BUDDING young chef Harry Robin won the unique opportunity to turn his own sausage recipe into a tasty string of bangers.

Harry, 11, from Highworth, came top in the ‘invent a new sausage’ competition, run by Andrew’s Quality Meats, after impressing the butchers with his sizzling Italian-style recipe.

“I wanted to enter the competition because I like creating things and I like cooking,” said Harry, of Wessex Way, who is a pupil at Southfield Junior School.

“When I won, I was speechless because I felt very happy. I didn’t really expect to win.”

Andrew’s Quality Meats, in Highworth’s High Street, ran the competition as a fun way to involve children in the process of making sausages.

The butchers received about 15 suggested recipes, including a breakfast sausage filled with bacon, eggs and black pudding, and a chicken sausage containing chicken with sage and onion stuffing.

However, business director Andy Sears and store manager Toby Haynes settled upon Harry’s banger – named Harry's Italian Job Sausage – which is made with pork, sun-dried tomato, red pepper and fennel seeds.

He said: “We looked at Harry’s sausage and thought, from the commercial point of view, it could be made, sold and would probably be quite popular.”

With the help of staff, Harry made about 60 of the gluten-free sausages and was allowed to take 16 home.

The rest of the 10lb batch went on sale during the town’s medieval market day earlier this month.