KEY POINTS:
Butcher Gavin Cameron won't share the secret to his award-winning pork sausage, but he will reveal his starting point - a pure meat base.
The 28-year-old, who has just won the supreme award at the Great New Zealand Sausage Competition, says he likes to think all his sausages have a "secret touch".
Mr Cameron says his sausages do not shrink much when cooked because of their high meat content. For evenly cooked sausages, he recommends shunning the summer barbecue and roasting for 15-20 minutes in a medium-hot oven.
Mr Cameron entered his traditional pork sausage after getting good feedback from customers. He says the sausage, which a panel of judges picked from more than 500 entries, is his personal favourite of the 16 varieties he sells at the Black Rock Butchery in Auckland's Nosh food market. His brother, a butcher in Wellington, congratulated him but joked it must be the only thing he had won in a while.
"I think he's just trying to steal my limelight," says Mr Cameron.
