March 9th, 2010
The first promises of Spring and some sunny weather sees bulbs breaking the ground and the last of the hard fruits will be leaving the store room. Hardier game such as wild rabbit and wood pigeon are on the menu as long as those kind folks at DEFRA keep them classified as crop pests for the shooting fraternity. Such strong meats work well with one of the seasons real treat, rhubarb and quite luckily as there is very little other fresh fruit available, just yet.
Just over a couple of months left on some of the finest shellfish in our waters and then hands off until September. Oysters are at their best and careful farming around the UK has led to more choice. Another real treat, but certainly one for the enthusiast, the black truffle. Unknown to many, this is found in British soil and can now even be cultivated at home, Wiggly Wigglers have them in their catalogue. The only snag, is you have a couple of years to wait, but probably time to train up the family dog to find them 
Of course, it would be rude to miss the sturdy veg that has survived the cold winter; cauliflower, celeriac, parsnips and two short lived finds, Jerusalem artichokes and purple sprouting broccoli.
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March 4th, 2010
1 Meat.
Now this is the gory bit that gets people thinking about whether a sausage is a by product of butchery or the reason for it. What I mean by this is, is the sausage there to mop up the waste or not. By law, a pork sausage has to 42% meat, after allowable fat and connective tissue content, this leaves about 19% recognisable lean meat. A premium sausage will be at least 73% meat. Pure meat is not a good thing as you will have a burger in a skin which is not pleasant.
2 Fat.
Now I didn’t promise a totally healthy option here, this is a treat, but using the fat contained within the meat rather than adding meat is a bonus.
3 Rusk.
This is the other main texture in the sausage. It holds moisture and prevents the meat from becoming the all in one solid lump. Meat and rusk are two different products and don’t gloop together. In some sausages this is achieved by using bread crumbs.
4 Fluid.
Water, beer, wine or even fruit juices can be used to hydrate the rusk and give that delicious moistness that is essential in a good sausage. This is not about creating a slurry, far from it, this is a clear component and should be a sensual detection seperate from the meat and the rusk. The South African boerworst is a great example of this with a hefty glug of wine. From time to time, we use local beers as a flavour in their own right, a real celebration of Burton.
5 Casing.
This is the skin that hold the Great, British sausage together. Whether it is beef (tough), sheep (delicate), pork (in between) or collagen (all rounder), the casing creates the internal cooking environment of the sausage.
There are other ingredients such as spices and herbs which complete the flavour and texture of the sausage, but the real credit goes to the 5 above. All of these can be fantastic natural parts of the sausage jigsaw. A great sausage is just that, pride in ingredients and above all, British.
Tags: British food, home made, sausage
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February 15th, 2010
I was sent a YouTube link by one of our guests. Him and his young son are football fans (Port Vale) and have a ritual of going away to the matches, eating out somewhere nice and making a video diary of the day. We were very pleased when Mark came to visit us.
The full Video on YouTube
What struck me on this visit, was the very European nature. Food and family mix together very freely in places like France or Italy, it’s part of the culture. The British are coming around to this way of thinking, but it does not come naturally as it will take a generation to come through. My parents were brought up in the post war, convenience era and then as they got into comfortable middle age, along came fast food. So out came another generation expecting very little and trying out even less.
If you visit an Italian neighbourhood restaurant, you will not see a kids menu or anything else vaguely offensive to young diners. Children want to learn about food, explore menus and ask questions. To see a dad and his boy talking about and enjoying food, is the future of Britain. Thanks Mark
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January 28th, 2010
You will have difficulty looking at any decent menu these days without seeing the mention of aged beef. Why is it important and does it make a real difference? My own opinion, and I am known to have a few of those, is that if you see a steak knife alongside your steak, you’re going to need it. With an aged steak, this should not be the case, it should be soft easy to cut and easy to chew without the surgery beforehand.
When an animal is alive is relies on fibres in the muscles and the plumping of the various cells to move. Immediately after slaughter, the carcass will still be very close to this condition. This is the bright red meat you will see in packets in some supermarket fridges. The fibres are quite taut and the cell walls are still firm. The red colour is the young blood before the iron effectively starts to look rusty through contact with oxygen. As meat gets older, enzymes start to break down the connective tissues and this naturally softens the cut.
Aging does just this, by either the wet method or the dry method. Wet aging occurs in a sealed bag and after a few weeks the meat is a lot softer. This is a very convenient and safe way to age meat but nevertheless produces great results. The dry method sees the carcass, or at least a whole section of it stored at a certain humidity and temperature in very clean surroundings. A dry crust develops on the outside as it dries out. The loss of water causes a slight drop in weight, which in turn leads to a concentration of the flavour.
Combing both of these techniques leads to the optimum flavour but sadly something that is rarely seen. On a stay in the United States I visited a restaurant called Gallaghers and they had their own aging room. This probably contained the equivalent of 1500 dry aging steaks, so it gives you an idea of how many they sell.
