Kyabram’s salami muster where proof is in the pepperoni

And once again many realised they will have to lift their game after Mary and Angela D’Augello claimed their third title in four attempts.

Trophies aside, the real winner was the locally founded Hope for the Children charity, which has been helping fund projects in deprived areas, such as toilets, rainwater tanks and schoolbooks in India and now helping rebuild schools that have been burn down in Bali.

Salami Muster organiser Mary D’Augello admits to being “more than a little embarrassed” her family had won the title again, putting their success down to sticking to a very tried and true family recipe.

“Like everyone else, we go in this for fun, and as a great way of bringing the community together for a good night out and to help so many good causes,” Mary said.

“And we have a brilliant committee which on the night makes it all look so smooth and so simple – but of course it is anything but.”

Mary said judges were looking for everything from appearance and texture to colour and taste.

There was also the opportunity for the people’s favourite award, in which - just as embarrassingly - the D’Augellos won again.

This year also saw a first for the evening – the salami muster merchandise stand, selling a mix of Italian and Australian cooking.

“We were swamped, I reckon it took just 30 minutes to sell everything we had,” Mary said.

“And that’s the advantage of the new committee we had this year, lots of new ideas and lots of enthusiasm,” she said.

“You can’t do it on your own, I might be good at getting bums on seats, but others on the committee have all sorts of expertise which comes together to make it work.”

Mary said the original plan was to stage the muster every two years but said with the response and feedback from Saturday night they might have to put annual back on the agenda.