g would be flirting with understatement. Every inch of the place is ordained with mahogany, tapestries, chandeliers and oil paintings like some elaborately festooned joint of meat served up at a banquet for really quite rich people. Such grandeur might not feel like a suitable setting for, say, a Tupperware exhibition, but it seemed pretty apt as a showcase for one of the UK’s most venerable and world-renowned food products – Scotch Beef.
from their cuts of meat, and to emphasise that every single piece of beef eligible to be called Scotch, comes fully assured for life.
The day started with a talk from Robert Neill, a third generation Scottish beef farmer who, together with wife Jackie and family, runs Upper Nisbet Farm, winner of last year’s Scotch Beef Farm of the Year award. Upper Nisbet’s 300 Limousin cross cows are fed only on forage and cereals grown within the 1,000 acre farm on the Lothian Estate in the Scottish Borders, thus ensuring full traceability and quality. As Robert said: “It’s exactly the same as feeding performance horses; you only get out of them what you put into them.”
Next up was master butcher, Viv Harvey with a butchery demo using beef from Upper Nisbet. Viv used modern ‘continental’ butchery techniques to create steak cuts from joints that would otherwise be used for braising, such as feather blade and rump. The way this is done looks simple, perhaps deceptively so, as some people were to find out later. Viv took the feather blade – a traditionally cheap cut from the hardworking shoulder of the animal – and cut it so that the v-shaped seam of gristle running through the length of the muscl
e could be removed. By doing this, a cut that traditionally requires slow cooking is transformed into something with more versatility. Similarly Viv showed how the rump could be separated into its individual muscles, each of which provided a unique and high quality steak.
Viv said to The Staff Canteen later: “What I do is show chefs what work goes into their product so they can talk to their suppliers more convincingly about what they want – for example getting a feather blade upgraded from a piece of braising meat to a piece of grilling or frying meat. In terms of using Scotch Beef it’s about using the best techniques to make the best product even better.”
Her Royal Highness seemed impressed. As a keeper of cattle and a former Master of the butchery livery herself, she spoke to the gathering, saying: “Having a butcher that understands the value in the piece of meat you have is half the battle and I’m sure the producers feel considerably more appreciated b
y the better use of their beasts.”
All this talk of beef had worked up quite an appetite so it was fortunate that lunch was next on the agenda, which was of course lamb. Only kidding, it was beef of course – roast Scotch Beef to be precise. To be even more precise it was the striploin of an Upper Nisbet Farm Limousin cross heifer – 630kg live weight, 405kg dead weight; bought at St Boswells market on Monday 25th February; slaughtered four weeks ago and prepared by Robert Neill’s local butcher, Forsyth of Peebles. All of which might be a slight case of information overload but just goes to demonstrate the rigorous assurances of provenance that go with Scotch Beef.
Lunch was followed by what was called a “jam session”. This didn’t, contrary to how it sounds, involve a bunch of butchers and chefs sitting around riffing aimlessly on guitars. Instead it was a chance for the assembled chefs to practise the newly-demonstrated butchery skills on their own pieces of Upper Nisbet feather blade and rump which t
shments that can clearly identify the beef they purchase and always have the required information available on request. This ensures full traceability from farm to plate and guarantees animal welfare through all the stages of its journey from farm to haulage to auction and finally to abattoir.
With recent events concerning meat of somewhat less – ahem – traceability, it’s good to know that there are producers out there who are absolutely committed to quality, provenance and animal welfare. Hopefully this attitude will start to spread throughout the rest of Britain’s food industry.
The Scotch Beef Club will be organising more courses during 2013. For more information look on The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall and restrict access – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.
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