Recipe for success for local butchers
Fair City firm’s joy at winning industry’s highest accolade
Scotland’s best handheld steak pies are made in Perth!
The meaty favourites have scooped a coveted Diamond Award in the Scottish Craft Butchers Savoury Pastry Products Awards 2018 for family butcher D G Lindsay & Son - the highest possible recognition from the industry evaluator.
And the long-established Fair City butchers also secured a Gold Award for its macaroni pies and Silver Awards for both its Scotch pies and chicken curry pies.
Delighted owner Beaton Lindsay said he was “over the moon” to be judged so highly by the industry and his peers.
“It is absolutely fantastic to win a Diamond Award,” he said. “This is what we all aspire to - this is as good as it gets for a butcher’s product.”
Being judged to have the best handheld steak pies in Scotland will turn the public focus on the North Methven Street butchers business which has been in the Lindsay family for more than 120 years.
And Beaton is thrilled that what has grown to become their bestselling meat pastry is now a national winner.
“Our standard-sized steak pies and the handheld version have always been popular with our customers,” he explained, “but a national industry endorsement at the highest level possible will undoubtedly increase demand for the little pies.”
Beaton’s great-grandfather started the butchers in Perth in the late 1800s - far removed from the previous 19th century family chemists business in India.
“We’re still mixing ingredients to make people feel good,” he joked. meats “We instead just use of the medicines.” finest quality
Now one of Perth’s oldest established businesses still in the same family, D G Lindsay & Son still business’s uses recipes early days. devised in the “Admittedly, we have tweaked and adapted them to reflect changing tastes and style,” said Beaton, “but our handheld steak pies still hold true to the original ethos. “There’s no great secret to creating a national winner,” he added. “I think it’s important not to overcomplicate things and to ensure you use prime quality beef, create a tasty gravy and know when the seasoning is just right.”
Beaton was quick to share the limelight with his nine-strong team and his mother, father, wife and two daughters, who all play a part in the business’s success.
“Graham Robertson is our man in the kitchen and we owe a lot to him.”
D G Lindsay was one of around 60 butchers from all over Scotland who collectively submitted nearly 300 different handcrafted pies, sausage rolls and bridies which were judged across six categories in one of the industry’s most keenly-contested awards.
Douglas Scott, chief executive of Scottish Craft Butchers, said this year’s Savoury Pastry evaluation has seen a record number of entrants, reflecting the growing importance of independent assessment of butchers’ pastry products.
“The evaluation drives up standards year after year,” he said, “all to the benefit of the customer.”
Mr Scott added: “Identifying the very best is of immense importance since these are the products that pastry enthusiasts will travel big distances to source.
“Awards are not given out lightly. Every one of the butchers recognised can be rightly proud of their products and their customers can purchase with high expectations of great taste.
“These awards show customers just what a high standard their local butcher sets.”
• Pictures by Graeme Hart/ Perthshire Picture Agency.