A butcher has received a prestigious award for the best steak in Scotland.

Lanarkshire-based Coopers has lifted the coveted Diamond award in the nationwide 'naked steak' evaluation by Scottish Craft Butchers.

Co-owner Laura Black said: "Scottish beef is among the best in the world thanks to the dedication and hard work of our farmers and processors.

"It allows our butchers to handle the best and pass that on to our customers.

"My team - and my father's before me - visit the local farms, markets and abattoirs regularly and have built up long-standing relationships with our suppliers dating back more than 40 years that ensure continuity of quality.

"It's an absolute thrill to win the award for the best steak in Scotland. We're all delighted here at the butcher's shop but it's also a feather in the cap of everyone involved in the field-to-fork process."

Glasgow Times:

Glasgow Times:

Glasgow Times:

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The winning steak, from the Bellshill shop, was a Limousin and Aberdeen Angus cross sirloin.

It was aged for 28 days hanging in a dry chill, the traditional maturation process in Scotland that promotes full flavour and tenderness before passing to the butcher's team for final boning and trimming. 

Coopers, which employs 13 staff including six qualified butchers and two apprentices, has owned its Main Street premises for more than 40 years.