Beef

Our beef comes from our own pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle, born and bred on our farm, in the Aston Brook herd. We also source locally produced Shorthorn beef.

We use traditional, native beef breeds to ensure all our beef is consistently flavoursome and succulent

All our beef cattle are reared as naturally as possible; they graze in fields of grass and have access to barns with deep straw beds, during the winter. They are fed on grass silage and arable by-products such as sugar beet and malt nuts. We do not use any growth promoters, hormones or drugs, as our beef cattle are allowed to mature naturally.

After slaughter, at around two years of age, our beef is hung in our cold store for twenty one days to allow the tenderness and flavour of the beef to develop.

After hanging our beef is skilfully butchered to our customer's requirements, in our fully equipped farm shop.

How to Spot Good Beef

Do not be seduced by brightly coloured, rosy-red beef, with a minimal covering of snowy white fat. The best beef will be a rich, browny-burgundy colour and the fat should be of a creamy tone that may verge on being yellow, depending on the animal's diet. Cattle that have been mainly grass-fed will have yellower fat. A good marbling of fat throughout the meat is essential for flavour and to keep the beef moist and juicy during cooking.

Beef Cuts

Move your mouse pointer over an area of the picture below or over one of the cut names shown in bold to display a picture of the cut.

1. Neck: Good for stews.
2. Rolled backrib: Rolled roasting joint.
3. Forerib: The King of roast beef. It has the fat to keep it lubricated, the bone to keep in moisture and flavour and an excellent marbling in the eye of the meat. The trimmed eye of the forerib is known as a ribeye steak.
4. Chuck steak: Ideal for stews and casseroles.
5. Leg top: Needs long slow cooking, good for stews.
6. Brisket: It is the ultimate cut for salting but can also be slow pot roasted.
7. Short ribs: Good for stews.
8. Shin, Marrow bone: Shin is delicious if cooked very slowly and makes a very good stew.
9. Fillet steak, sirloin, T bone steak, Wing rib: These can be cut into joints which are great roasted or steaks.
10. Skirt: So called because of its wide, open-grained fibres, which give it a pleated texture. Requires long, slow cooking. Good for pies and puddings.
11. Rump steak: Cut into thickish steaks, it is suitable for grilling, frying and barbecuing.
12. Topside, silverside, braising steak, oxtail: All ideal for slow pot roasting except oxtail which can be slowly boiled down into soup.
13. Leg (slice): Good for stews.