Gold Medal for Blackface Mutton
Ben Weatherall's Blackface Mutton is the Gold Medal winner in the Daily Telegraph 'Taste of Britain' awards. The Blackface Mutton won the award in the 'Best Seasonal Product' category.
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Photograph taken by Jason Lowe |
'The fates smiled on Ben Weatherall when, just one day before the final judging of Taste of Britain 2005, the Prince of Wales and a band of celebrity chefs launched the Mutton Renaissance Club with a mutton feast at the Ritz. Weatherall keeps 800 Scottish Blackface ewes on 6,000 acres of heather hillside and 1,500 acres of valley grazing near Dumfries, southwest Scotland, and he was already fully aware of the superior flavour and texture of mutton. But he is delighted at the meat's renewed popularity, and hopes both the club's efforts and his own gold award will help raise public awareness of this much-maligned dish.
Actually the five-year-old mutton entered by Weatherall's company, Weatherall Foods, had no need for royal endorsement, since the Taste of Britain judges voted it a clear winner on its own merits. Mutton has always remained a favourite with shepherds for their own consumption, but Weatherall was only able to start producing it commercially a few years ago, when chefs at London such as the Ivy and Paternoster Chophouse started asking for it.
Mutton means any sheep over a year old, as distinct from lamb which is born in spring and killed the same autumn or late winter. The firm started with two-year-old wethers (castrated rams), which were such as success that the chefs demanded something more mature. So Weatherall sent them mutton from five-year-old "cast" ewes (nearing the end of their lamb-bearing life), which he says tastes even better, especially when hung for a fortnight.
"With mutton you've got a much bigger, fleshier, stronger-tasting animal," says Weatherall. "Historically, cast ewes would have been a staple diet. Obviously because mutton is older you can't flash-fry it like a lamb chop, you've got to cook it slowly." Two to three hours' casseroling is enough, he says, although he prefers a very slow roast (see below).
Scottish Blackface sheep are bred to survive on open hillsides, where they are "hefted": kept in small flocks on the same area of ground, where they learn the best places to find food and shelter from the elements, and pass this knowledge down the generations. Contrary to popular belief, sheep are not stupid, says Weatherall; they wouldn't survive in this environment if they were.
An active life on the hills makes a sheep fit and gives its meat good muscle tone, and Weatherall believes the heather diet definitely enhances the flavour. But the hill farm has been over grazed, so currently he is bringing the sheep down to grass in the winter to allow the heather to regenerate, and to create more habitat for ground-nesting birds such as grouse, curlew, snipe, oystercatchers and golden plover.
Weatherall already has a share in a game wholesaling business, Yorkshire Game, and has been selling direct via his website since 2001, which now accounts for half his sales. Now he hopes to diversify further. "I'd like to develop the business and start selling other breeders' meat, so we can help the Scottish Blackface breed as a whole." Written by Paul Bray, Daily Telegraph
Award winning recipe - Here is the recipe that Oliver Webb, the Sainsbury’s in-house chef used to help us win the award:
Ingredients: 1 leg of Blackface Mutton, cover in seasoned flour then sear in a hot pan. Place in a deep casserole dish with 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 sticks celery, 1 whole bulb of garlic, 1 bayleaf, 10-15 dried juniper berries, 1 tbs whole pepper corns, 4 sprigs of rosemary
Cover with 3 cups of beef or lamb stock, 2 cups of red wine, 1 cup orange juice
Cover and cook at 180c for 5 hours, ensuring that the liquid is simmering gently.
“Thanks again for the mutton, I think it’s the best we have had in, it develops real depth of flavour, still has sweetness, & has just the right covering of fat but no overpowering lanolin taste. Outstanding.”
Peter Weeden, Head Chef, Paternoster Chophouse, London
