We have been working with our friends at Potts Partnership for a couple of years now. We really like their range of sauces, and how they have put a modern twist onto some of our favourites.
Their roasting kits are a big hit with our customers. They contain everything you need to transform your humble meat into a spectacular roast dinner with gravy and condiments included.
Just in time for Summer, we’re really excited to introduce you to the newest member of the Potts family – a new range of marinades which come with their own handy sealable bag, which makes using them really easy and mess-free.
Choose from BBQ, Jerk, or Piri Piri - each pack contains enough marinade to prepare 600g of meat, which is plenty for 4 servings.
The BBQ marinade is a Tex-Mex style, inspired by the barbecue cooking of the Southern United States. It is tomato-based and contains Kentucky Bourbon with smoked chipotle chilli for a rich, deep flavour.
Jerk is the most well-known Jamaican dish, and our Jerk marinade has plenty of heat from fruity habanero chillies and a fragrant spicy kick from pimenta allspice (also known as Jamaican Pepper). This is all mellowed with a little rum.
Our Piri Piri marinade is inspired by the traditional Portugese sauce, and we’ve blended plenty of chilli with lemon juice and zest along with roast garlic.
The best thing about our new marinating bags in that they're so easy to use.
Just put your chosen meat in the bag, seal it with the built in zip, and leave the marinade to work its magic for at least an hour – but ideally overnight so that the flavour can really permeate the meat.
All marinades are ideal to use with chicken but also work really well with pork and fish. If you're using fish just don’t worry about marinating for as long – an hour or two should be plenty.
For more information please see:
Order BBQ Marinades online
24th April 2017
read full articleThe Falkland Islands are a British Overseas Territory which lies 300 miles from the coast of Argentina. It is home to 3,000 people and 500,000 sheep, which goes some way to explain how important sheep farming is to the island.
The Falkland Islands’ flag even includes a sheep!
Lamb from the Falkland Islands is renowned for being full of flavour, and we are delighted to be able to introduce you to it.
The Falklands are a lush, windswept group of islands in the Atlantic, and this pure, unpolluted environment is the perfect place to rear sheep – just as nature intended.
The sheep feed on native white grass and coastal greens all year round, and are completely free to roam the wide pastures.
Falkland Islanders in the UK tell us that no other lamb can beat the lamb from home, and we have had many requests to begin importing it.
Our first shipment has finally arrived and we now have beautiful Falklands lamb in stock, and available to order online.
We are carrying limited cuts and we have whole lamb legs and square-cut lamb shoulders.
The lamb has to come in to us frozen because of the long voyage it takes by sea, via Venezuela. It is frozen very quickly after being portioned and packed, so the freshness is preserved exactly as it was when it left the Islands.
Falkland Island sheep grow more slowly than other varieties, and therefore remain smaller for longer. Because of this, Falklands lamb joints are the size of standard lamb joints although it can have come from an older animal, which would otherwise be classed as Hogget or Mutton.
Lamb meat is from a sheep aged below 1 year, whereas Hogget is the name for meat taken from a sheep between 1 and 2 years of age, and Mutton is anything older. Hogget is slightly darker than lamb, and has a richer flavour.
Our Falklands lamb is now available to order online for delivery across the UK.
For more information please see:
Falkland Islands Lamb
17th April 2017
read full articleWe’re big fans of British meat and we always try to promote independent farmers who use high welfare methods of rearing their animals.
We believe this is right from an ethical point of view, as well as being reflected in the quality of the end product.
We have recently introduced free-range Label Anglais English chickens to our online shop. They are very high welfare, slow-grown chickens that are reared not far from Stonehenge in Wiltshire.
Initially bred to provide a British equivalent to the high quality Label Rouge French poultry brand, Label Anglais chickens are a favourite with celebrity chefs and restaurant diners alike.
Our chicks are moved at 5 weeks of age from their brooding site, where they have been since one day old, to their free-range housing 5 miles away.
Here they live in smaller groups in wooden huts with free access to large grassy areas and banks, and vast outdoor space with shaded areas and dust bowls for scratching.
They are then reared until fully-grown, which is at 80 days old. This is much longer than standard supermarket birds, which live for around 35 days. Letting the chickens grow for longer not only gives them a happier, longer life, but it means the meat is fully developed naturally, and will be more flavoursome and firmer that a younger chicken would be.
The chickens' diet is based on cereals, and supplemented by protein from peas. Natural whole maize and oats from neighbouring farms are fed alongside the whole cereal feed diet, with whole apples introduced at 7 weeks to add enrichment.
