British Pork and Fresh Herb £0.56/100g (••••)

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, stores throughout Scotland, www.sainsburys.co.uk
Though the promise of ‘fresh’ herbs seemed unlikely and the hint of lemon was a mere notion, this was a surprisingly tasty sausage. Robust with a rough crumbly texture, the artisan methods espoused by Jamie Oliver hold their own against the traditional butcher’s option.

Pork and Caramelised Onion £0.50/100g (•••)

Somerfield, stores throughout Scotand, www.somerfield.co.uk
A good meaty sausage with an initial tang this is great on texture but lacks the distinctive taste of onion and ends up feeling greasy in the mouth. The cheaper of the supermarket bangers, the Somerfield sausage is an average safe bet that fails to provide anything different or memorable but is a tasty option for those on a budget.

Pork and Caramelised Onion £0.72/100g (•••••)

Crombie’s, 97–101 Broughton Street, Edinburgh, 0131 557 0111
The award-winning Crombie’s get the texture just right, producing a fine porky sausage with not a hint of the processed about it. The cheaper of the butcher’s choices, this sausage fully deserves its accolades. The onions were sweet, the sausage was a good size and tasted exactly as it said it would.

Lemon and Fennel Pork £0.55/100g (••••)

Puddledub Park, Clentrie Farm, Auchtertool, Fife, 0159 278 0246 www.puddledub.co.uk
Here is a sausage that tastes significantly different. A bit small with more skin than meat this nonetheless delivers all the flavours with a distinctive fennel taste. Too good to be doused in ketchup and thrown in a roll it’s cheap enough to feel like a treat without breaking the bank.

Pork and Herb £0.74/100g (••••)

Andrew Gillespie, 1601 Great Western Road, Glasgow, 0141 959 2015
With over 100 years of sausage-making experience, Gillespie’s butchers make sausages that are not for the faint-hearted. These chunky bangers blend a good balance of crunch with meatiness. A strong dried herb taste makes them a classic. Gillespie’s sausages are hard to fault but just short of perfect.

Pork Sausage with Honey Flavouring £1.25/100g (••)

Cedar Cottage Country Feeds, Enterkine Estate, by Ayr, 0129 252 0453
This sausage promised more than it could deliver. The honey ‘flavour’ was at best a pleasant aroma to accompany a simple pork sausage. There was no great depth of taste and, as the most expensive sausage in the survey, it was distinctly underwhelming.