Woodward St Quality Meats were among the seven independent butcher shops to have their sausages scrutinised by a panel of esteemed judges for the NSW/ACT Sausage King and Best Burger Competitions at TAFE NSW Orange.

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Steve Flemming oversaw the cooking and tasting of 36 sausage and six burgers which were judged on appearance, texture, bloom, shape and consistency for six different categories.

He said in his years on the circuit as a state and national chief judge, he’s seen sausages adapt and change in line with food trends.

“If there’s a particular flavour popular on Masterchef it’ll come up in competition 12 months later,” he said.

“Butchers are watching, they’re paying attention.”

While the gourmet sausage style may be going gangbusters, Mr Flemming said he can’t go past a classic pork cumberland snag.

“It’s a British style of pork sausage often with a strong sage flavour,” he said.

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While Woodward St came home with a second in the Tradition Australian Pork category, the biggest winners of the day were Gulgong Butchery with gold in the Traditional Australian Beef and Australian Lamb/Open Class and Farmgate Meats in Bathurst in the Best Butchers Beef Burger and Gourmet/Open Class for its beef and honey sausage.

All of today’s winners will proceed to the state final in Sydney in September, before proceeding to the nationals in Perth in February.

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