‘You do know that steak is just dead cow’, my big brother told me gleefully, looking sideways at the bistecca I was about to eat.
I paused, my mum reports, slowly lifted up my knife and fork and looked him straight in the eye.
‘I love dead cow’.
More than a quarter of a century later, including a good decade of vegetarianism – not, I hasten to add, a result of my brother’s goading – my sentiments are the same. Dead cow is delicious. And although the world is moving in a more plant-based direction for myriad reasons, many of which I fully support, we still incorporate some red meat into our family’s diet.
While the amount of meat we eat has reduced over the years, quality remains an absolute priority – both the meat itself and the way in which the animals are treated (which unsurprisingly go hand in hand). So when I was contacted by Swaledale Online Butchers to review some of their products, I was immediately impressed by their whole carcass, nose to tail philosophy, dedication to native meat and supportive partnerships with local farmers.
The evening before I was contacted by Swaledale, my Yorkshire born husband was lamenting the fact that he’d never tried a tomahawk steak after seeing someone cooking one on TV. The stars had aligned, so we asked to review this along with some lamb products (not pictured here, but every bit as delicious).
Swaledale provides meat to numerous top end restaurants and chefs alongside their consumer offering, and it’s easy to see why. Service was efficient, the meat surviving the journey down south beautifully and the flavour was fabulous. We cooked our tomahawk on the BBQ until caramelized on the outside and blushing beautifully in the middle, resting well before serving with roast potatoes, garlic and chilli PSB and a spring salad of watercress, fennel and radish with pickled pink onions.
And the best bit? Gnawing on the giant bone (commandeered by seven year old Nino, Carnivorous husband barely got a look in).
Products featured in this post were received in return for an honest review and honestly I’m a converted new customer. Highly recommend!
To find out more about Swaledale, click here.