Carolan’s square black pudding is made to go round

MASTER butcher Pat Carolan has found the recipe for success - and he has the accolades to prove it, writes Tom Gillespie.

Over the past four months, he and his staff at their Davitt’s Terrace premises in Castlebar have accumulated seven regional and national awards.

These include coveted national gold awards for their pork sausage with mustard, chopped smoked bacon and onion, and their lifestyle, high protein turkey sausage with broccoli, red onion and tomato.

And they came second in Ireland for their traditional square black pudding.

The pudding recipe was the brainchild of staff member Marie O’Donnell, from Islandeady, Castlebar, and it completely sold out over the Christmas and new year period.

Pat explained how they ventured into the black pudding market. "The black pudding would be our major achievement. We always wanted to do it but we didn’t have the time.

“Then our staff member, Marie O’Donnell, had worked in a butcher shop in America. She said she used to make black puddings there so we said we would have a go at it.

"We had plenty of trial and error. She used the recipe she used to use in The Bronx in New York. We were about a month experimenting with it before we got it right. We were putting in spices, taking out spices, wondering if it was too salty. However, the resulting recipe must remain a top secret."

Pat added: "We only started making black puddings a few months ago. We took a chance and sent it in to the competition to see how it would go and to our surprise it was judged second best in Ireland.

"Our black pudding comes in a square. We make it like a cake. We don’t boil in selves in a horseshoe shape. What we do is an old traditional way, the way it was made 60 years ago. Keeping it square makes it easier and less messy to make."

Turkey lifestyle sausages, Pat said, are the new fad for those into fitness and those looking for health benefits. They are a hit with gym people.

Pat opened a small scale business on July 2, 2004, but his father, Tony, has been operating a mobile butchers for the past 50 years.

Pat explained: "My father started the business. He operates a mobile butcher shop house-to-house and covers Doohoma, Geesala, Crossmolina and Laherdane. He built the abattoir at Derrycoosh 30 years ago."

Carolan’s Meats have the proud distinction of being the national winner in 2016-2017 for their prime T-bone steak.

Pat took up the story: "In 2004 I saw a shop coming up for rent. I had it in the head all the time to try it. We never had a shop, just the vans on the road. I opened the shop and it has been a good success. The quality sells itself.

"Our selling point is our own local produce. We can guarantee the quality. We display the herd names in the shop. We know who the farmer is. The customer can be assured of where the meat comes from. We can trace it from farm to fork."

Pat continued: "We stared off small. We had only a little 10-foot counter across the floor. The business grew then and was getting busier and busier and we got a new 20-foot long counter in.

"Space then for work was getting tight. But we managed for years with it. And then the opportunity came along to take next door. We decided we would try it.

"There was an existing door between the two buildings years ago. It used to be one shop back then.

"When we were in here working with the wall between the two shops customers could not see in and they would think we were not here, so we decided to put a big open hatch between the two shops and it has really opened up the two shops.

"It makes work a lot easier. We have more space, especially for making our own sausages, black pudding and burgers."

As well as the butcher shop, which employs six, the Carolans also operate an abattoir at Raheens where a further four work.

Pat added: "The factories don’t hang meat. They bone it out the day after it is killed. It is vacuum packed and left in vacuum packs for a few weeks. But we can hang our beef here for three weeks minimum. That is the secret to good meat and we have good quality to start with.

"The council vets come to the abattoir every morning before the kill and inspect the animals and they come again the next morning and inspect the after-kill and then inspect everything for killing that day.

"We do all our own beef and sheep from the abattoir. We are the only place in Castlebar with our own abattoir."

 

Do you have a story to tell about your business? If so, Tom Gillespie would be delighted to hear from you. Get in touch at (087) 9680780 or gillespietom49@gmail.com.