Popular butcher wins Scotland's best sausage – but boss stays tight-lipped on secret to their champion bangers
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A SCOTS butcher has snagged the top prize for the nation's best sausage – but they're staying hush-hush about the secret behind their award-winning bangers.
Tom Courts Quality Foods, based in Burntisland, made history by claiming the Championship title for a record-breaking third time at the Scottish Craft Butchers' biennial Trade Fair in Perth.
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Tom Courts Quality Foods has scooped the top Sausage award - for the third time
Credit: Graeme Hart
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Tom with his award-winning sausages at his butcher's shop in Burntisland, Fife
Credit: Graeme Hart
The Fife favourite sizzled past fierce competition from over 60 independent butchers to bag the prestigious triple crown.
Owner Tom said: 'I don't think there's a sausage in the country that has secured so many titles.
'We won the Scottish Championship in 2011 and 2013 and to top the charts again this year is just fantastic."
The butcher boss's recent accolade adds to a bumper haul of awards for the firm, including being Reserve Scottish Champion in 1989 and 2009, when his dad Tom Snr was at the helm.
He continued: 'I stay true to my dad's original recipe, which has proved a best seller for two generations.
'My dad said we should compete on quality – not price – and that's exactly why our pork sausage is a winner.
'It's made with the very best pork from Scotland mixed with top quality grains and spices and then made using artisan methods, perfected by our team.
"And there's a wee secret twist there too.'
Tom took the helm himself, however, for the national championship, hand-making the sausages that claimed the crown.
Judges named it East of Scotland Champion before selecting it from five regions to be named Scottish Champion.
World's best Scotch pie & haggis revealed as butcher scoops championship double crown
He added: 'I'm really chuffed and the whole team is absolutely delighted.
"We were up against some of the finest butchers in the country and although I know we have a great product, there's nothing like the thrill of hearing your name called out as being the best in the business.
'Our pork links are such a signature product for us at Tom Courts Quality Foods.
"They're a huge seller and bring us a lot of business so it's just wonderful to see them secure another Scottish championship – what a treble!'
Tom and his team hand craft and sell around 300 kilos of pork links every week from their production unit and shop at Burntisland, outsourcing to customers throughout Britain.
Gordon King, executive manager with Scottish Craft Butchers, praised Tom and his team for their record win and said it was obviously the pork sausage that others would aspire to.
He said: 'The Scottish Pork Sausage Championship is one of the most coveted and fiercely contested competitions in the business and to take the title with the same product three times is outstanding.
'The standard of entry this year was extremely high which reflects well on our local independent craft butchers who supply this household staple food as one of their key products on a daily basis.
"Tom Courts produced something exceptional yet again and wowed the judges to take a third championship title for his pork links.'
Judith Johnston, senior account manager with championships sponsor Lucas Ingredients, praised the extremely high standard of competition and the ultimate champion.
She added: "Lucas Ingredients is extremely proud to be associated with the Scottish Pork Sausage Championship and would like to congratulate Tom and his team on winning such a prestigious event.'
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