Devon Market butcher counter disappointment

I'm a big fan of Devon Market. Very broad selection of produce at excellent prices along with all sorts of interesting cured meats of central and eastern European character. Not to mention a wine department with a real selection of Eastern European wines (Croatian, Montenegrin, Romanian, Hungarian, Georgian, etc.) from wonderful to truly wacky. They also bake a heavy, chewy baltic bread either in large rounds that look absolutely Roman empire, or a more standard sandwich loaf sahpe.

They also have a very large butcher section and do a lot of in-house seasoned meats (cecina, fajitas etc.) as well as sausage making.

Sadly I took home a package of the Italian sausage a couple of days ago and it was simply awful. I should have been more suspicious that the objects labelled "Italian," "Polish," and 3rd variety looked absolutely identical.

My Italian clearly was not of the standard fennelized type, but I was willing to go with the flow and see what they did with it. It was virtually inedible. There was almost no discernible seasoning at all, but there were an awful lot of large, rubbery chunks of fat doing nothing to moisten or flavor the meat -- just sitting there being unchewable.

I still love the store, and may even try more of their meat. But I would warn folks away from the sausage -- at least based on this fairly small statistical sampling.

We are also fans of Devon Market. Anytime Mr. X and I shop at Jewel, I am subjected to his rants about the uncaring behemoth that is Jewel, the TVs at checkout and around the store, etc. (This subject I know has been covered elsewhere.) We can shop at Devon Market with no worries of post-shopping ranting. However, I would stay away from the store-made sausages as well. We had a breakfast sausage that didn't have much flavor and was incredibly greasy.

I just had a similar experience with their Chorizo. It was almost exactly as you described the Italian sausage. I made a big pile of chorizo y papas, and ended up feeding most of it to my dogs. What makes me mad is I put back perfectly good packaged chorizo and opted to try the fresh stuff instead.

Like you, it will not stop me from shopping at Devon market, but I won't be buying any more "fresh" sausages there.

Since we are talking about the meats (sausage) from Devon....

I recently moved to the area and Devon Market is the closest grocery store to me. I came across their sales flyer for the week and noticed they have meat specials #1 & #2 for $49.95... which includes 5 lbs of 6 different meats such as chicken quarters, pork chops, chuck steak, pork ribs, ground beef, chicken wings and catfish nuggets.

Anyone ever ordered these specials? What is the quality like of these meats? My first thought was that these were priced so low for a reason... and would be reflected in the quality. Anyone have any insight??