MEMORIES has spent much of 2021 investigating the tastes of yesterday that were once available in your local butcher in those pre-supermarket days when there really was a butcher’s shop on every corner. But for every joint, for every specialised cut of meat, that was sold, there were the leftovers, the offal and the organs. None of it could be thrown away; it had to be turned into something edible. Butchers were, in effect, the first takeaways, selling cheap dishes to go: chitterlings, savoury ducks, saveloys and – drum roll – pork dips. Pork dips used to be ubiquitous. Every butcher did their own pork dip, and so this week, on the recommendation of countless readers, Memories visited Gregorys in Newgate Street, Bishop Auckland, which is said to be the last place that proudly still sells a pork dip.