BURNS Night in a pie has helped secure a Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly-based butchers, Hugh Black & Sons, a shower of glittering honours in the latest round of industry awards.

The popular family butchers secured a Gold Award and three Silver Awards for their delicious produce in the Scottish Craft Butchers Haggis/Pork Products Awards 2019.

The Golden plaudits went to Hugh Black & Sons' Alloway Pie - marking it out as among the best of its type in Scotland.

The company, which has shops at the Raith Centre in Cowdenbeath and Bank Street, Lochgelly, also lifted three Silver Awards for their Burns Burgers; Spicy Salt and Pepper Pork Stir Fry; and Italian Flavoured Pork Meatballs.

The tasty Gold Award-winning pie features traditional haggis, neeps and tatties in a pie shell, with a few secret touches instilled by factory manager and product development chef Willie Kemp.

"We've included a wee secret recipe beef sauce which introduces a new level of flavour and helps to keep the pie centre nice and moist," he revealed.

Willie develops all the product recipes for the butchers business which has a chain of 12 shops throughout the central belt and from Cambuslang to Cowdenbeath - in addition to their production factory at Bathgate.

Trained chef Willie created the Alloway Pie specially for the industry evaluations but said that it's success would see it feature throughout the designated Year Of the Haggis in 2019.

"We'll be featuring many different products incorporating haggis in the coming months," he said, "and helping to keep haggis on the menu all year round."

Hugh Black & Sons was one of around 60 butchers from all over Scotland who submitted a wide variety of handcrafted products which were judged blind in one of the industry's most keenly contested awards.

Douglas Scott, Chief Executive of Scottish Craft Butchers, said judges had been "blown away" by the innovation and tastiness of the entries.

"2019 is The Year Of The Haggis and we wanted to encourage butchers to offer their customers delicious alternatives for their Burns Supper feast and for the remainder of the year," he said.

"Scotlands butchers from the Moray Firth to the Solway Firth have risen to that challenge magnificently and shown the versatility of haggis.”