THE peppered cabanossi that won Steve Carey a coveted first-place trophy last week was only the second batch ever made at Killarney Butchery.

Giving half of the first batch away to customers for feedback, he received such positive feedback he decided to "run with it."

He said one customer was particularly impressed with the recipe.

"He looked me straight in the eye and said, 'I wouldn't change a thing'," he said.

Mr Carey entered Killarney Butchery into two out of seven categories at the 2017 AMIC Queensland Ham, Bacon, Jerky and Smallgoods competition in Brisbane and took home top places in both.

Winning first place in the kabana category with the peppered cabanossi, Mr Carey was also awarded third place for his bacon rashers.

Competing against big city butchers from around Queensland including entrants from Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Mr Carey credited local produce for his success.

"It's the quality of the product, local beef and local pork," he said.

"Around Killarney you can get a lot of product still on the mother with quality milk and grass.

"Local farmers come to me and tell me they've got something ready."

Starting his career at a smokehouse, Mr Carey said he had developed extensive experience in butchery over the years.

He opened Killarney Butchery one year ago with his wife Karen and said the community was very supportive of local businesses.

This year was the first time Mr Carey had entered the competition.

Mr Carey said the judges refrained from giving a lot of feedback, but he believed it all came down to quality and appearance.

He was instructed to send a middle of bacon with slices for the judges to perform a blind tasting.

Watching them go down the line, he said he saw them cutting the slices and smelling the bacon, before a rasher from each entrant was cooked.

"It's good to see how other blokes do theirs so I can improve for next year," he said.

Mr Carey uses a manual gas-fired oven, similar to the one he first used when he was staring out at the smokehouse.

"It's got no bells and whistles, it's all manual," he said.

He said experimentation and flavour were two key components when getting the flavour of his products just right.

"To make a good bacon it's a lot of trial and error," he said.

"Plenty of smoke is another secret.

"We get complimented on the smokey flavour."

The first-place winning kabana also had flavour in spades and Mr Carey said he was "chuffed" about the result.

"It was a bit of luck but a lot of different types of pepper gives it a bit of a kick," he said.

Already planning to enter the competition again, Mr Carey said he was likely to enter five categories next year.