Heinz Butcher Shop

D loves cheese kranskis and when his friend L told us about an excellent butcher shop in Woolloongabba where there is amazing cheese kranskis, we had to go check it out.

Heinz Butcher Shop is a lovely little store nestled in amongst the bustle that is Stanley Street and Annerley Road near the Mater Hospital. When we wandered in they were busy (but it doesn't take many people to make the store crowded) so we pressed ourselves up against the back wall and surveyed the amazing selection of meats before us.

There were fresh sausages and cooked sausages and salamis and bacon and smoked meats and lovely hams and all sorts of amazing things. In their front window they had beautiful cuts of meat and organic chicken and I even saw a sign saying that they stocked rabbits. At the back of the store near the cash register they also had an impressive tray of breads and pretzels, but by the time I saw them I had already bothered the friendly lady behind the counter enough so I didn't try and buy a pretzel. Next time.

We tried to get a small selection of a wide range of meats, but what we bought was such a small portion of what they had on offer that we definately have to go back. Plus, D adores the cheese kranski - it is a spectacular cheese kranski.

In the end we selected (clockwise from top right above): mettwurst with garlic; 2 merguez fresh sausages (spicy North African beef and lamb sausages with a tough of chilli, paprika, and cumin); 2 calabrese fresh sausages (Italian chunky pork sausage with fennel seeds, cracked pepper, and garlic); 2 mild chorizo (traditional Spanish all pork sausage with paprika and garlic) and 3 cheese kranskis.

When I was little we used to live interstate and mettwurst was extremely common there. I loved mettwurst and really missed it when we moved here. My mum is currently on holidays interstate and I had jokingly asked her to bring me back some mettwurst but since I won't see her again until May it might be stretching the quality of the mettwurst some. I was very excited to see mettwurst at Heinz so we had to buy some. It's full of flavour but it's still delicate at the same time, it's not overpowering and you don't end up with salami breath.

You already know that the cheese kranskis were a winner, but the fresh sausages weren't as successful. At first taste I much preferred the calabrese. It was very very strong with the fennel flavour. Unfortunately, after a few bites the fennel just took over and it was too overpowering. D wouldn't even try the calabrese as its a pork sausage, so he had all his hopes pinned on the merguez, but he didn't like the merguez either. He said that it had a funny taste. I didn't think it had a funny taste, and I thought that while it was strongly flavoured, nothing was really overpowering. I don't think I could eat the sausages on their own, but a salad lightly dressed with a vingar based dressing really worked well with them.

The quality of the sausages was simply amazing. They were chunky and meaty and were right up there with the quality of the Eumundi Smokehouse, which all my sausages are doomed to be judged against. I still dream of the Eumundi sausages.


This is the sausage selection after some cooking. Cheese kranskis on the left, calabrese in the middle and merguez on the right.

We haven't tried the chorizo yet, but it is earmarked for dinner tonight with some pasta. Possibly this vodka cream pasta. Can't wait!

Heinz Butcher Shop
611 Stanley Street
Woollongabba
Ph 3391 3530