When Shaune Barnes began his butchers apprenticeship at T.A Fields in Orange he was 15-years-old and the shop floor was scattered with sawdust.
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Like all apprentices the first job he was given was to make the sausages, and after his apprenticeship he swore never to make another snag again.
Fast forward 43 years and Mr Barnes' prowess with the humble snag has fetched him and Robanco Meats in Blayney three silver medals in the central west Regional Sausage King Competition.
Organised by the Australian Meat Industry Council this is the first competition that both Mr Barnes and Robanco have ever entered, so to score a silver medal is a proud moment for the team.
"You have to have good meat to start with," Mr Barnes said, "That's the key ingredient along with ice water, quality ingredients and a little bit of know-how."
Their top three sausage were traditional beef, pork and fennel and lamb and rosemary.
Despite the fact that Robanco are large scale suppliers to cafes, schools, hospitals, restaurants, hotels and other commercial enterprises, Mr Barnes still makes every sausage by hand, just as he did 43 years ago.
"Apart from the new synthetic casings and a mixing machine, not much has changed," he said. "We still form and link them here all by hand where some other places have machines that do all that."
On average the team, which includes butcher Corey Morrow, produce between 350 to 400 kilograms of snags a week.
In the lead up to the Bathurst 1000 though that number hit the 600 kilogram mark and included a special order from the Rydges Hotel on Mt Panorama.
"They ordered some South African Boerwurst sausages that we'd never made before,' said the owner of Robanco Meats, Rob Perkins. "They were delicious. A big success."
Mr Perkins said that making so many sausages a week means that customers that order their sausages will be getting exactly the same tasting sausage that was entered into the competition.
"We just took the sausages without them even getting to taste them," he said. "They didn't add anything to the recipe."
For those wanting to purchase some Robanco sausages you will need to purchase online as they don't have a retail outlet.
To order head to https://robancomeats.com.au/
Mark Logan
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
