Family butchers Cranstons make the best burgers in the UK – officially.
It scooped the top honour at this year’s Smithfield Awards, announced at Butchers’ Hall in London last week.
Cranston’s Topside and Cheddar Burger won the Platinum Smithfield Award and was crowned best of the best at the awards organised annually by the Q Guild of Butchers and widely recognised as the meat trade’s most high profile and challenging product evaluation.
The Smithfield Awards have run for more than 30 years and recognise and reward the UK’s finest craft butchery products including sausages, bacon, burgers, steak, game products, barbecue products and more.
Products are awarded a bronze, silver or gold award by a panel of independent industry judges, with all gold products in each category then pitched against each for the category champion Diamond Award.
The prestigious Smithfield Platinum Award 2024 and overall winner is chosen from a shortlist of Diamond Award winners and this year was judged on the morning of the awards by renowned Irish butcher Pat Whelan.
Pat described Cranston’s burger as inspiring and said: “The most interesting thing is that it’s made with topside of beef, and you’re not expecting it.
“It’s a great example of sustainability by using whole carcass butchery and elevating different cuts to make them relevant.
“It’s inspiring in its own way and is an unbelievable result from using topside of beef. It’s a product that will appeal to a lot of people – for me, it’s a stand-out product.”
The Cumbrian butchers’ Best Smoked Streaky Bacon was also awarded Gold status at the awards, while its Spicy Lamb King Kebab and Cumberland Sausage with Mr Vikki’s Mango Chutney were awarded Silver.
Peter Potts, retail area manager at Cranstons, said: “It’s fantastic to win with our Topside and Cheddar Burger – it’s one of our hero products as we go through the summer and it’s one of the products our customers really love. It started out as a summer only product and due to its popularity we now sell it all year round.
“It’s great to be recognised in an award ceremony like this. We know it’s a massive achievement to win in a category but to also win the Platinum award is just fantastic.
“It’s great for the teams that make it and the teams that serve it. It’s not a complicated product but the simplicity of it speaks volumes. We use good cheddar, a good local chutney and beef from our local farm which wins out in the end.”
A family run butchers for more than 100 years, Cranstons has four food halls in the region and two shops in Penrith and Hexham.