Our Label Anglais free-range chickens are delivered into us at Smithfield Market every Wednesday, so if you order online we can deliver to you on Thursday or Friday.
Each chicken reaches you with their giblets in a sealed bag so you can use them to make stock or gravy, or feed to your cat if you prefer (they love them!).
Just don’t forget to remove the bag from inside the chicken before cooking.
For more information please see:
Label Anglais English Chickens
11th April 2018
read full articleOur Red Ruby beef is really popular and we’ve been overwhelmed with online orders for it since we started selling it last Summer.
Red Ruby is a native British breed of cattle and they are very distinctive, as they're quite short and stocky compare to other breeds. They have beautiful red coats which are long and curly through the cold months, and they’re starting to shed down to a finer covering now that winter’s gone.
The Red Ruby beef has been so in demand that we’ve been looking at extending the range, and selling different cuts of beef online from them.
To start the Red Ruby range we sold mainly steaks, including some less well-known cuts such as Denver steak, and Flat Iron steak. We also have Topside joints which are perfect for roasting.
Because these items have all been really popular we’re now going to be selling even more.
Beef Shin is massively under-rated, and as with all unusual cuts of meat it is cheaper than some of the more well-known cuts.
Shin is perfect for slow cooking in a red wine-based stock and just forgetting about for 3 hours, until the meat will be falling apart and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
At £7 for a generous 500g boneless slice it’s great value, too.
After numerous requests we also now have minced and diced Red Ruby beef to buy online, which you can use in exactly the same way as other mince/diced beef, and be amazed at the difference!
Make your usual Bolognese or Cottage pie using Red Ruby mince and it will really improve the flavour and texture of the whole dish.
Our Minced Red Ruby is £5.50 for 500g, and the Diced Red Ruby is £6.20.
Our Red Ruby are from the Chapman Herd, a herd of 150 cattle who are farmed close to Sarrant in Hertfordshire, right on the edge of the beautiful Chiltern Hills.
They feed only on what they forage, which is a mixture of wild grasses, clover, and herbs, and they're never given cereals or soya to supplement them.
Our Red Ruby cattle are Animal Welfare Approved, and are certified members of the Pasture Fed Livestock Association which means they have been independently verified as 100% pasture fed.
Pasture fed beef has been proven to be lower in saturated fat and higher in Omega 3 fatty acids, CLA and vitamins B and E than grain and soya fed beef - plus it tastes better, too.
Pasture-fed and grass-fed are very similar, however pasture has much more of a variety of plants, rather than just grass, so is a more nourishing and natural diet.
If you’re looking to buy beef online, you can’t go far wrong with Red Ruby.
Order from Keevils for delivery and we can be with you in as little as 48 hours.
For more information please see:
Red Ruby Beef
5th April 2018
read full articleAs if by magic, Easter is next weekend. And if you’re wondering how that came round so quicky, you’re not alone.
We love Easter, and it’s not just because of the chocolate eggs.
At Easter we get the same time off work as at Christmas but with none of the pressures of having to send cards, buy presents, and spend time with a whole host of in-laws that we’d really rather not.
Having said that, we love to gather our nearest and dearest together at Easter, and that always revolves around food.
Lamb is a traditional meat to enjoy at Easter, and we have a really great option for you.
Icelandic lamb is renowned around the world for being flavoursome, tender, and very lean.
The sheep live a very free-range life, and are free to graze on pastures of grass, willow, moss, and berries, which gives the meat a distinctive flavour.
Food connoisseurs can tell the difference between lamb from different regions, and the lamb from Iceland is supposedly more aromatic than other varieties.
In Iceland, no antibiotics, hormone supplements, pesticides or herbicides are used in meat production, and this means you can be happy the lamb is natural and as it should be.
We have shoulders of Icelandic Lamb, which will be £20 each but are currently on an introductory offer of £14 each.
We also have cockerels as another option for Easter dinner.
Our cockerels are from Adlington, who also supply our Three-Bird Roasts at Christmas.
The cockerels are free-range, and have a completely natural diet of wheat, maize and whole oats, supplemented with locally-grown apples.
The cockerels love the apples and they give the meat an added sweetness and tenderness.
Each cockerel costs £37.50, and weighs around 3kg, so will provide plenty of meat for 6-8 people.
If you're looking for ideas on what to put on your Easter menu, hop over to BBC Food for some inspiration!
We are delivering until Thursday 29th March, and we need your order by Sunday 25th March.
For more information please see:
Icelandic Lamb Shoulder
Apple-fed Cockerels
Easter offers
23rd March 2018
read full articleVeal can be a controversial subject, and we know a lot of people don’t agree with it on ethical grounds.
