Andrew's tour of Wales The business of bangers

Date Published:

02/06/2008

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Pat from Buxton raved about Edwards of Conwy's Welsh black beef. Andrew found there was plenty more besides the bovine at this local institution

Ieuan Edwards must be one of the few butchers in the country that can wear a suit and drive a BMW. He can because he's seen his business grow from a tiny shop staffed by just himself 25 years ago to a regional institution that employs more than 50 people - and supplies most of North Wales, as well as the supermarkets, with quality sausage and meats.

I ask Ieuan how he started out. As a farmer's son with older brothers Ieuan candidly admits, "The farm wasn't big enough and I was too thick to go to university". So he got an apprenticeship at a butchers in Llanrwst where he learnt his trade. He also knew he wanted to be in retail; in the early 1980s a lease came up on a butchers shop in Conway and things grew from there.

From the start Ieuan wanted to do things differently: "I saw the sawdust-on-the-floor and blood-on-the-apron approach and I thought 'why does it have to be like this?'". He then spent some time researching the continental approach to butchery. "I was amazed how skilled they were in places like Holland, how - because the meat was poorer quality than ours - the butchery skill had to be higher." They were also ahead of the game on selling and cooking produce. "Over there butchers seemed to be half chef, half butcher. The feeling in the UK at the time was 'we cut meat and that's it'."

A fine display of meat

You can see the legacy of this in Edwards today. Ieuan sums it up: "I've got this product called meat, how many ways can I sell it?" That's why he offers it every which way from traditional cuts to cooked and sliced in a bun. He's also been doing mail order for over 10 years.

Meaty bangers

I ask where his meat comes from. A lot of the pork comes from Anglesey, the lamb is Welsh and seasonal, starting with new season lamb from March, Salt marsh from May and the Welsh mountain lamb starts to come down from September. His beef is all female and graded 4L; it's hung whole on the bone for three weeks, before being boned out and sold on the forth week. This drying and maturing process costs Ieuan several hundred pounds a carcass, but what they lose in weight they gain in flavour.

We move on to look at Edwards' awarding winning sausages and pies while I quiz Ieuan about his banger's meat content. "I believe the perfect British sausage should have a meat content of around 75 per cent," he says. "Some types of sausage, the borwust or merguez for example, have higher meat contents," but not the British breakfast sausage in his eyes; "Otherwise you end up with mince in a bag. The key is the quality of the meat put in."

And I get a chance to see exactly what does go in when we drive to his nearby factory. Despite a large demand from his shop, the local area and the likes of ASDA Edwards still makes all its sausages in small batches.

Health inspector Webb

It's still the artisan product it always was. I think sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that independent producers and retailers have to be impoverished to be any good, like artists doing it for the love of it, not the money. Rubbish - Ieune's proof that you can have modern production facilities and still turn out a blinding banger. "Just because you're small doesn't mean you don't have to be professional," Iuene explains, showing me his logs, checklists and procedure documents. On quality control he adds: "If for some reason you don't like my sausage, you won't like it next week, either."

I ask Iuene if he could have one wish what would it be? "I think there's the realisation that in modern business it's all about building more working partnerships, from gate to plate, we must take care of each other. More of that would be my wish." It's a lofty ambition for the former farmer's son; I for one think he's bang on.

Edwards sure made a mighty banger, but do you think you know of a one better in your area? Let me know on the map or email me at bigfoodmap@channel4.com

Find out what else Andrew got up to on his food tour of Wales.

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