100% New Zealand Bacon and Ham Awards: Supreme winners announced

Two butcheries have been announced as supreme winners in the 100% New Zealand Bacon and Ham Awards.

Warkworth Butchery has taken out New Zealand's top bacon award with their dry cured middle bacon entry and Auckland's Westmere Butchery has won New Zealand's best ham award for their bone-in leg ham.

Warkworth Butchery has been a part of the local community since 1905.

Current owners Rob and Renee Lees took over eight years ago and have seen the business go from strength to strength.

Rob, who won the 2020 Pure South Master Butcher of the Year Awards, said he was stoked.

"Good meat comes from a good home, and time well spent and consistency is key to producing amazing products."

Westmere Butchery is also well-known and popular in the local community, with owner David Rossiter having more than 45 years in the butchery business.

It was a team effort to produce the award-winning ham, Glenn McKeendry, of Westmere Butchery said.

Supreme winners: Rob Lees, Warkworth Butchery (left), Glenn McKeendry, Westmere Butchery, Dave Rossiter, Westmere Butchery and Michael Irving, Warkworth Butchery. Photo / Supplied

"Time, patience and the right amount of cure are the key ingredients, and that effort has paid off!"

The competition is back up and running after a three-year break, with more entries than
ever before - almost 200 entries across seven bacon and two ham categories.

Judging took place over two days, with a team of butchers and culinary experts inspecting and sampling bacon and ham, all produced from 100% New Zealand-born and raised New Zealand pork.

Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded in each of the bacon and ham categories.

All gold medal winners were then re-judged against each other, resulting in the two supreme winners.

Competition judge, Hannah Miller Childs said when choosing the winning ham it was largely about finding something with great smoky characteristics as well as good texture.

"You want it to be nice and meaty, but still be moist and have enough fat content," Miller Childs said.

The judges found picking the ham winner fairly easy as Westmere Butchery's bone-in leg ham was "insanely delicious".

Picking a bacon winner was a close-run competition and judges had to re-taste some of the products to ensure they picked the right one.

It had been an honour to be a part of the judging this year, Miller Childs said.

"[It's] incredible to see not only the quality of the beautiful New Zealand pork but also the butchers' talents improve over the years.

"This is definitely making our jobs a lot harder as judges."

Check out the full results from the 100% New Zealand Bacon and Ham Awards here.