At ‘SMITHS’ we have always been proud of cooking with British bred, quality meat.
All our beef, for example, is bought on the bone at a minimum of 21 days dry aged. And, it is all bought from British farmers who have reared British cattle. What’s more is, once it’s ours we then further age and skilfully butcher in-house, serving a range of cuts, including rump, sirloin and fillet.
The main difference with our meat and supermarket meat is that the animal is kept in natural conditions, eating natural foods as much as possible for its entire life. This means that the diet of the animals is seasonal; during warmer weather they will be grazing on grass and in winter they will be fed on grain. Because what the animal is fed on will change the flavour of the beef a great deal, you could say, our beef becomes ‘seasonal’. For example, during the summer months while the cows are grass fed the fat becomes more oily and stronger in flavour and, during the late summer months the beef will become more lean with a grass diet. And so on.
This means that it is not only our vegetables that are seasonal.
Other differences include the environment and the locality of the abattoir. Steve Turton ensures that the beef cattle travels no further than 40 miles to the abattoir, whereas a supermarket sourced beef may travel 300 to 400 miles. Travelling from one side of the country to another to get to a commercial abattoirs can cause extreme stress to the animals before they reach the abattoir.
A list of all our suppliers, in case you were wondering:
- South Devon from Steve Turton, Newton Abbott
- Aberdeen Angus from Taste Tradition, Mt Grace Farm North Yorkshire; HG Walters, Barons Court, London; D. Wonnacott, Markhamchurch, Bude; & Steve Turton, Newton Abbott
-Belted Galloway from Gary Wallace at Butts Farm, Cirencester & Taste Tradition, Mt Grace Farm, North Yorkshire
- Cross Charolaism from Aubrey Allan, Warwickshire
- Dexter from Gary Wallace, Butts Farm, Cirencester
- Hereford from Taste Tradition, Mt Grace Farm, North Yorkshire
- Limousin from Aubrey Allan, Warwickshire
- Longhorn from Ginger Pig, Grange Farm, North Yorkshire & Taste Tradition, Mt Grace Farm, North Yorkshire -
- Organic Aberdeen Angus from Lord Newborough at Rhug Estate, South Wales
- Shorthorn from Gary Wallace at Butts Farm, Cirencester
- Simmental from Aubrey Allen, Warwickshire
- South Devon from Steve Turton, Newton Abbott
