Why better beef equals better taste

There are two separate conversations that seem to happen around beef quality, but our fundamental belief is that the two conversations are inextricably linked. The time and effort taken in rearing the animal directly correlates with the quality of eating - better beef begets better beef. It’s kind of a Brucie bonus when eating more ethically. In talking about sourcing Galloways and Dexters and pedigree Angus, we are explicitly talking about all of the benefits to rare breed survival, traditional farming, the animal, the farming community and the environment, but implicitly telling you that this beef will taste fantastic.

If you’ve got a couple of minutes, I’d love to tell you a bit more about how that happens.

Taking the time to grow naturally on a diet of nutritious grass and hay means that, over the course of years, the animal can gently build fat through muscle and over muscle, creating richer marbling and better flavour. This gentle growth is typical of traditional, heritage and rare breeds and is one of the reasons that they are rarer. Faster growing animals mean high processing and pace, whereas we are looking for the quality of eating that comes from gentle growth. Our traditional and heritage breeds are ready for slaughter when they’re pushing 2-3 years old, having had two seasons on grass, rather than being the size of mini coopers at 13 months.

As part of this process, they are more suited to metabolising grass, meaning that more Omega 3 and carotene is deposited in the fat and finds its way into the steaks. You’ll notice this in the creamy, slightly yellow hue on the fat of our beef, as well as the marbling through it and the all-encompassing, fireworks-going-off, stop-in-your-tracks creamy rich flavour that comes with each bite. On top of this, the solid outer fat means that we can dry-age our prime steaks for 28 days no problem, pushing on further should we like to, knowing that the steaks are perfectly preserved, gently enriching in this cocoon of lovingly layered back fat.

Marketing campaigns through the late 20th century emphasised the softness of beef as the pinnacle of eating. Why? Could it be because developing depth of flavour and character in beef was contrary to the global drive to create faster growing, younger slaughtered cattle, where depth of flavour was impossible, but tenderness was a convenient result? Perhaps. We’re on a mission to find those farmers still farming heritage breeds slowly because we know that it’ll produce knockout beef right across the carcass. That’s the secret in holding the relationship with the farmer and buying the whole body- every part of that animal will be better from nose to tail.

When growing slowly, hanging properly, the entire carcass gives better beef, not just the prime cuts that specialist breeding programmes are targeting. To give you an idea, the below is a shot I took in the fridge this week of a Denver steak, one of our everyday steaks of the week. The main thing to note is that it doesn’t look very ‘everyday’ to me!

This is a muscle that would drop through the mincer or potentially be diced into braising steak in a commercial beef animal, but the effect of the farming system transcends the entire carcass. Denvers are cut from the chuck, on the shoulder of the animal, a naturally hardworking section of the forequarter. When the animal’s lived and eaten well, more steaks are almost ‘unlocked’ because the dry age, softness and eating quality is plain to see up and down the animal. That’s why we’re so excited about opening up our ‘Steak of the Week’ ranges. When our butchers notice something this good, it would be sacrilege to not have it find its way to the customer in its perfect state, and in buying that product from us, you trust the butcher to go out and get the best option for you and knock your socks off.

It doesn’t stop there. The fat is so rich and creamy, we’re launching a 70/30 beef mince blend to make smash burgers with and working with a renderer to even sell it in jars this autumn. Joints of the week will soon follow steaks of the week so that we can make the most of every cut of these amazing animals, and I’m confident that the time and effort of the farmers in our scheme will be immediately noticeable on the plate and in the mouth.