Hannan Meats short listed for special Golden Fork award

Hannan Meats, the award winning beef and bacon producer, is the only Northern Ireland company shortlisted for a special Golden Fork award.

The company has been listed by Feel Good Food magazine as one of its 'food heroes' in a public vote to find the nation's favourite small producer. The competition is being held in partnership with the UK Great Taste Awards 2015.

Every issue of Feel Good Food, Woman&Home's sister magazine, celebrates food heroes, or the producers behind the brands. Apart from high standards and dedication to their craft, they have all been awarded stars by the Guild of Fine Foods' Great Taste Awards.

Each year, in partnership with Great Taste Awards, the magazine gives a special Golden Fork Award to one of the leading producers. The award is voted for by readers who are asked to choose from a shortlist of five before 21 July 2015.

In its citation for Hannan Meats, the magazine's Jane Curran writes: "Featuring charismatic Irishman, Peter Hannan as a three-gold-star winner in Feel Good Food is becoming a bit of a habit! In 2014, he walked away with a record 35 stars, he won Supreme Champion in 2012 and has won the award for Best Regional Speciality Northern Ireland for three years on the trot. Peter is the managing director of Hannan Meats, based in Moira, about a 30-minute drive outside of Belfast. This is where you can find his butcher's shop, which is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

"Peter does magical things with meat: his beef, which is aged in Himalayan salt chambers, melts in the mouth (you can find it in Fortnum & Mason and in Mark Hix's restaurant, Tramshed); his "guanciale" - unsmoked Italian bacon - is particularly special but for his big 2015 award, Peter turned his skills to pork.

"Peter co-owns a business called En Place Foods with Paul Clarke, who is a bit of a flavour maestro. Peter's intention was to create the 'bacon equivalent of pulled pork', sweetened using a blend of sugars. The process takes 20 days. First, the ribs are rubbed with salt and laid down in a stack. After 10 days of this dry-cure, or when a fifth of the moisture has evaporated, they are transferred to a sugar pit where they are buried in a blend of sugars. 'From curing, the ribs become like a sponge, so they absorb so much sugar they self-caramelise and you're left with a lovely, sticky, salty, sweet and soft piece of meat,' says Peter. Having been on the final judging panel, I can absolutely second that!"

Read more at http://www.womanandhome.com/galleries/news-and-entertainment/35584/1/0/great-taste-awards#HJcpRt27fk2YhmeR.99