Another award has been added to the accolades of Netherby Meats who claimed the dry cured middle bacon silver award at the recent 100% New Zealand Ham & Bacon Awards in Auckland.
The win was a team effort by the 13 staff of the Netherby butchery.
Netherby butchers Jared Howden and Sam Hanson were at the awards to receive the award on behalf of staff last week.
Howden has been a butcher for 17 years and Hanson for five years.
Netherby only use locally sourced meat in their work and, due to demand, they can’t keep up with producing their most popular cuts of bacon, the middle cure and streaky.
Middle bacon is the best cut of bacon and Netherby’s takes about two weeks to produce.
Hanson, a fifth generation butcher, said the butchery’s dry cured bacon was so popular because of its quality.
‘‘When you fry it up all you get is a bit of fat rendering, you don’t get a pan full of water like all the mass produced stuff,” she said.
“We struggle to keep up with middle bacon supplies as we make it by hand on site here at Netherby Meats.”
The recipe used to cure the pork has been handed down four generations to owner of Netherby Meats, Mike Hanson.
While Howden and Hanson knew the company was getting an award they didn’t know what it was until it was announced.
It was an anxious time waiting to see how well they had done, Howden said.
“We were pretty happy with the outcome of the awards. We are always working on improving what we do,” he said.
Bacon was sent off for the judging panel to try prior to the awards.
‘‘We have done well considering we are up against the big players, like supermarkets,” Howden said.
While many of those entered in the awards are just retailers Netherby Meats also does home kill.
The awards aren’t just about recognising the best of the best its an opportunity to network and gain ideas from others.
‘‘We want to thank the community for their support of our business. Because we get such great community support we can support the community,” Howden said.
They are working towards their next entry which is for the sausage awards later in the year.