However we have recently started selling Rosé Veal from Devon which is free-range and reared to very high welfare standards.
Veal is the meat from young cows, so is the beef equivalent of lamb, in comparison.
Much of the veal available in the UK in recent years has been ‘white’ veal, from the Netherlands. It’s so-called because of its pale colour – a result of the calves being fed solely on milk. They are kept in cramped conditions that would fall short of welfare standards in the UK.
In the UK dairy industry, female calves go on to be the next generation of milking cows, while the males have traditionally been surpass to requirements and would be shot while very young, often soon after birth.
However, we believe it is more ethical to rear the male calves and give them a decent life, before eventually using them to produce Rosé Veal.
Rosé Veal gets its name from its dark pink colour; not as dark as beef, but much darker than white veal.
Our veal comes from Weston’s Dairy farm in Tiverton, where the dairy herd of pedigree Jersey cattle have been farmed by the Weston family since 1904.
The calves are reared to very high welfare standards, and are farm-assured under the Farm Assured British Beef and Lamb (FABBL) scheme. The farm has also been awarded the Good Calf Commendation by the Compassion in World Farming. This means that the calves are reared to a higher welfare standard than is required by law, which is really important to us, and very different from traditional veal production.
From 3 weeks of age the calves are reared outdoors during the summer months in groups of 24, and then brought indoors during the winter when the ground becomes wet. Whilst inside they are housed in smaller groups of 12, with plenty of space and bedded on straw, with grass silage to eat. They’re given a balanced diet that contains all the nutrients they need and they’re fed milk twice a day. This produces rose veal (pink meat), not the Dutch white veal which is created purposely by an unbalanced and deficient diet.
The calves are reared to the age of 6-8 months – the same age as many lambs. Then the meat is allowed to hang for two weeks before being portioned.
Rosé Veal has a delicate beef flavour and is really a great alternative to beef or lamb, and one which is ethically sound, too.
We have a selection of Rosé Veal cuts available to buy online including Escalopes and Osso Bucco, which is sliced veal shin.
For more information please see:
Buy Rosé Veal
Compassion in World Farming
5th March 2018
read full articleWe are the oldest Smithfield Market butchers but as well as selling meat, we’re always looking for new and exciting ways of dressing up our dinners and making our meats even better.
We stock a wide choice of sauces that go with meat perfectly, and we’re constantly looking to build on the range.
Our latest additions come courtesy of our good friends over at Eat 17 in Walthamstow, inventors and producers of our new obsession – Bacon Jam.
Eat 17 was initially (and still is) a store and restaurant set up to serve the discerning residents of East London.
In the kitchen they came up with an idea to combine crispy bacon with onion jam, and use it to top their burgers. Customers loved it and wanted to buy it separately to use at home and the rest, as they say, is history.
We stock three variants – the original Bacon Jam, Chilli Bacon Jam, and Chorizo Jam.
The chilli version has a pleasant kick at the end, and the chorizo jam is a deep and really savoury flavour that we love.
Bacon Jam is of course perfect in a burger in place of relish or ketchup, but can be used in loads of other ways, too.
Stir it simply through cooked pasta for a quick and easy supper; bake it twisted in puff pastry to make savoury pastries; add a spoonful to soups or stews; serve with cheeses instead of chutney.
Or just serve it spread on crusty bread – simple and yet so good!
The Chorizo Jam is really good with seafood and is great served on the side with any type of grilled fish and with scallops particularly.
If you run out of ideas, Eat 17 have put together their own Bacon Jam Cookbook which is packed with really clever and delicious recipe ideas, all using our new favourite product.
Take a look and add some to your next order, if you love bacon this is the perfect sauce for you!
For more information please see:
Bacon Jam
Chilli Bacon Jam
Chorizo Jam
1st August 2017
read full articleWe are always being asked to source various products, some more unusual than others, but the one thing we are consistently asked for is top quality British Beef.
We are therefore absolutely thrilled to let you know about our newest beef, which is taken from pasture-fed Red Ruby cattle.
Red Ruby are a traditional British breed, originating from Devon, and they have distinctive red coats which grow long and quite curly in the colder months, then shed down to a sleeker covering in the Summer.
They are very hardy and are happy to live outside almost all year round, only being brought inside when the weather is particularly extreme.
Red Ruby are smaller and more docile than most other breeds, which means that they aren’t the animal of choice for farmers looking to turn a fast profit by producing huge carcasses. Instead they are more suited to producers who are passionate about a quality product, reared traditionally and using all natural methods.
Our Red Ruby are from the Chapman Herd, a herd of 150 cattle who are farmed close to Sarratt in Hertfordshire, right on the edge of the beautiful Chiltern Hills, and just 26 miles from us here at Smithfield.
