Inside Sheffield's Piper’s Artisan Sausages - an absolute banger that deserves plenty of praise
Piper’s Artisan Sausages has been diligently and rather stealthily building quite the reputation...
It is on Sandygate Road, just down the road from the world's oldest football ground that I find myself stepping into what could be one of Sheffield’s best artisanal sausage shops. I’m greeted by the owner and founder of Piper’s, Dr. Nick Piper or should that be Doc Sausage? Ok, maybe not.
Hailing from Kent, Nick started this venture back in 2022 and since then he has been steadily building links both within the local community and across the city.
“About four years ago, I stopped making sausage as a hobby at home and started doing it professionally,” Nick explained. “We opened this place in Crosspool, we make all of our own sausages and we really pride ourselves on making a wide-variety”
It only takes one glance around to know that he’s not fibbing.
“We do plenty of things, we do pastries, sausage rolls, pâté en croûte, but really our main focus is sausage,” Nick says.
He has not only sampled, tasted and selected a variety of global sausages, but Nick continues to pay homage by making traditional sausages true to its origins. Piper’s also continues to concoct a range of continually changing flavours, from seasonally inspired ones to wholly new takes.
The road to Piper’s becoming a reality is an intriguing one. As a former lecturer in social sciences, Nick increasingly felt that he had lost his lustre – change was required.
For most people who attained a PhD, you’d be correct in assuming that they would stick to a career in research and/or teaching. Not Nick. Bolstered by his PhD in Geographies of food, he fully ensconced himself in a world of culinary experiences.
But, his inspiration for Piper’s started much closer to where he now calls ‘home’.
“Louise (Nick’s wife) and I used to go to Bakewell to buy Austrian sausages before we got married and had an unruly amount of kids. Around this time I was also exploring sausage making as one of my lengthy obsessions.
“Louise could see I'd developed a proper set of skills and these were valued by a wider audience. She then very matter of fact-ly said to me ‘you should open a sausage shop’. So we did.”
While Nick takes the time out of his day to prepare a variety of different sausages to sample, he tells me more about Piper’s sausage mission.
“We make a broad variety of sausages to the best possible standard, we also make vegetarian sausages - a surprisingly rewarding thing as it gives vegetarians and vegans options they can’t get in a supermarket.”
He presents me with a hot dog, it’s not your ordinary hot dog from a jar, this is the Coney Island frank.
“It’s one of the original recipe hot dogs,” Nick says. “It was made famous because it used to be served at the Coney Island Fair in New York. It’s about 70% rarebreed beef, 30% rarebreed pork. Very simply spiced to let the meat do the talking, smoked over oak and then some of our dill-pickle mustard on top.”
My goodness it is tasty. The best I had ever had was at Chicago’s legendary Wrigley Field in 2012. This is up there.
The next one is the Kasekrainer, a Brühwurst-style sausage filled with cubes of cheese. Served with a dollop of dill-pickle mustard on the side. With the first bite of this piping-hot sausage it is understandable to see why this was Nick’s ‘wurst’ nemesis.
“People have all sorts of trouble pronouncing it,” Nick tells me. “Just think of it as ‘cheese sausage’ that should dictate the word ‘kase’ and ‘krainer’ I think is actually in reference to a place in Slovenia but it’s an Austrian-sausage.”
Nick shares insights into the ingredients, as well as the historical and geographical backstory associated with each.
One key example of this is showcased in one of Nick’s recent creations is the Sai Ua, a sausage that he had first tasted in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The Sai Ua is a bold-flavoured sausage, a first bite elicits aromatic lemongrass, kaffir lime and spices blending without overpowering. It is created in the traditional way, by hand-pounding the paste in a large granite pestle and mortar – one that Nick shows me, it’s huge and weighs a good 16KG at least.
What is so remarkable about my time with Nick is the patience and willingness to impart his charcuterie knowledge to help inform customers, a number of which wander in during my time there.
The passion and knowledge of not just the sausage-making craft but the research of many varieties from across the globe make a recommendation for the humble Crosspool shop an easy one.
It’s no wonder that some customers make the journey to sample Piper’s wares, they should.
Even the celebrity TV chef James Martin recognised the meat manipulating talents of Piper’s – resulting in a 10-minute appearance on James Martin’s Christmas show. It’s an acknowledgment for a craft that is well-earned.
Piper’s offers a selection of sausages, seasonings, sauces and a range of impressively well-crafted meat-filled snacks – Or, you could just follow his amusing charcutier chatter and latest creations on social media.
Piper’s Artisan Sausages has bestowed the leafy and affluent suburb with a genuine meaty gift. If you have been already, you should go back and if you have yet to make the trip, you’re in for a treat.
Piper’s Artisan Sausages can be found at 44, Sandygate Road, Crosspool, Sheffield, S10 5RY.
Check out its website: https://www.pipersartisansausages.com/
Follow Piper’s on social media: https://www.instagram.com/pipersartisansausage/