Butchers across Courier Country are celebrating after taking home a host of glittering honours in the latest round of national industry awards.
Popular family butchers Hunters of Kinross secured three gold awards and one silver award for their products in the Scottish Craft Butchers Haggis/Pork Products Awards 2019.
The golden plaudits went to their haggis and black pudding Scotch eggs, haggis saucy rolls and char sui pork and pepper stir fry – marking them out as among the best of their type in Scotland.
The Kinross butchers also earned silver for their haggis pinwheel meal.
Delighted assistant manager Conner Stuart, who helped create some of the award-winning products, said their Scotch egg award-winner was the perfect blend of haggis, black pudding and pork meat.
“We are current East of Scotland Black Pudding Champions so we decided to use it in our entry for the haggis product awards,” he said.
“It works really well and creates a really tasty Scotch egg with a difference.”
The butchery at House of Bruar, part of the food hall at the shopping complex adjacent to the A9 near Blair Atholl, also lifted three gold awards and a silver for their sausages.
The golden awards went to their honey and roast pork sausages, pork and black pudding sausages and pork chipolatas. The team lifted silver for their pork and caramelised onion sausages.
Delighted butchery manager Gilbert Mactaggart said they had built an enviable solid reputation for their sausages.
“We have a range of 13 varieties of sausage and it’s great to have them recognised by the industry awards.” he said.
“Our House of Bruar chairman Mark Birkbeck will lay claim to creating the recipe of the gold-winning honey roast pork sausage which has been a favourite on our shelves for a long time.”
Fife butchers Puddledub Pork took home a further three gold awards for their savoury pork escalopes, special pork burgers and Rabbie Burns Pork Sausage.
Burntisland specialist Tom Courts won two golds and two silvers for his haggis en-croute, Jamaica pork sausages, haggis bon bons and stuffed pork fillet.
Bel’s Butchers, with shops in Edzell and Montrose, won two golds and two silvers for their spicy pork stroganoff pinwheel and beef and haggis balls. Silver plaudits were won by both their highland truffles and pork pockets.
Cardenden butchers Andrew Kirk secured a gold for both their pork sausage with haggis and pepper sauce and their lean fire cracker stir fry.
They also lifted two silver awards, for their beef olives with haggis and whisky sauce and their pork and apple meatballs in tomato sauce.
Douglas Scott, chief executive of Scottish Craft Butchers, said judges had been “blown away” by the innovation and tastiness of the entries in both the haggis and pork products evaluations.
