From 10,000 entries into Great Taste 2015, judges have awarded the top honour of Great Taste Supreme Champion 2015 to Beef Dripping from James Whelan Butchers of Clonmel in Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
Up against the most exquisite food and drink made by award-winning producers, the Beef Dripping was heralded as champion at the Great Taste Golden Forks Dinner, held on Monday 7 September at The Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, in front of a gathering of more than 300 guests from the world of fine food.
“Great Taste recognises flavour above all else and James Whelan’s Beef Dripping is a perfect example of this, astonishing our panel of judges with its pure beefiness and savoury depth. The dripping is a simple, quite humble product made exceptionally well by a master of butchery. It succeeded through day-after-day of blind-tasting, winning favour at every stage of Great Taste and wowing expert judges who really know their stuff. As one of our judges said, just a spoonful would add sheer magnificence however it was used,” commented John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organisers of Great Taste.
Made from the suet of grass-fed Angus and Hereford beef, rendered down and clarified into a pure, richly flavoured dripping, this traditional product evoked a wave of nostalgia among the judges, who included Bruce Langlands, director of foods at Harrods, which sponsors the Great Taste Supreme Champion award, as well as many other buyers from the most prestigious food stores in the UK. James Golding, chef director of The Pig hotel group, was “taken back to my childhood”, while another judge declared the dripping to be “a distilled moment of the perfect beef roast.” MasterChef judge and restaurant critic, Charles Campion, even described the product as an “old friend”, explaining how “it touched the hearts of all the judges. I’ve never seen such an outrageous reaction to a simple product.”
Understated packaging, containing a simply delicious product made from what was once considered a ‘waste material’, James Whelan’s Beef Dripping epitomises the values of Great Taste. Just a spoonful of this once forgotten favourite can form part of a balanced diet and impart a rich savoury note into all manner of dishes, from roast potatoes and shortcrust pastry to the effortless indulgence of dripping on toast with a pinch of salt.
