One box, three weeks of meals: how to build the perfect regular order

I was a Field & Flower subscription customer long before I started working here, which is why it’s such a privilege to be in middle of our product development and supply chain now. Over the years, I’ve played with the contents of my box to suit the weather, who’s coming round, what me and Ro (my other half) fancy, or just to make the most of the new products and 3 for £15s on the site. Throughout this, the same products crop up over and over that prop up our weekly routines and put us in good habits for the week ahead. I thought as a customer-turned-Field & Flowerite, I’d walk you through how I’d build the ideal regular order to feed 2 people for 3 weeks with some of the bits I can’t go without! Plus, this box is easily scaled up to feed 4 or more if you’re cooking for a crowd.

1. 2kg Free-Range Whole Chicken with Carcass, Wings & Giblets

Looking at our deliveries from Alec, it’s clear that I’m not alone in building my box around the humble whole chicken! Chicken is the most popular meat in the western world, and I think we owe a great debt to these humblest of fowls. I like to roast mine fast, the way the French do, with plenty of salt, pepper and thyme and shred it down. I throw my carcass, wings and giblets onto the same tray and roast them too. From the meat, staple meals for Ro will always be a chicken noodle soup, golden rice and classic Caesar salad with extra anchovies, and I won’t be letting anyone else at the oysters without a fight! For those who are confused, chicken ‘oysters’ are the two round, oyster-sized pieces of dark meat at the back of the chicken near the thighs and backbone, much coveted for their tender meat and deep flavour. I then drop the remaining carcass, scraps, crispy skin, leftover bones and roasted carcass wings and gibs into a pot and make a rich broth, like in this video here. Overall, I get 5 meals out of a whole chicken spread over 8-10 days. It’s a super sustainable way to buy and eat meat and saves you plenty of cash in the long run.

2. Honey Roast Ham

An absolute must-have. If you don’t get what I mean, you must not have tried it yet! Free range ham has a savoury richness that you don’t get with anything conventional, and I challenge any charcutier in the world to find me a more delicious fat. This combines with the chicken for some cracking sandwiches and salads for lunch or add to pan in a folded tortilla with a bit of Montgomery's Ogle Shield (much heralded as the greatest melting cheese in these British Isles) for a late night quesadilla. Don’t mind if I do.

3. Beef Mince, Coarse Cut

We recently upgraded our beef supply to source restaurant-quality, heritage breed beef from some of the best farmers in the business, and this mince truly lives up to the hype. I usually pop this in the freezer straight away ready for when we want a quick dinner. Spag bol, a hearty chilli, cottage pie, sloppy joes or spicy Asian beef bowls- it’s a total all-rounder and the meal opportunities are endless.

4. Pork Rib-Eye Steaks, Pack of 2

With these, you get all the caramelisation and unctuousness of a steak, plus it’s in our 3 for £15 range. Bargain. When people ask me what my favourite cut on the website is, I often say pork ribeyes. They’re a cut from the shoulder that’s only grill-able when it’s from a slowly reared, well-fatted free-range pig (making the most of our unfair advantage over the supermarkets) and are just confoundingly delicious. The shoulder’s packed with flavour, so these can stand up to a marinade, a sticky sauce, grilling straight onto charcoal and you’ll still have the flavour shine through. After cooking, rest well, slice thin and serve slightly blushing pink with plenty of coarse salt.

5. Any meatballs

Our Piri Piri Chicken Meatballs (I’ve been making and eating these since Uni) are hugely versatile and are great with a chilli sauce, served over rice or creamy mashed potato. Or add our Italian Sausage Meatballs to pasta or pasta bakes. Smash up into a ragu if you’re feeling fancy for base notes of fennel, nutmeg and sage.

6. Field & Flower Salted Butter

A fridge staple that you’ll use every day. I buy a double pack in the 3 for £15 range at the moment. It’s churned just 20 minutes from us in Somerset, and you can taste the quality of the West Country Cream immediately. Slather on chunky sourdough toast, sandwiches or use for flavour-packed cooking of eggs, steaks and your whole chicken. With the crisis around sunflower oils and seed oils in global volatile markets, I’m seeing more and more of a push to cook in butter and animal fats and I am loving it.

7. Your choice of Everyday Steak of the Week or Roasting Joint of the Week

Finally, I love making sure I’m helping to balance carcasses. For every 3kg of fillet steak produced we need to sell another 390kg of beef, so I buy our Steaks of the Week. And now it’s colder, I’ll be roasting up our new Roasting Joint of the Week (launching online next week!) as part of my order. Depending on how our orders fall, this will be 1.2kg of either Topside, Silverside or Top Rump. As a bit of a thank you for helping us balance and putting the trust in us to pick, you get premium beef at a better price per kg than similar cuts on site. It guarantees a lovely bit of beef to roast off on a Sunday, with those all-important leftovers afterwards. I like to slice it thin and refry with roasted red peppers, a bit of Worcestershire sauce, some Montgomery's Ogle Shield and some soy sauce to create a Philly cheesesteak mix for quick, on-the-go lunches.

That whole basket works out at 24 to 26 portions, feeding me and Ro for 3 weeks alongside our veg box, and works out at about £12.50 a week for each of us.