Marks & Spencer told me that the company decided in 1990 not to stock organic meat as there was “insufficient demand to justify shelf space”.
Waitrose at that time did not sell organic meat and had their own unpublished standards for ‘traditional pork’ and ‘English country lamb’.
How times have changed, and how much for the better. Now, provenance is all; meat can be traced back to individual animals, individual farms.
Harley’s which opened in Hampstead this month, is selling poulet de Bresse, Iberico pork and rare breed steaks. (Image: Harley’s) The thesis of the book was to explore the possibility of eating better meat, paying more for it, and eating less of it, as valid now as it was then.
There have always been excellent independent butchers and we are fortunate to have so many in north London. Added to Hampstead Butcher and Providore on Rosslyn Hill and Meat Naturally in the Community Market, we now have Harley’s Butchery and Rotisserie in Oriel Place, Hampstead.
And, unlike some fancy newcomers that I will neither name nor patronise, they take cash. Not long ago I saw a chalked message in Hampstead – “Cashless = Heartless. End the cashless apartheid”. How apt.
Rare, expensive and a challenge to cook, it is a treat for very special occasions.
Ollie Harley tells me that he gets the best out of it by removing the legs and making a confit with them, and roasting the rest of the bird on the crown.
That’s exactly how I cook a goose. But he also has chicken to suit all budgets, including free-range legs for less than £6 per kilo, as well as an impressive range of rare breed meats; the rib of 8 year old Belted Galloway is a sight to behold, with its buttercup-yellow mantle of fat.
The beef shin from Hampstead Butcher is the best I have ever cooked. I must admit I also purchased a rib of Rubia Gallega, the Galician breed which feeds on grass for eight years or more, giving it rich marbling and deep yellow fat.
When I roasted it, the aromas and tastes were those of the roasts I remember from my childhood. And, of course, then, my mother was probably buying the meat of mature animals, well beyond the thirty-month slaughter age of much of our beef now.
But for a treat it is hard to beat Iberico pork. Jamon iberico has long been a familiar product in delis and specialist suppliers, as well as supermarkets.
Gradually, more and more of the fresh pork is becoming available. Unearthed, found in Waitrose, produce small packs of thinly sliced presa, lomo and solomiillo, perfect for a quick stove-top supper.
This is well-marbled meat, with a fine, intense flavour. Harley’s sells different cuts of fresh iberico, including handsome cutlets, presa and segreto.
Saturday dinner was a thick chunk of presa, which I cooked on the griddle like a thick sirloin, then sliced vertically to serve. Iberico pork can be cooked slightly pink. So full of flavour, I find it needs no accompaniments or condiments.
Several on-line suppliers sell iberico pork, including Basco, Brindisa and Fine Food Specialist, which comes frozen. Incidentally, they also sell Galician beef.
Recently I had iberico pork cheeks from the latter. A tough piece of meat, the cheek requires low slow cooking, three hours is not too much.
But it was a hot day. Out came the pressure cooker, actually a pressure frying pan. Thirty minutes was sufficient to produce utterly delicious meat, tender, sapid and moreish.
All would have been perfect except for my taking too seriously the instruction book’s advice not to add too much liquid. The accompanying ingredients, including sliced onion, had formed an over-caramelised cushion for the meat.
I’m writing this in the midst of another heatwave. Why am I not writing about food to cool you; salads of feta, Kalamata olives and watermelon; Gallia melon, prosciutto and burrata, creamy chilled soups of peaches and steamed baby carrots; courgettes, avocado and dill; gazpacho of all flavours, a simple tomato and basil salad, poached cod served just warm with aioli, quickly griddled salmon fillets bathed in a marinade of oriental aromatics?
We’re eating all of these, certainly, but just occasionally, the weather will tempt one to something a little heartier, worth opening a serious bottle of red for.
And to be perfectly honest, the sight of a wonderful butcher’s counter is inspirational for this cook.
Iberico pork cheeks (Serves 4)
iberico fat or olive oil for frying
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
6 iberico pork cheeks
seasoned flour – salt, pepper and pimenton dulce
1 red pepper, charred and peeled
morcilla or chorizo – optional, see recipe
copita of dry oloroso or amontillado.
Method:
Heat the fat in a frying pan and gently fry the onion and celery until softening and turning gold. Transfer to a casserole or pressure frying pan. Trim any sinews from the pork cheeks and toss them in the seasoned flour.
In the same frying pan, with extra fat or oil if needed, fry the pork cheeks all over until golden brown. Add to the celery and onion, together with the red pepper torn into strips.
Add chunks of morcilla or chorizo if using them. Deglaze the frying pan with the sherry, scraping up any bits, and pour over the meat. If you prefer, you can replace the sherry with red wine.
If using a pressure frying pan, add further liquid as required, and follow the instructions for cooking.
If you are cooking the pork cheeks in a casserole, add about 100 ml water, bring to the boil, cover and cook in a low oven, about 140 C for three hours. For a shorter time, raise the temperature and check occasionally to make sure there’s enough liquid. You can add stock, water or more wine. And also check for seasoning.
Crusty, chewy bread or rice makes a good accompaniment. If I cook the pork in the oven, I like to add broken potatoes halfway through cooking. To make them, peel the potatoes and rather than cut them, break them into pieces with a tough utensil; this gives a broader surface area to absorb the cooking juices.
To top and tail this substantial main course, an icy gazpacho will do nicely, or a chilled sweetcorn soup; to finish, a bowl of mixed berries with a splash of pacharan or sloe gin or a mix of stone and berry fruit set in jelly and yoghurt.
Frances Bissell. All rights reserved.
The Real Meat Cookbook, Chatto & Windus, is available on-line, as is an updated edition, The Organic Meat Cookbook, Ebury Books.