They are reared in mixed-age groups which is how they would live in a natural herd, and this helps to maintain their levels of contentment, and lower stress levels.
They feed only on what they forage, which is a mixture of wild grasses, clover, and herbs, and they're never given cereals or soya to supplement them. Even in Winter when the pastures are less bountiful, the haylage that the Chapman Herd feed on will have been made from those same fields earlier in the year.
They are Animal Welfare Approved, and certified members of the Pasture Fed Livestock Association which means they have been independently verified as 100% pasture fed.
Pasture-fed beef has been proven to be lower in saturated fat and higher in Omega 3 fatty acids, CLA and vitamins B and E than grain and soya fed beef - plus it tastes better, too.
Pasture-fed and grass-fed are very similar, however pasture has much more of a variety of plants, rather than just grass, so is a more nourishing and natural diet.
Allowing the pastures to develop fully has a knock-on effect to the other wildlife. The insect and bird populations living alongside the Chapman Herd are also flourishing because of the diversity in the plant life.
After slaughter, our Red Ruby is left to dry-age for 28 days before being cut into portions, and this allows the meat to tenderise, and the flavour to mature and develop.
On each pack of steaks you’ll find a QR code, just scan it with a smartphone (or enter the label code here) and it will tell you all the information about where your steak came from, including the details of the exact animal and farmer that produced it.
We truly believe our Red Ruby beef is the best available, and we guarantee you will enjoy it – or your money back.
For more information please see:
Red Ruby Beef
7th July 2017
read full articleWe are very proud and excited to introduce you to our new supplier of buffalo steaks: Broughton Water Buffalo.
Broughton Farm is just outside the pretty village of Stockbridge in Hampshire.
It’s in the Test Valley, a gorgeous area right in the middle of three officially designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Cranbourne Chase, the North Wessex Downs, and the South Downs National Park).
With rolling hills, natural streams, and stunning views in every direction, this is the English countryside at its very finest.
Broughton Farm itself spreads over 500 acres, and farmer Nick has been breeding buffalo there for 14 years.
He uses only completely natural farming methods, meaning no fertilisers or chemicals are used at all on the farm, and the 250 buffalo that live there are left to roam their huge pastures amongst wild grasses and flowers that are left waist-height to mimic their natural habitat.
The buffalo are never given any additional feed than what grows on the farm, and they aren’t given hormones or antibiotics, either.
This very natural life is how farming was done 100s of years ago, and is really clear in the resulting meat that the buffalo produce.
To help drain the soil at Broughton, Nick has planted Lucerne, which is in the same plant family as clover. It has high levels of protein and fibre and the buffalo love to eat it, and its long roots can grow up to 15 metres in length, helping with soil drainage. It also means the plants still survive even during dry periods because the long roots can reach water far below the surface.
The buffalo are slaughtered very close to the farm, so their transport time is minimal, which is of course better for the animals as they have less stress to deal with.
The meat is left to hang and dry-age for 21 days which helps tenderise the meat and also allows the flavour to develop. After hanging, the meat is portioned and then frozen in vacuum-sealed packs.
Freezing the steaks is the best way to preserve them at their best, and when you receive them you can easily put them in the freezer if you don’t want to eat them straight away.
Buffalo itself is a very lean meat, similar to beef but with a more robust flavour – delicate but with a full, rich taste that beef just doesn’t have.
You can order Broughton buffalo steaks online individually, or buy a Buffalo Selection box containing one of each steak, and this way you also save 15% on the individual prices.
We know our buffalo is good – and we are really happy to let you know that our Buffalo Sirloin steaks have been shortlisted as Best British Meat in the 2017 Great British Food Awards.
The winners will be announced in September, and we are confident Broughton will come out on top!
For more information please see:
Buffalo Steaks
Buffalo Steak Selection Box
Great British Food Awards 2017
19th June 2017
read full article
Father’s Day this year is on Sunday 18th June, and if you haven’t bought your Dad a present yet you really need to start thinking about it!
Dads always tend to do worse on Father’s Day than Mums do on Mother’s Day. In fact, research shows that we spend on average a third more on Mother’s Day presents than on the male equivalent.
This is terrible – those poor Dads!
We think it’s about time this was put right, and if you’re struggling for ideas on what Father’s Day present to buy the top man in your life, we have a great idea!
We all know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right? Well it’s just the same when that man is your Dad.
Our new Breakfast Box is a brilliant combination of our favourite breakfast items, including our superb new Breakfast Sauce, made by our friends at Salubrious Sauces.
