Chester - Ernest W. Edge & Son

Ernest W. Edge & Son have just won 'Best Plain Pork Sausage' of 2015 at this year's Chester Food Drink & Lifestyle Festival. When you know that other excellent butchers were in the competition, like Clewlows of Nantwich, you know that they're going to be superb sausages.

The shop is in Handbridge:

about half a mile from the Chester High Cross, it's a pleasant walk just over the River Dee.  

There's been a butchers here since Victorian times and Ernest Edge, who's the grandfather of the current owner Bruce Edge, bought the business in 1937.

Inside the shop:

there's everything you'd expect in a good old-fashioned (and that's a compliment) butchers.  There's a rather fine mural behind the counter:

with Bruce's grandfather on it.

Their meat is top quality:

- try some of their beef rib, it's aged for 5 weeks which makes it very tender and tasty. 

They sell game when in season and have free range chickens. They also sell free range eggs (from Poplars Farm) and Black Puddings from the Real Lancashire Black Pudding Company. They have a small and carefully selected range of cheeses, including Appleby's Cheshire, Quicke's Cheddar, and two excellent (and quite different) local blue cheeses: H S Bourne's Blue and Claire Burt's Blue.

I thought I'd better try some of their award winning sausage:

I had it with some kale and spinach, from Eden's of Handbridge (a wonderful greengrocer just around the corner). It was a fantastic lunch!

Ernest W Edge & Son
54-56 Handbridge
Chester
CH4 7JF

Tel: 01244 675156 

Web: www.chesterbutcher.com