Roast beef with all the trimmings?
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Roast beef with all the trimmings is a British tradition....
Try different meats without gravy and channel your inner wine critic!! Does it remind you of mushrooms, pepper or even toffee? Does it have a sharp finish or is it buttery. Once you start to understand the difference tastes and textures you'll know exactly what you want. Think of the wine market 20 years ago, most people simply ordered Red Wine or White Wine, now everybody is an expert!!
Beef is 75% water so now matter how good it is, after 4 or 5 chews you'll be left with a dry lump of meet in your mouth. Also the different breeds really make very little difference to the taste of the meet, in much the same way as saying its a 'Shiraz' so it must be good!
Far more important than the breed of animal is what the cow was actually fed on, grain, grass or even beer (yes the Kobe cattle), where they lived and whether they were part of a large or small herd. Believe it or not but the stress level of the animal can affect the taste due to hormones being released into the blood stream.
Ask your butcher where the meat came from , if they can't answer change butcher. When choosing your meat, look for the 'marbling pattern'. Fat (creates the marbling pattern) is crucial to flavour and these streaks of fat increase juiciness and flavour by 'melting' through the meat during cooking.
Due to BSE our farmers didn't butcher any animal more than 30 months old. This suited mosst UK buyers and we associate this young age with tenderness. In most cases the older the cattle the more complex the flavour and is my no means less tender.
When shopping for a special meal, most British beef eaters buy fillets because they assume it is the most tender cut. However critics say that a mature rump can be just as tender as fillet with more flavour. Beef achieves 80% of its final tenderness within tens days of maturation, so beef that has been hung for 40 days is no big deal (Sainsbury's)!
The Queen's butcher may only buy Scotch beef but 70% of the meet served in British Restaurants is Brazilian. As well as leading to deforestation and the raping of the landscape, this cheap meat tastes 'cheap', with little flavour due to its poor welfare, diet and speed of production. So next time you go to a restaurant and the meat is covered in that creamy dianne sauce, ask yourself why?
Try different meats without gravy and channel your inner wine critic!! Does it remind you of mushrooms, pepper or even toffee? Does it have a sharp finish or is it buttery. Once you start to understand the difference tastes and textures you'll know exactly what you want. Think of the wine market 20 years ago, most people simply ordered Red Wine or White Wine, now everybody is an expert!!
Beef is 75% water so now matter how good it is, after 4 or 5 chews you'll be left with a dry lump of meet in your mouth. Also the different breeds really make very little difference to the taste of the meet, in much the same way as saying its a 'Shiraz' so it must be good!
Far more important than the breed of animal is what the cow was actually fed on, grain, grass or even beer (yes the Kobe cattle), where they lived and whether they were part of a large or small herd. Believe it or not but the stress level of the animal can affect the taste due to hormones being released into the blood stream.
Ask your butcher where the meat came from , if they can't answer change butcher. When choosing your meat, look for the 'marbling pattern'. Fat (creates the marbling pattern) is crucial to flavour and these streaks of fat increase juiciness and flavour by 'melting' through the meat during cooking.
Due to BSE our farmers didn't butcher any animal more than 30 months old. This suited mosst UK buyers and we associate this young age with tenderness. In most cases the older the cattle the more complex the flavour and is my no means less tender.
When shopping for a special meal, most British beef eaters buy fillets because they assume it is the most tender cut. However critics say that a mature rump can be just as tender as fillet with more flavour. Beef achieves 80% of its final tenderness within tens days of maturation, so beef that has been hung for 40 days is no big deal (Sainsbury's)!
The Queen's butcher may only buy Scotch beef but 70% of the meet served in British Restaurants is Brazilian. As well as leading to deforestation and the raping of the landscape, this cheap meat tastes 'cheap', with little flavour due to its poor welfare, diet and speed of production. So next time you go to a restaurant and the meat is covered in that creamy dianne sauce, ask yourself why?
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