Two regional SA butchers have earned bragging rights at the Australian Meat Industry Council's national Sausage King awards held on Queensland's Sunshine Coast last weekend.
DA'Leni Meats, formerly known as Swallow Drive Meats, from Mount Gambier were awarded Australia's best pork sausage, while Fleurieu Peninsula butcher Compass Meats came out on top for best beef burger.
It was a case of third time lucky for owner Tim Von Stanke in the Sausage King awards finishing runner-up with a spicy pork sausage in 2023 and also taking home two state awards in 2022.
"Once they called out second and third I said to my wife it doesn't look like we are getting anything - it was quite a surprise," he said.
He says their winning traditional pork sausage- along with their traditional beef sausage- are best sellers but they have at least a dozen different sausage recipes which rotate each week.
"It comes back to good quality meat and the right mixture of fat and protein, you have to make sure it is not too dry or too fatty," he said.
Mr von Stanke who spent his early years as a crayfisherman started a mature age apprenticeship at 41 years of age at Collins Court butcher with Mick Lamond.
"I wanted to be a butcher when I was a kid, a friend of ours used to own a butcher shop and I would go there and help a little bit but it never really happened," he said.
"Mick asked me to come in and do some deliveries one day and I never left.
"I would get up and go fishing at 2:30am and then do butcher shop stuff until 5:30pm- I did that for three years until I finished my apprenticeship and then I gave up the fishing."
Four and a half years ago he bought his own business Swallow Drive Meats.
In November last year the business moved to a larger premises in Margaret Street, opposite the new Wulanda Recreation centre and was rebranded DA'Leni Meats.
Compass Meats owner Derek De Kruyf was excited to receive a phone call on Saturday night after sending his beef, cheese and jalapeno burgers in an esky to Qld with local AMIC representative Chris Kelly to be judged.
"I wasn't expecting it to be honest, I didn't go up because there was a lot happening here in the shop," he said.
Last year was Mr De Kruyf's first time entering anything in the Sausage King awards
"I bought the shop in 2018 and we were getting to the stage of entering in 2022 then a fire destroyed the shop and it took a while to rebuild before we were ready again," he said.
He says the burgers are among their best sellers with volumes increasing from four to five kilograms a week to 20 to 35kg a week after the state win.
"We already have people coming into the shop from Adelaide just to try our burgers- who knows where it could go ," he said.
Mr De Kruyf says the secret to success is using good quality, fresh local ingredients.
"I get a lot of enjoyment out of trying different things with smallgoods, sausages and burgers and making good food for our customers to enjoy," he said.
