Camden Park Wines from Australia

There’s an old saying that “a bad worker always blames their tools”.

Let’s be honest though, how many times have you tried to cut into a big, juicy steak with a blunt knife? The results are always the same:

1.You end up shredding the meat.
2.The steak ends up on the floor.
3.That big pile of “fat chips” gets strewn across the table.
4.Or worse still, you end up in ER with a gruesome cut hand that requires a surgeon of awesome genius to stitch back together.

This has become a thing of the past in my kitchen now that I’m the proud owner of a set of Morton’s Steak Knives. Very kindly given to me by friends after a recent trip to New York.

The perfect answer to problematic steak eating……and, boy, am I looking forward to field testing them on a Rib Eye tomorrow evening, washed down with Camden Park’s “new improved” Reserve Shiraz.

Thanks Caroline and Peter.

Posted by nick at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mike Robinson at The Pot Kiln dressed for action!

Recently, I had a very interesting conversation with Mike Robinson, the chef and owner of the Pot Kiln, a brilliant boozer and restaurant in the heart of rural Berkshire near the little village of Yattendon.

Mike’s attitude to meat is that it tastes far better if you’re close to the source and know how it was looked after. The best quality meat comes directly from respect for the beast.

This is also the case for how the meat is aged. Without question, for beef, the only way to do this is long, slow, dry aging.

Mike explained: “The dry aging process needs special care. It is very time consuming and expensive, requiring special skills, storage and high quality beef. Up to 20% of the original weight of the meat is lost during the dry aging process”.

”Forty years ago, most of our beef was dry aged. In the early 1960's the process of vacuum packing beef became the norm for most processors. The advantage of this process was that they could "wet age" the beef in the bag and not lose any of its weight. Thus, it is far more cost effective. But, at the expense of taste.”

Mike continued: “The best quality beef is aged for a minimum of 21 days in a cool, humidity controlled environment. During this process a crust forms on the outside of joint. This layer is trimmed away, leaving steaks of the finest flavour and tenderness”.

When you’re next at the butchers, ask them if their beef is dry aged. One way or the other this should give a fair indication of whether you are buying your meat from the right place.

Posted by nick at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)