Well, would you clear your diary?
“Si, could you come down early to the Summer BBQ to help us with the Butcher’s Taste Challenge: 28 day hung steak, lamb chops and sausages, plus a speciality round?”
Hell yes, like a shot! And so head to head went North Yorkshire farm & rare breed specialists Taste Tradition, new to Manchester independent NQ outlet Butcher’s Quarter and Chorlton butchery bad boys Frost’s, supplier to many local restaurants. A selection of judges, including the entrants (given strict instructions to play fair!), gave marks out of ten to all four rounds and one judge in particular took it very seriously indeed, see below, with little talking and much notation. I’m not sure the butchers present approved of my meat hacking skills but hey, considering I was cutting, hosting and ensuring everyone scored the right plates from the right butchers, I didn’t do half bad!
The speciality round was a masterclass in how meat should taste, cooked to perfection by Iain. Amazing considering that immediately after cooking all of this taste challenge lusciousness, he and his team served up a BBQ for nearly 100 people. He’s a bloody meat machine.
First up a boneless saddle of lamb, pink and succulent, stuffed full of a delicious black pudding by Butchers Quarter. They made their own black pudding with cumberland sausage meat mixed with redcurrant and cranberries wrapped in leeks. It was stunning, imagine this as the centrepiece to your Sunday roast…..
Next up was Frost’s Butchers tender chicken breast with goats cheese and crispy bacon. I’ve stopped buying cheap & tasteless supermarket chicken, and this remind me why, juicy, full of flavour and the goats cheese was a brilliant addition I’ll be trying out at home.
And finally a rare breed Middlewhite suckling pig loin created by Taste Tradition. To recreate this yourself, try porcetta and stuff it with Arthur Haigh black pudding & apple as here. Iain had nailed this roast in terms of timing, but the taste was the star, I’m not sure I’d ever tasted pork this delicious. For me this was the winner and my fellow judges agreed. All three were superb but this one just had the edge!
Not content with three superb specialities, there were then three more courses from each competitor: seared, pink & plump lamp chops, their own choice of homemade sausage and a 28 day hung rib-eye steak.
Oooooo, it was tense, with much deliberation and hand wringing. The judges came back for seconds, some dishes were neck and neck and points were totted up…
Sometimes, it’s lovely, plus very fair, how thing turn out. Frost’s swiped the lamb prize, Taste Tradition sealed it with their steak and Butcher’s Quarter, who only started trading in April this year, took first with their spicy sausage. Their delight was wonderful & infectious, I’d highly recommend a trip in to see them if you’re Manchester city centre based and fancy a change from that soulless supermarket experience. Overall Gold went to Taste as they’d won the speciality round but honestly, we’d eaten some of the best locally sourced produce in the North and there was little between any of them in terms of quality.
A brilliant couple of hours, thank so much for letting me host it guys!
Can you believe there was then more? After all the above, Redbank and Iain laid on a superb BBQ spread, including: Koftas, pork cheeks, trip-tip & hanger steaks, chilli, bo ssam, slow cooked goat with harissa & sumac, chicken wings, and Bobby’s Bangers sausages.
Seriously, we couldn’t move from our table by 9pm, plump little bellies patted affectionately.
Belts, however, were rapidly loosened once the sugar laden pudding table created in Charlotte of BakeOrama’s own inimitable, spectacular fashion was revealed…..
Bubblegum & strawberry My Little Pony cake
A Willy Wonka chocolate & vanilla special:
Next time I get invited to a BBQ and there isn’t a guaranteed plate of Oreo dough ball, peanut squidge, millionaire square & rocky road chunk to take home and eat for breakfast the next day, I’m going to have to tell them to up their game 😉
Another spectacular event by the Drunken Butcher. I could to start going to other places but honestly, when food is this incredible for under £30, why would you?!
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