Herby pork with, well, not a lot of herbiness! (Tesco's Haslet)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Tesco's Haslet
Date:	21/09/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well priced, not a horrible taste

Disadvantages: Texture, condition, herbiness

I had not eaten haslet before the other day, or at least, I had not eaten it knowing what it was. Haslet is a bit like sausagemeat or luncheon meat, essentially cooked pork with spices and herbs. This particular haslet had a lot of different herbs in it, which made the meat look quite appealing.

This 125g pack cost just over the 60p mark, and you get about 8 slices. This seems to be about the norm for such meat, so price wise it's okay. Quite good, in fact.

Or at least, it would be had the meat had any substance to it. For me, it was just a bit too watery and soggy in texture. I had expected a more solid meat, one that would perhaps be ideal in a sandwich or even as part of a salad. Instead, it felt like a cheapy product, and I doubted the quality.

Ths doubt was realised as I started eating it. For a product that has so many herbs as part of its ingredients, there was hardly any flavour to it. There were faint herby aftertastes, but nothing particularly striking, and I may as well have bought some plain ham and sprinked some herbs on myself if I wanted to have that effect.

Nutritionally, you get 220 calories for every 100g, and the ingredients list shows that this is 75% pork. While I understand that there are other elements to haslet, such as the yeast and the potato extract and the herbs, this did seem a low percentage for something that is supposedly meant to be pork with some herbs. The water content was quite high, which suggested to me that it had been processed. I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed, as it was the first time I had actively bought haslet, in order to try it and to have a change from the routine food I normally buy.

I shan't be buying this again. It was good to have the experience, and it wasn't a disgusting taste. In some ways, it was quite pleasant. However, it really wasn't an impressive product, and I felt somewhat cheated having bought it expecting something a bit more flavoursome. Still, I'll keep trying to alter what I have and experiment. Hopefully I'll turn up a gem of a product at some point.

Summary: Disappointing pork product from Tesco