Moira Taste champion created on corned beef revolution

George, who passed away last week in his eighties, was also the first food business owner in Northern Ireland to win the Supreme Title in the prestigious Great Taste Awards in London.

He created a new variety of corned beef that was hand made using a traditional meat press. It was based on a recipe from his grandfather, also a master butcher.

The corned beef took a great deal of time to make. George’s corned beef was different and used the finest dry-aged silverside meat, which was then cured before being hand shredded and pressed in natural gelatine. This process gave it a rich and distinctive flavour, a revolution in traditional corned beef.

You only have to set the McCartney's version of corned beef beside the tinned types to notice the difference in colour and texture.

McCartney’s, a business that’s been going for 150 years, also has a full, rich, meaty flavour without the greasiness of the mass-produced types. It is gluten-free and when tested for fat content it was 96 percent lean meat.

“It all started in 2007 when I found myself with a surplus of silverside – a cut of beef from the hindquarter, just above the leg – and I wondered how to use it up. I found a corned beef recipe in my grandfather's old recipe book so I set to work producing the finest corned beef I could possibly make,” George told me many years ago.

In 2011, McCartney’s won Great Taste Award Supreme Title – the first for Northern Ireland - for the silverside corned beef. In the 11 months after winning McCartney’s hand-produced 3.7 tonnes of it, responding to inquiries from all over the world.

The delicious corned beef, which has graced the chilled cabinets of Selfridges up-market store in London, remains a popular choice for shoppers from Moira and elsewhere.

For years the shop in Moira was famous for sausages. George’s grandfather started making them more than 80 years ago. McCartney’s now has 40 different varieties, mostly made from quality local pork.