Michelle Henshaw from Mark on Macquarie has been crowned Australia’s Sausage King, sparking jokes the popular South Hobart butcher shop might need a name change in her honour.
Run with husband Mark, Michelle said the shop could be due for a rebrand due to her victory in the national gourmet sausage competition, run by the Australian meat industry, with her pork, pear cider and maple syrup creation.
“When they announced it … they said ‘Mark and Michelle on Macquarie’ which was really sweet,” Henshaw told Pulse.
“I’m still a little bit shell-shocked. It’s a huge, huge, huge award.”
“You can imagine all the butchers you’ve got to get through to actually get to that level.”
The winning recipe combines Tasmanian pork with Frank’s summer pear cider and maple syrup.
Henshaw said she chose pear cider over the more common apple variety to stand out from the competition.
“I know that maple goes really well with pork because of bacon, that traditional maple syrup and bacon combination,” she said.
“The pear cider was just by chance – I thought I’d try that rather than apple cider because lots of people use that.”
It marks the second national win for the South Hobart shop.
Henshaw’s husband Mark won two years ago with his spicy lamb sausage.
The shop’s signage will soon be updated to reflect both victories, changing from “Sausage King” to “Sausage King and Queen” to acknowledge Henshaw’s achievement alongside her husband’s earlier success.
“Some people try for years on a national level and never get anything,” Henshaw said.
“We’re obviously doing something right down here in Tassie.”
The butcher said perfecting the flavour balance took weeks of tweaking small batches behind the scenes before she was satisfied with the final product.
Henshaw views her victory as significant for women in the traditionally male-dominated industry.
“It’s a big win for female butchers and women in the industry,” she said.