All you need to add are eggs, beans, maybe a tomato or two, and mushrooms (if you’re that way inclined).
Breakfast Sauce is somewhere between tomato ketchup and brown sauce; it’s fruity, tangy, with a mild spicy kick. It’s fantastic with a fry-up and finally settles that age-old debate “red or brown?”.
Also included in the Breakfast Box is a large pack of 18 of our ever-popular Cumberland Sauces, taken from prime British pork shoulder, mixed with black and white pepper.
Around 30 slices of premium Dry-Cured smoked Back Bacon from Norfolk, and one of our delicious traditional Irish Black Pudding Sticks.
So that’s breakfast all round, with plenty for everyone.
(We find the best presents are the ones that you get to share!).
Don’t forget – it isn’t just your Dad that needs to be treated on Father’s Day! What about your Grandad, Step Dad, Father-in-law, and even the father of your children. They all deserve a day of being spoilt, too.
Order the Breakfast Box online for delivery to your choice of UK mainland address.
Place your order by Midnight on Wednesday 14th June to guarantee delivery before Father’s Day 18th June.
For more information please see:
Breakfast Box
Breakfast Sauce
12th June 2017
read full articleWe’re big garlic fans and we put it in pretty much everything we cook, but have you ever heard of black garlic?
Black Garlic isn’t a special variety of garlic, it’s made by taking regular white garlic and cooking it really slowly at varying temperatures, until it turns black in colour and the texture is so soft that it can easily be squashed between two fingers.
Cooking the garlic mellows the flavour, and black garlic has a mild, savoury taste very similar to balsamic vinegar, and it has none of the pungency of normal, uncooked garlic.
However it retains all of the vitamins and minerals of raw garlic, including vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), vitamin C, manganese, selenium, phosphorous, calcium, potassium, iron and copper.
Black garlic adds depth to dishes, and gives them a punch of extra flavour. We love adding a few chopped cloves to our normal Bolognese; it makes it really rich and unctuous.
For a tasty meal that looks very cheffy and impressive, simply cook some spaghetti and stir in finely sliced black garlic and good quality olive oil. We know of a chef that charges £14 for this in his restaurant!
Another very indulgent way of enjoying black garlic is also very simple – chop a couple of cloves and stir into scrambled eggs as they're cooking. It adds richness and flavour, and makes a very decadent breakfast or brunch. Best enjoyed with smoked salmon!
Our black garlic is made by Balsajo in South West London, and has been a labour of love for company founder Katy, who discovered black garlic through a friend and then worked out how to produce it herself after much trial and error!
Luckily for us she mastered the process and we’re excited to now be stocking her black garlic in store and online.
There are loads of other recipes on the Balsajo website if you’d like any more inspiration.
For more information please see:
Buy Black Garlic
11th May 2017
read full articleIf you love sauce with your food but you’re bored of tomato ketchup then we may have just the thing for you.
We’re constantly on the look-out for new products that we think our customers will love, and the general rule we use is that if we like them, our customers will too.
When we heard about Aphrodite’s ketchup we were intrigued, because the main ingredient is pomegranate molasses, a very little-used ingredient and something we hadn’t come across in a sauce before.
The owner of the company, Aphrodite (AKA Dixie) is a Professional Cookery graduate of Westminster Kingsway College who was also a finalist on Channel 4’s ‘The Taste’.
One morning while contemplating what she could slather on her bacon and egg sandwich, Dixie discovered pomegranate molasses, her favourite Middle Eastern ingredient, in the cupboard. She mixed it with Turkish tomato puree salça and a blend of spices, and in doing so she unknowingly made her first batch of Pomegranate Ketchup.
After months of tweaking and improving the recipe, Pomegranate Ketchup was born. Late in 2015, Dixie and her partner Will built a kitchen in an East London railway arch and began to produce and sell their delicious Ketchup.
Pomegranate ketchup is sweet but has a very subtle underlying spice. We see it as somewhere between ketchup and relish, and serve it with basically everything.
It goes particularly well with grilled meats, and rich meats like duck and lamb.
It’s also an excellent glaze to use in cooking, just brush it on your choice of meat before grilling, for a sweet and sticky finish.
Dixie has put together a selection of recipe ideas using pomegranate ketchup, just click here to view them.
We really hope you’ll enjoy Aphrodite’s Pomegranate Ketchup as much as we do.
As ever , if you see any products you’d like us to feature, or if there’s something you aren’t able to find in the shops anymore that you used to buy – please let us know and we’ll do our best to source it for you.
For more information please see:
Aphrodite’s Pomegranate Ketchup
20th April 2017
read full article
