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The Great Canadian Sausage Making Competition Results!

The Great Canadian Sausage Making Competition Results!

This is the only competition of its kind in BC and quite possibly in Canada. Sausage makers can spend a lifetime perfecting their recipes and there has never been a serious competition exclusively for sausages, until last year. This was the 2nd annual Great Canadian Sausage Making Competition which coincidentally happens around Oktoberfest.

The Fraser Valley and BC has a significant population of European immigrants who brought with them their talent for sausage making. Many were even farmers and some of them are still responsible for BC’s local and sustainable pork farms.

For this competition, many bank on recipes that have been passed down from generations, but it’s interesting to see people get creative. While sausage making has a deeply rooted history, recipes have evolved with future generations, local tastes, current trends, and modern technology. 

There is an art to sausage making though, and depending on the type of sausage, the method and ingredients will vary. It all starts with a quality ingredient, so farmers sometimes create specific diets for the pigs to produce optimal flavour.

Recipes that are tried, tested and true are a solid way to go, but these sausages need to stand out in flavour, texture and technique, especially if you’re trying about 100. Welcome to The Great Canadian Sausage Making Competition!

October 5th was The Great Canadian Sausage Making Competition at the Fraser Valley Food Show presented by BC Pork. Almost 100 sausages were submitted from all over BC. Most of them were experienced competitors defending their titles, but the competition also welcomed some professional newcomers.

The sausages were judged on external uniformity of colour, external uniformity of shape, external lack of defects, internal uniformity of colour, internal uniformity of texture, fat to lean ratio, lack of obvious defects, aroma, texture, mouthfeel and finally taste (where most points were given).

Of course you are judging apples with apples, or small case sausages with small case sausages, chorizos with chorizos, salami with salami, Italian sausage with Italian sausages, breakfast links with breakfast links and more.

To be specific, here were all the sausage categories:

It was an intense competition and while the competitors were awaiting the results, guests were invited to sample some of the 100 competing sausages.

The judges included: 

Arie Vandermeer (Head Judge)
Food Scientist / Meat
ALBERTA AGRICULTURE FOOD PROCESSING DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

Wolfgang Hammer – Meat Technology Consultant (With a name like that, he was destined to be a sausage judge)

Frank McCormac – Pacific Blends LTD

Craig Bansema – Food Scientist/Meat
ALBERTA AGRICULTURAL FOOD PROCESSING DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

The Great Canadian Sausage Making Competition Winners are: 

From press release:

2013 Overall Grand Champion Winner: Robin Brooks from Dressed to Grill

2013 Overall Grand Champion Winner: Robin Brooks from Dressed to Grill Gourmet Meat & Poultry

Robin Brooks from Dressed to Grill Gourmet Meat & Poultry was the overall professional sausage-making winner, earning a $500 cash prize. Mission B.C.’s Brooks was the inaugural winner of the People’s Choice Award in 2012. He also won 1st place in the Bratwurst, Chorizo, and Kielbasa categories.

Other 1st place winners included Mike Lindsay of Hopcott Premium Meats (Andouille, Italian), Viktor Kozak of Sedo’s Old Fashioned Butcher (Charcuterie, Game, Salami, Ukrainian), Jurgen Burkhardt of Black Forest Meats (Frankfurter), Anita Pichlmeier of Black Forest Meats (Liver, Polish), Jerry Gelderman of Gelderman Farms (Farmer), Ryan Heise of Lepp Farm Market (Breakfast), Renee Garnett of Spolumbo’s (Specialty), and Diane Herbert of Davis Quality Meats (Pepperoni).

2013 People’s Choice Award: Chris Wilkinson of Wilkyz Grill

Chris Wilkinson of Wilkyz Grill mobile catering food cart in Abbotsford won the 2013 People’s Choice Award for his Italian sausage. Wilkyz Grill also won 2nd place in the Chorizo category along with Mike Lindsay of Hopcott Premium Meats.