Pialligo Farm Smokehouse at Pialligo Estate in the ACT has taken out top honours at Australian Bacon Week.
Pialligo Farm Smokehouse full rasher smoked and dry cured bacon was voted Australia’s Best Artisan Bacon by fleishmaster Horst Shurger, who has a Masters degree in butchering and smallgoods; and top chefs, Paul McDonald and Simon Bestly, who have broad international experience.
Voted as the best out of a record number of entries in this year’s Australian Bacon Awards, the judges noted that Pialligo Farm Smokehouse Bacon has a ‘very nice appearance with an excellent smoky aroma, and well balanced flavour’ and also ‘great lean to fat ration, minimal to no shrinkage, and excellent texture’.
‘We are absolutely delighted and very proud to have achieved this benchmark award,’ said Pialligo Estate’s Master smoker and Smokehouse Manager, Peter Curry.
‘It is a great honour to know that our bacon has been judged as Australia’s Best Artisan Bacon, especially given the record number of entries,’ he said.
Pialligo Farm Smokehouse dry-cured bacon is produced to an age-old recipe that Peter has brought back to life using his secret blend of spices, which results in unsurpassed quality and flavour of award-winning standard. There are no preservatives, colourings or artificial flavours used, and the traditional smoked bacon has been hung in the smokehouse and cold-smoked for up to 17 hours.
Peter Curry is a classically trained chef by trade, who started work in the food industry in his homeland of Ireland at the age of 13. During his career Peter worked with French chefs who taught him about charcuterie. He has a passion for good food and great bacon! At Pialligo Estate, Peter has designed and created a traditional kiln smokehouse with a natural brick kiln, and his smokehouse is used to create our quality artisan products.
Since 2013 Pialligo Estate has proudly received 44 national food awards, including five Champions and nine Gold medals; 13 Silver medals; and 17 Bronze medals. An esteemed judging panel of specialist chefs lined up by the Australian newspaper recently ranked Pialligo Farm traditional smokehouse hot smoked honey glazed salmon Number ONE.
Australian Bacon Week is an initiative of Australian Pork celebrating the much-loved meat and drawing attention to the competition that local bacon faces from imported products.
(Pialligo Estate Media Release)