comment at the family barbecue was that the size of the jumbo Dickie’s bangers was a little offputting – and for those with smaller appetites, I can understand. My guess is that’s why Dickie’s also do their chipolata range – the same weight per pack, just divided into 12 smaller sausages rather than three massive ones.
They’re packed full of the same great flavour as their larger counterparts, but there was one issue: the packaging for both – including cooking instructions – is exactly the same. While the cooking times that are suggested were perfect for the jumbo sausages, it would be handy to have more accurate cooking times/temperatures for the chipolatas to avoid burning.
If you’re interested in trying the Dickie’s range for yourself, visit their online shop.