By Meg Jorsh

Last updated 09:03, Friday, 11 July 2008

Graham Gordon knows exactly what it takes to make the perfect Cumberland sausage.

• Video: how Graham makes his award-winning sausages

Graham Gordon

But the recipe for his award-winning bangers – honed carefully over the past 20 years – is a closely-guarded secret that he is reluctant to reveal.

It is, however, undoubtedly successful – as judges of an emphatically Cumbrian competition agreed.

The Carlisle butcher’s Cumberland Sausages were named the county’s tastiest in a sizzling city centre cook-off before Traditional Cumberland Sausage Day at the weekend.

Graham said: “The most important thing is getting the seasonings right to complement the meat. You’ve also got to get the right texture – it needs to be coarse.”

The 42-year-old, who has a shop in Blackwell Road, has kept the same recipe since winning the Jennings Brewery World Cumberland Sausage Championship in 2001. In 2003, he went on to win The Cumberland News Countryside Award.

He added: “I enjoy making up the sausages. I imagine some people aren’t quite as fastidious as me.”

A perfectionist, he checks his wares for quality over dinner every night. “I do eat a lot of sausages,” he added. “I think you need a portion of meat with your main meal. I don’t know how these vegetarians manage it.”

With customers from as far afield as Crewe and Whitby, he is certain Cumbria has something special. His latest prize came from the Traditional Cumberland Sausage Campaign which is fighting to keep the product local.

“We get lots of people saying they can’t get sausages like this down south,” he said. “Many people here have had their recipes for years, handed down through the family.”

Graham, who is originally from Penrith, started out as a butcher’s apprentice at the age of 16 before moving to Carlisle in the 1980s. There, he started his current business with his mother.

He said: “I originally had an interest in TV and video, but when I got this job I just stuck at it. You meet a lot of people and get to know your customers.”

He added that in the beginning, the best-sellers were his mother’s home-made pies. At its high point, the business took in three to four thousand pounds a month. Now he has big plans for the shop, hoping to expand into supplying hotels and guesthouses.

“We’d like to get a teams of salesmen to go round pubs and hotels. I think there’s plenty of business to be had,” he said.

“We’ve had quite a lot of calls from other butchers in the area, wishing us good luck.”

Graham also praised Made in Cumbria, founders of the Cumberland Sausage Campaign, for their support of Cumbrian products. Supporters have asked the European Union to stop producers outside Cumbria using the name.

If the bid is successful, the sausage will receive Protected Geographical Indication status, like that of Champagne and Parma ham.

As well as having to be made in Cumbria, the sausages would have to contain at least 80 per cent meat and be left unlinked.