A couple weeks ago I was sent over Southside Market & Barbeque's Fresh Original Beef Rope Sausage to try. Southside Market was founded in 1882 by William Moon in Elgin, TX. What started off as door to door meat sales has evolved into four brick & mortar restaurants/stores as well as nationwide shipping! You can order smoked sausage, chicken, brisket, hot sauce, rubs and more straight to your doorstep! After trying the rope sausage, I'm looking forward to trying more of their products in the future!

Known by old-timers as “Elgin Hot Sausage” or simply “Hot Guts”, this is the sausage that put Southside on the map. Now available to order in rope form exactly as we sell it fresh in our meat markets. Unlike the shorter links, each fresh (raw) rope measures approximately 44-48 inches long and weighs 2 lbs. Seasoned with cracked black pepper, it is all beef, coarsely ground in a natural pork casing. This is our signature item, made fresh in-house daily for a level of quality, taste, and enjoyment you can’t find anywhere else. Since 1882. 

You can buy one sausage for $25 or save $10 by purchasing 2 for $40. Make sure to use code TXBBQ10 to save 10%! The rope sausage came frozen and packed with some dry ice and packing foam to keep it safe and fresh. I defrosted it within a day and we cooked it the weekend it arrived.  Never cook your Southside Market meat from frozen, always thaw first and make sure sausage gets to 165°F!

Time to dig in! I cooked the whole beef sausage very simply with no added spices and without cutting it. It's still a little too chilly for a grill session so I baked the rope sausage in the oven instead. I baked for 20 minutes in a cast iron skillet (to see if that would help with browning) at 400 degrees and flipped once to get some browning on both sides. I definitely need to buy some this Summer to grill too! 

Since there's only two of us we obviously didn't eat it all in one sitting so I did something a bit more fun with the leftovers. For this first try I wanted to eat it as is, with some simple veggies as a side so we could really get a feel for the texture and flavor.  The sausage was juicy with great beef flavor and a nice kick at the end from the black pepper.  I imagine the flavor would be even better with some char from the grill.

My only gripe with Southside Market is the cost of shipping. It cost $58 to ship just this one sausage rope. If I added on sausage links it would go up to $66 . Adding a rub to that it jumps up to $85. I understand they want to ship quickly and with enough ice to keep items frozen, but other brands can do the same for cheaper. Even HelloFresh, who send up to 7 (or more) meals worth of groceries is shipped for $10. They aren't doing the volume of HF, but I'm sure there are other economical ways to ship.

*This post was made in partnership with Apogee Agency. All opinions on the product are my own and have not been influenced by this sponsorship. Thank you for supporting brands I feature* #sponsored #SouthsideSausageReview #ad

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