The Newmarket Sausage is a sausage made to a traditional recipe from the English town of Newmarket, Suffolk. There are two very different types of Newmarket Sausage because two different family butchers claim the name, but both are very popular and sold around the United Kingdom in supermarkets and specialist sausage shops. There is discussion over whether Newmarket Sausages should receive the status of Protected Geographical Indicator of Origin (PGI)^[1]

The Musk’s variety comes from the Musk’s family butchers located in Newmarket town centre, where the recipe was originally conceived in 1884, and has remained unchanged. The inventor, James Musk, created a very popular sausage that was awarded the Royal Warrant by various Kings and Queens in British history, and most recently by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.

The more widely known Powter’s Newmarket Sausage is the younger of the two recipes (conceived in 1896 by William Harper when trading under his own name).

Powter’s Sausages used to have a larger presence in British supermarkets than Musk's.^{[citation needed]} Both varieties have won several awards.^[2][3][4]

In 2005 the European Union and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs tried to persuade the two companies to merge recipes and gain "Protected designation of origin", from which products such as Parma ham and Stilton cheese have benefit. It would mean that their use of the Newmarket label would be protected to them for the sausage market, but it would also mean that only one of the two recipes could exist. Faced with this problem, each party stands firmly by its own recipe, and neither wants to bow down nor merge recipes.^[5]

[edit] Musk variety

Musk's Sausages originated in the small village of Stetchworth 3 miles from Newmarket. Elizabeth Drake owned a Butchers shop in Tea Kettle lane and when widowed (1882) she married James Musk (1884 in Depford, Kent), a Butcher, and began or possibly continued to sell the Musk's variety of Sausages. These were believed to be produced at Ivy House Farm where the Drake's were tenant Pig Farmers. Mrs Drake also had a shop in Market Row Newmarket from where they traded until moving to the High Street.

The sausages were highly successful and James Musk died in 1905 a few months after opening his main shop on Newmarket High Street where their business traded until 1979. The business passed to James' stepson Louis Frederick Drake (the Musk's had no children) and later onto his son Louis Gilbert Drake

Musk's sausages were favoured by royalty and Warrants were issued to Musk's from George V (1907), Edward Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) in 1929 and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1965) and the current Queen Elzabeth II (2005)

The mystery is whether Elizabeth Drake created the recipe and her new husband was the business influence to make it a success or whether James bought the idea back to Newmarket from Chiswick near London where he had been working as a Butcher in 1881.

The main difference between the Powter's recipe and the Musk's recipe is that the Powters use rusk as a filler and Musk's bread. But each has a secret spice mix recipe carefully locked away in their own safe.

[edit] References

Easom, Sandra, Newmarket Sausages, Railways & Skulduggery, Newmarket Racecourses, http://www.newmarketracecourses.co.uk/about/11763246501988.html, retrieved 6 April 2009