Food lovers from Cookstown and Limavady create an original spicy Nduja ketchup

Cookstown-based Paul Clarke and Alastair Crown, a successful pig farmer create Corndale Nduja Ketchup for professional chefs and home cooks to spice up a range of meat dishes
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Cookstown-based Paul Clarke, an award-winning food innovator, has created a uniquely spicy ketchup in collaboration with Alastair Crown, a successful pig farmer and producer of UK Great Taste winning cured meats in Limavady.

Both are passionate about great tasting and innovative food.

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They’ve produced Corndale Nduja Ketchup for professional chefs and home cooks to spice up a range of meat dishes. The ketchup is being launched under Alastair’s popular Corndale brand, an established identity in charcuterie products.

An experienced and talented chef, Paul now runs two small food enterprises here, En Place Foods and Craigavon’s Craic Foods, which specialise in sauces, dips, seasonings and other products that provide original flavours for restaurants, food service and speciality retailers such as delis and farm shops.

Craic Foods, formed in 2017, has developed an extensive portfolio of flavours and creative food ideas including black garlic sauce, Thai marinade, black bean chilli dressing and Japanese chilli furikake

Paul’s companies are among the most successful and innovative in UK Great Taste Awards. He has created original sauces for other local producers including Peter Hannan’s Hannan Meats in Moira and flavours for Abernethy Butter in Dromara, Lo and Slo Sauces in Londonderry, Islander Kelp on Rathlin Island, and Portrush’s Irish Black Butter savoury/sweet spread.

Sauces have also been developed by Paul at En Place for food businesses in the Republic.

Paul explains: “We have been supplying Alastair at Corndale with the spices and seasonings he uses in his award-winning charcuterie for a while, and I had become a particular fan of the spicy and soft nduja salami that he handcrafts.

“He produces a superb range of products, including nduja, sourced from his own high welfare free-range saddle-back pigs, all fed a locally sourced diet which he supplements with vegetables from here. We love his great ‘field to fork’ approach to his products.

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“Having used the Corndale nduja at home in various sauces and dressings, I saw a great opportunity to develop it into a condiment with a difference for chefs and home cooks.

“Nduja is an intensely spicy, spreadable pork sausage originally created in the Calabria region around the town of Spilinga in southern Italy. It is ideal for adding to a number of dishes including pasta, pasta sauces and pizza. The outcome of this collaboration is a rustic ketchup from roasted Calabrian chillies and richness from the free-range pork reared here.

The new Corndale nduja ketchup developed by Alastair Crown and Paul Clarke of Craic Foods, Craigavon and En Place Foods in CookstownThe new Corndale nduja ketchup developed by Alastair Crown and Paul Clarke of Craic Foods, Craigavon and En Place Foods in Cookstown
The new Corndale nduja ketchup developed by Alastair Crown and Paul Clarke of Craic Foods, Craigavon and En Place Foods in Cookstown

“The ingredients work well together, and with traditional nduja being such a trending ingredient right now, we are confident it’s going to be well-received by the hospitality industry and adventurous home cooks. It’s a unique, rich and flavoursome taste experience."

Formed by Alastair in 2014, Corndale Farm Free Range Charcuterie launched the region’s first nduja around 2019.

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Alastair, who started the pig farm from a background in solar technology, adds: “Nduja is based essentially on pork belly with creamy fat from our own free-range animals. And it’s the creaminess of the fat which makes the salami spreadable. The meat is then fermented and air-dried in our own chambers before being seasoned with chilli, smoked paprika, roasted Calabrian peppers and some other ingredients which remain a company secret.”

Corndale’s products are all created from the company’s closed herd of pigs bred naturally on the farm without chemicals and antibiotics. The company has a 100-strong herd fed on a natural diet sourced locally and supplemented with vegetables.

Alastair Crown of Corndale Farm Charcuterie in Limavady, developer of the nduja used in the new ketchupAlastair Crown of Corndale Farm Charcuterie in Limavady, developer of the nduja used in the new ketchup
Alastair Crown of Corndale Farm Charcuterie in Limavady, developer of the nduja used in the new ketchup

All Corndale Farm products have provenance and traceability.

The small company developed the first Northern Ireland charcuterie in 2016, launching an air dried Spanish style chorizo, the first from a Northern Ireland farm-based producer. Other European-style cured meat products followed including chilli chorizo, fennel salami, Bresaola and whole muscle cuts.

The new ketchup is the latest collaboration between smaller producers in Northern Ireland’s vibrant food industry which is focused on the creation of innovative food experiences. Both have a successful track record in working together with other local enterprises on new products.

Corndale Farm, for instance, has collaborated successfully with Broughgammon Farm in Ballycastle on an original venison salami meat and on a buffalo salami with Magherafelt’s Ballyriff Farm.