By Sam Whyte
A SCOTS diner has been voted as the maker of the best bacon butty in the world.
The snack – called the A90 Behemoth – was given the crown after it topped an online poll of 26 contenders with 780 votes.
The £3.60 porcine piece won, as one voter said, for the sheer “masses of bacon” – packing a massive 10 to 15 slices into one soft white roll.
The A90 Behemoth beat the best butties created by rivals in the United States, Canada, Spain and other European countries to win the coveted title.
It is the creation of The Horn milk bar near Errol on the A90 between Dundee and Perth – where the award winning sarnie gets its name.
Kenny Farquharson, 50, who owns the café said he was delighted to come out on top after thinking he might have been over-charging customers.
He said: “It feels great to win, especially when it’s worldwide – it’s one thing being well-known in the UK but it’s another when it’s a worldwide achievement.
“We are not cheap but we like to think we give value for money – we probably put more bacon on our rolls than anyone else going.
“You listen to adverts on the radio for ‘breakfast biscuits’ but you cannot beat a bacon roll.”
The closest competition, despite being 200 votes behind, was The Precision Engineer – a sandwich with slices of bread nearly an inch thick and six slices of grilled bacon.
Other hopefuls were The Classic Jumbo, The Unholy Wholemeal Bap, The Lipsmacking Lindsay and Bi-Bacon Bounty.
Another wannabe, The Gourmet Toasted, was even charging £35 for the meaty treat.
Kenny claims the secret to sandwich success is using the same suppliers of ingredients for more than 30 years.
The bacon comes from HW Irvine butchers in Blairgowrie and the rolls are supplied by Rough & Fraser of Dundee.
He added: “The secret is that you have to have the right ingredients from the start – you’ve got to know the source of your product.
“If you don’t have the right ingredients from kick-off then you’re not going to achieve anything.”
But even with the right ingredients, The Horn’s owner said you then need to know what to do with them – but he admits the diner’s location is helpful too.
Kenny said: “You’ve got to be careful they way you present it. The way you present it, the way you cook the bacon and we train our staff to ensure the bacon rolls we put out are top notch.
“Location is key – 80% of our traffic comes north of Dundee so we have to be bilingual.
“We have to speak Doric and Scottish and so do our staff – even the foreign staff have to learn that as well.
“We are synonymous with bacon rolls and long may it continue.”
Kenny Farquharson didn’t even know his business was nominated for the award until The Horn was announced as the winner.
He said: “When we found out we won The Register poll it was a complete shock – we didn’t even know we had been nominated.
“It turned out a customer called Neil Cardy entered us because he was impressed with the sheer masses of bacon we put on.
“The diner has been on the go for 52 years when my mother first started it as a wee milk shed, but since we started selling food in 1973 it’s been really busy and popular and it’s good to get some recognition.”
The proud owner revealed that his humble tuck shop is so popular they go through 120kg of bacon a day.
He added: “It’s insane the amount of pork we go through – out order is for between 20 and 25 bags of bacon from the supplier and each bag weighs 5kg.
“That’s a lot of bacon, but it goes really quickly because it’s so popular. I’m just so chuffed.
“I think Neil might have to get a wee bacon themed accolade for helping us win the award – maybe The Neil Meal Deal or something.”
The bacon roll got its name from a scene in the Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs, when the monotoned radio DJ introduces a fictional band called Big Daddy Don Bodine and their song “The Behemoth”.
Lester Haines, head of company Register who held the poll, said: “Our poll proves that the discerning diner always works on the ‘more is more’ principle when it comes to bacon.
“I’m delighted that our international readers selected the Horn’s truly magnificent and pork-packed behemoth as the ultimate bacon sarnie.
“We were looking at giving The Horn some kind of commemorative plaque hewn from bacon, but suspect their customers would slap brown sauce on it and eat it.
“I’ll be popping in to try one myself as soon as I’m north of the border.”
Lester added that the reason some baps lost out was because they added “unholy foreign extravagances such as lettuce, mayonnaise, and, unforgivably, guacamole.”
