BLACK pudding champ Andrew Holt has done it again, I say he's done it again!

Andrew, from Rossendale, showed his best black puds at the Food and Meat Exhibition at Manchester's G-Mex and got the chance to meet Coronation Street's most famous butcher Fred Elliott, alias actor John Savident.

When the competition was held in Harrogate two years ago, Andrew, who has run his own company RS Ireland Black Puddings in Waterfoot for six years with wife Diane, won first and third prize for his black puddings.

This time he went one better - first, second and third!

And on top of the success in Manchester, Andrew also won a prize in Belgium for the best white pudding from Britain and the national prize in France at the Mortagne-au-Perche Grand Prix de Excellence.

When Andrew made his first black pudding as an apprentice butcher more than 20 years ago little did he know he would make a career of it and what a successful one it would be with 18 honours since June 1997 from competitions at home and across on the continent.

He said: "I make two-and-a-half tones of black puddings every week and sell wholesale mainly in the North West in Blackburn, Burnley and Bury and also all over Europe on the Internet.

"It was the Bury recipe that I used for the entries at G-Mex because that recipe is the main stay of the business."

Andrew uses a recipe which dates back to 1879 and he makes the puddings by hand - literally. Once the pudding mix is made it is loaded into ox-casings and cooked on boilers at a strictly controlled temperature and hung to cool before being weighed and bagged for distribution.

He added: "Quality is everything for us and to have it confirmed at national and international competitions lets us know we are doing or job right."

When he retires Andrew is planning to write a book on the subject.

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