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Cooking and Storage Information

Making the Most of your Meat – Cooking Guidelines:

 

Hello, I am Trevor, one of the long serving team at Smithfield Butchers, most of our customers are really confident in how to cook their favourite steak or joint of meat but every so often I am asked for advice. To be honest most of my cooking advice comes from my mother, and my wife.  But when it comes to a BBQ I am definitely in charge.

 

I never used a thermometer to check the internal temperature, I usually apply a bit of pressure with my finger, using experience to know when it is just right!  But some of my friends swear by thermometers so I have added this information too.

 

The secret to delicious meat is to let it rest

 

Rest Before cooking; 

  • Firstly, when you take your wonderful cut of meat out of the fridge allow it time to come up to room temperature. 

  • Remove all the packaging, place it on a plate and loosely cover with a piece or two of kitchen towel.  If the surface of the meat is nicely dry before you cook it the meat will caramelise when it hits the pan, which gives far better flavour.

  • Once at room temperature ( 20 – 30 minutes ideally) the meat is less likely toughen up.

 

Cooking: I always use a really  high heat to start the meat off – I get my pan, oven or barbecue hot, smoking hot. This helps to seal the meat as it starts to cook, sealing in the juices and creating delicious flavours as the natural fats melt and caramelise.

 

Rest after cooking;

  • Really really important, after you have cooked your steaks, Sunday joint or even the Christmas roast allow the meat to stand.  Place it on a serving plate, ( you can pop it into a cool oven if you really want to.) Then go and top up all the glasses, grab a cold beer, sharpen your knife and prepare for your delicious treat.

 

  • Rest a steak for 4 or 5 minutes before tucking in and a joint anything from 15 – 30 minutes before carving.  This really helps the juices settle in the meat you will find it more tender too. 

 

If you haven’t tried to rest your meats before, give it a go and tell us how you get on?

It's easy.

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Storage Information

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When buying fresh, quality meat, it’s important to know how long you can safely store it for to prevent it from going bad.

 

Different cuts and types of raw meat can be kept for longer than others so in order to make the most of your meat, we have created the below guidelines to help you safely store your meat in the fridge and freezer.

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First of all, it’s important to ensure that your fridge is set to no higher than 4°C and store the meat at the bottom of the fridge.

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