The 5pm Dining blog nearly dropped its breakfast bacon butty when we received the news that beef dripping from James Whelan Butchers of Clonmel in Co. Tipperary, Ireland had been crowned the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2015.
To put this into context, out of 10,000 entries into the prestigious, annual food competition, the 400 professional judges chose a block of fat as the finest food product of the year.
This means one of two things: it’s either a PR wheeze or there is a genuine sea change taking place about our attitudes to saturated animal fat – a substance which has previously been demonised as likely to knock years off your life if you so much as wink at a lump of Cheddar.
If it’s the second, then this blogger is delighted. We’re not suggesting that you ditch the fruit and salads to eat nothing but double cream and steak from now on.
Dripping on toast
However, we are pleased to see lovingly prepared, full flavoured dripping be celebrated.
For readers who have never had chips cooked in beef dripping or spread a little salted dripping on toast, it is the rendered fat of the animal. And it is delicious.
The award-winning dripping from James Whelan Butchers is made from the suet of grass-fed Angus and Hereford beef, rendered down and clarified into a pure, richly flavoured dripping,
‘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,’ commented John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organisers of Great Taste.
Humble product made well
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.’
Who needs Proust’s madeleines? Judge James Golding, chef director of The Pig hotel group, was ‘taken back to my childhood’ by the taste of the dripping, 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’.
Balanced diet
Are we likely to see a run on beef dripping in the supermarkets? I doubt it. I’m not sure how many supermarkets even stock beef dripping these days.
But still, the Great Taste organisers noted that ‘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 to shortcrust pastry’.
It’s on our shopping list.
The Great Taste Supreme Champion 2015 is now available to buy from Harrods, RRP £6.95, www.jameswhelanbutchers.com, James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel and James Whelan shops at Avoca in Monkstown, Rathcoole and Bray.
You can browse the Scottish winners of this year’s Great Taste from here.