INDEPENDENT butchers from regional and rural areas of the state proved to be the big winners in Queensland’s Sausage Kings state final judged in Brisbane on Sunday.
Butchers away from the state’s more heavily populated coastal fringe took five of the six category trophies on offer as part of the 2013 Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show and Australian Meat Industry Council’s (AMIC) State Sausage King competition.
Beef, lamb, gourmet, continental and poultry category winners all came from butchers on the Darling Downs, while the pork category was taken out by a Tewantin local.
Now in its 15th year, the Sausage King Competition is Australia’s largest high-level sausage awards, designed to discover the best snags in each state. Points are allocated by expert judges (including Beef Central’s Jon Condon) for the visual appearance at pre-pack presentation stage, raw composition and texture, visual appearance when on the barbecue and eating characteristics including flavour, juiciness and overall liking.
Competition organiser and AMIC representative Gail Butler said this year’s competition proved that butchers in Outback Queensland have a lot going for them.
“For one geographic region to win almost all the awards is an outstanding achievement,” she said.
“The sausages that won were full of fresh and quality ingredients, cooked to perfection and demonstrated immaculate presentation, all with that extra outback flair,” she said.
More than 1000 entries have been received across Queensland for this year's awards, firstly at regional levelo
Ms Butler said the panel of 19 judges cooked and tasted 42 of the state’s favourite barbeque food.
“With the time and effort that each butcher puts into crafting their sausages, it’s great when they come away with a win,” she said.
The winners from yesterday’s Queensland final will go on to compete against other states for the National Sausage Kings titles being staged in Sydney early next year.
The 2013 Qld Sausage King competition state final winners included:
- Beef: Carey Bros from Warwick
- Gourmet: Gray’s Modern Meat Mart from Toowoomba for its ‘Beef & Bush Tomato’
- Continental: Ashton’s Butchery from Pittsworth for its ‘Italian Beef Casalinga’ sausage
- Pork: Master Meats from Tewantin
- Lamb: Pittsworth Meats from Pittsworth for its ‘Lamb, Spinach and Feta’ sausage
- Poultry: Westridge Meats from Toowoomba for its ‘Duck and Orange’ sausage.
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