The Great British Sunday Roast - British Beef
We have to start with well-hung British Beef. We always hang our beef to develop flavour and begin the natural tenderising process. Properly hung meat may not look as pretty as freshly slaughtered meat, but there is good reason for that and it's what you should be looking for, not avoiding. After slaughter, the breakdown of oxygen in the blood produces lactic acid and it is this which tenderises meat, adding flavour in the process. It takes time for lactic acid to tenderise meat and indeed for gradual water loss to further concentrate the flavour.
Commercial restraints on supermarkets mean they simply do not hang their meat for long enough - it is on the shelves as quickly as possible after slaughter. This results in the meat being tough and tasteless in comparison to meat that has been properly hung. We always have beef aged from just 7 days up to 28 days and even beyond that for the connoisseurs.
Each week we seek out the best quality and value for our customers from suppliers at London’s Smithfield Market and directly from our farms in the English countryside of Sussex, Kent, & Oxfordshire. We use breeds such as Limousin, Lincoln Red, Simmental, Angus & some cross breeds all heralded for their great qualities, hardiness and yields.
The traditional beef cuts for roasting are Topside or Silverside. Taken from the hindquarter, the Topside is a lean and tender cut of meat. Both cuts are rolled and left with a sheet of fat around them to keep them moist during cooking.
Sirloin, rolled, is also taken from the hindquarters, producing another cut of tender meat ideal for roasting and the Rib of Beef is marbled with fat and makes for a juicy flavoursome roast joint. The bone can be removed but for the very best flavour, roast your rib with the bone in. The WOW factor in flavour and appearance cannot be beaten. Roasting times can be checked here.
Our friends at Hero and Leander were so impressed with our Cote de Boeuf that they road tested one of our 28-day dry aged steaks and wrote some nice things, which you can enjoy here.
I’ll probably be having my perfect roast with some creamy leeks, broccoli florets, potatoes roasted in the dripping alongside the meat and a pile of roasted carrots. And of course, gigantic Yorkshire puddings. We have the ingredients for them in our Larder section.
A top-quality beef joint deserves a top-quality glass of wine and we recommend our Valpolicella Superiore DOC, Campo Prognai, Latium Morini from Italy’s north and also Crozes-Hermitage Rouge, 'Les Pierrelles' from Domaine Albert Belle. Each is spot on for this meal. Don’t tinker!
