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The best bacon in Australia in 2015 is from Pialligo Estate in Canberra

Natasha Rudra

Pialligo Estate has won Australia's best bacon award. General Manager Charlie Costelloe.
Pialligo Estate has won Australia's best bacon award. General Manager Charlie Costelloe.Jamila Toderas

For the second year in a row, Australia's best bacon comes from Canberra – from the semi-rural Pialligo Estate Smokehouse.

And Canberra also took out another national award with Southlands Quality Meats in Mawson winning the best full rasher bacon.

The awards are organised by Australian Pork to mark Bacon Week which runs until June 27.

Pialligo Estate has won Australia's best bacon award.
Pialligo Estate has won Australia's best bacon award.Jamila Toderas
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Pialligo's dry cured and smoked shortcut rashers were described by judges as "beautifully marbled with a nice smoky aroma and nice balanced taste".

Co-owner John Russell said the award was an honour – "two years in a row, I believe the first time it's been achieved."

He said the provenance of the meat, using only Australian pork, and the fact that everything was done by hand, was what set Pialligo apart from other bacon.

"It's the care and individual detail we give to each serving that we produce," he said.

Pialligo's general manager Charlie Costelloe said demand for the bacon had jumped since the estate won the best bacon title last year.

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It's now available in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth as well as around Canberra.

"It became a thing around Christmas, people giving other people 'Christmas bacon', and a lot of the local cafes have been supporting us so we've been getting traction two ways, in the retail sense and the cafes," he said. "A lot of new cafes are setting up and want something a little different, they want to focus on quality and they come to us."

At Southlands Quality Meats in Mawson, butcher Alan Matthews and his team were celebrating the full rasher bacon national title.

"The secret really is the right product, the female pork, not to over cook it but have it nice and smoky. We get all our woodchips from Germany and we use the one type and the one type only," he said.

"You get really nice, tender, flavoursome bacon."

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The winners

Best full rasher bacon: Southlands Quality Meat, Mawson, Canberra

Runners up: Country Meats, Lismore, NSW; Circle T Meats, Raceview, Queensland

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Best shortcut bacon: Pialligo Estate, Canberra

Runners up: Campbell's Superior Meats, West Pymble, NSW; Meat on Melville, Numurkah, Victoria

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Default avatarNatasha Rudra is an online editor at The Australian Financial Review based in London. She was the life and entertainment editor at The Canberra Times.

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