Showdown of meaty works of butchery

Next month brings the 27th annual Great Yorkshire Pork Pie, Sausage and Black Pudding Competition held in Harrogate as part of the inaugural Craft Bakers and Butchers Extravaganza.

The competition features three pork pie classes and three sausage classes, from which supreme champions and reserve supreme champions will emerge, along with a black pudding contest.

Organised by The Confederation of Yorkshire Butchers Councils, the competition is part of a new showcase for butchers and bakers and is taking place at a different venue this year, at the Yorkshire Event Centre, the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate, on October 11.

Robin Moule, press officer for the competition, said: “It’s a new format at a new venue featuring the very best of the country’s sausages, black puddings and pork pies and we hope it will prove extremely successful.”

Entries close on October 3 and there are some heavyweight names in the butchery world already in the running, including Lishman’s of Ilkley, Elite Meat in Harrogate, Beres Pork Shop in Sheffield and Honley Village Butchers in Holme Valley.

Yorkshire-born chef and restaurateur Brian Turner will officially open the Craft Bakers and Butchers Extravaganza, at which the Craft Bakers Association is also running its own bread-making competition.

The event is also supported by a trade show.