KEY POINTS:
The Herald gave everyday holiday items a road test with a typical family - and got expert advice too.
Our voting panel - the Hancocks of Whenuapai
The verdicts
Cheapest: Tegel Chicken, garlic 'n' herb ($6.48)
"These were relatively tasty and a nice alternative to the usual red meat variety of sausages."
Best value: Tegel Chicken (as above)
Others: Hellers, old-fashioned English beef ($9.08) and Fresh Zone, traditional beef ($8.36)
"The kids enjoyed them but we found them to be a bit salty but definitely edible. You can get sausages from the butchers - and they're really nice, I'd give them five stars - but these are fine, especially for the price."
Expert tip
Turn to the oven if you want to keep the taste locked in.
Burned bangers might be a Kiwi tradition but charring a sausage will not bring out its best.
Stephen Macaulay, general manager of the Retail Meat Industry Training Organisation, says oven baking offers consistency and helps to ensure flavours from juices are locked in.
Mr Macaulay said an increasingly diverse range of sausages were available today. He noted there were more and more European and South African style sausages on shelves.
"People are starting to experiment a little bit more, they are trying different types," he said.
"Whereas there used to be a limited range, it certainly has extended to quite a large range of different types."
Price, it seems, is not a particularly good guide when shelling out a tasty snarler, according to a Consumer study. The magazine's panel gave the thumbs down to some brands of sausages that retail for about $9/kg - but gobbled up a brand of pork and beef-flavoured bangers that were about half that price.
