ANDERSON’S Quality Butchers in North Berwick have been judged the makers of Scotland’s finest Black Pudding.

At the final of this year’s Scottish Black Pudding Championship, held earlier this month at the Edinburgh New Town Cook School, Anderson's went in as South East of Scotland champions, and fought off champions from the other four regions in Scotland, variously from Largs, Strathaven, Inverness and Kinross.

The puddings from all those regional champions were purchased by mystery shoppers, then put to the test in a final cook off. The panel of expert judges was led by cook school principal Fiona Burrell, assisted by her staff members Kerri Pallister and Susie Henderson.

Pudding maker Ryan Anderson was dumbfounded when he discovered that he had won. After he calmed down, he said: “This is fantastic since this is the first time that we have entered the competition. We have only been making black pudding for about a year. When my cousin Martin Ramsay came to work with me he suggested that we make black pudding, it turned out not be such a problem as I had feared.

“We played around with the recipe, did taste tests with customers and they now feel that it is much better than anything we sold before. It has proven very popular with customers even taking it abroad.”

Commenting on the result Scottish Craft Butchers chief executive Douglas Scott said: “Butchers all over the country try to make the very best meat products. Speciality products can have customers going out of their way and making special journeys just to buy these products.

"Black Pudding more than most, has a cult like following and that is why to win this title is the ambition of almost every butcher who makes black pudding. Now even more, with this national confirmation of greatness, the North Berwick black will become much sought after.”