So next time you offered an “aged steak”, that is bright red not purple and accompanied by a steak knife you need to ask the waiter a question, “How long was this aged?”. If you are told it was longer than 3 weeks, then ask them if that was the time between it going in the freezer and coming out again.
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January 6th, 2010
As Winter is firmly locked in, the more resilient foods flourish. Those hard root vegetables are at their best, parsnips, celeriac, sprouts and turnips all benefit from the cold snap. Guinea fowl and rabbit are available for the well wrapped up hunter and some deer are just coming to the end of their season. Firm white fish are optimum; monfish, halibut and turbot. If you like to chew on what has to be the closest relative of the hairbrush, try conger eel for it’s firm delicious meat and the unfathomable volume of bones. Some of the real gems are the shellfish; cockles, mussels, clams and winkles for those buttery, creamery, hearty bowlfuls. Oysters will be fantastic at this time of year and certainly keep at their peak until after Valentine’s Day.
Much of the food used at this time of year would have needed to be stored, preserved or immediately available to the cook. Some of the shellfish and game were gathered through foraging or hunting, vegetables stored in cold, dark places and other ingredients dried, salted or pickled. Perhaps it is no surprise that game seems to go well with a rich fruit sauce, as jam making may have been one way of keeping the produce for longer.
Our latest seasonal menu is available by clicking here
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November 26th, 2009
This week I have had the pleasure of being in Bristol, a city in the midst of some very proud and capable food producers. Apart from some amazing local ciders and beers, there are cheeses, sausages and great meat. One of the highlights was visiting a pub were there are photos on the wall of one of the owners foraging for mushrooms, shooting and fishing. It’s moments like this that make you realise that the understanding of food does not start with removing the packaging, a few steps back in fact. Chefs, restraurateurs and guests would benefit amazingly from seeing food at it’s harvest or in it’s creation.
Going to a small scale artisan cheesemaker (Staffordshire Cheese) and seeing the process, is an eye opener. This is a craft and not something that can be done well by machine, even though it’s a very accurate process, there is touch and taste involved too. One of my colleagues got to mentioning about aged beef and that is pretty much the start of one of my rants about the mistreatment and the false economy is mass managed young beef and the tasteless results that a premature life of poor feed and bulking has produced.
You need great raw ingredients, a lot of skill and the right technique to produce a great finished product. Aged beef is no different, nor is smoked fish, quality sausages or artisan cheese. It was a pleasure to see many fine eateries in the city use Great local food, but most importantly understanding it. Local and seasonal mean you get the best, but it’s a fad or a gimmick if you don’t know where you are doing in the first place.
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November 19th, 2009
This week I am in Prague at a conference. One of the benefits of this kind of travelling is that you can spend some time playing tourist and checking what is in the bars and restaurants. I was determined to try and walk into the city centre, rather than missing the sights by using the metro. The thirty minute or so walk, was more than worth it, interesting buildings and finally the eateries.
The menu outside one place looked very promising, so I headed down the stairs into an old brick cellar. I ordered a starter which was advertised as a pickled cheese and then pork with sauerkraut and potato dumplings. This came out with a couple of local beers and was truly a great meal, though very hearty, the walk back would certainly be needed after finishing this.
Unfortunately, one of my fellow countrymen did not follow my lead, but ordered spaghetti carbonara. Sometimes I wonder
Tags: local food, playing tourist, Prague
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November 12th, 2009
Very rarely do I get angered by a subject to take a stand, this is one occassion.
The Mail, a national paper in the UK published a story about a mother being fined by the council for feeding ducks, it was litter apparently.
Full article here
The councils reply was that they had a problem with Canada geese and feral pigeons and that the wardens don’t use handheld computers??? Well thought out defense.
Canada geese had flown by the time this “offence” was committed, about a month ago, I know these things, I run an award winning restaurant and understand shooting and game seasons. Besides which, I heard them leave our village pond over a weekend about a month ago.
Harry is smaller than most Canada geese and would be terrified of them, they get VERY aggressive when being fed, which leads me to think that this lady was feeding, wait for it, DUCKS with her young child.
One of the redeeming features of being a human is that you can put you hand up, say sorry and accept responsibility when you get it wrong.
If Vanessa Kelly is forced to pay a fine for her and Harry’s family afternoon out, I pledge to pay it for her.
Shame on you Sandwell !!!
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November 10th, 2009
Next week is a Great British festival of local ingredients. Game has been on the menu since hunter could errrm hunt and this is the height of the season for gorgeous autumnal fare. We are celebrating the week with an extra menu of game dishes, in addition to our current a la carte. The full menu can be seen online by clicking here.
British game is something that focuses the pallate on the season and also on what is available from our great countryside. It brings out the true craft of the butcher and the chef and this campaign allows us to share this with our friends each year.
Tags: game, national game week, season, taste of game
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