Brand Spotlight: Swaledale Butchers
Swaledale Butchers sell some of the finest and freshest meat, sourced from sustainable farms in The Yorkshire Dales.
A few weeks ago Swaledale Butchers got in contact to see if I’d be interested in trying some of their products and writing a blog post about them, and of course I said yes. I’m really picky about the quality of meat that I eat, and prefer to eat less meat but spend more on buying from a company whose values I’m aligned with, and everything Swaledale Butcher’s does is spot on.
“We are the link between the independent farmers on The Dales, and yourselves, the ethical home cooks, and the imaginative restaurant chefs. We promise meat that’s Always Fresh Never Frozen®, sustainable, 100% traceable and the best of what’s farmed in The Dales’.
Swaledale Butchers
Swaledale Butchers was founded in 2009, and started off supplying meat to some of the best restaurants in London, and now supply top tier restaurants across the country and have a thriving online business supplying the best meat to home cooks. I saw them on the menu at The Hawthorne in Haworth where we had an amazing meal recently, you can read about it here.
Sustainability is at the heart of everything they do, from nose-to-tail butchery to ensure the whole carcass is used and nothing is wasted, to working with a small network of farms who are doing the right thing in terms of sustainable farming practices and animal welfare.
It was difficult deciding what to order with my voucher, there’s so much choice! I ended up ordering quite a mix of different things… a chicken for a roast dinner, ox cheek for the slow cooker, steak and burgers for the BBQ, and some everyday things like bacon and sausagemeat.
The meat was incredible, I think with meat the difference between good and poor quality is so obvious in the taste. One of the most delicious things we had was the sirloin steaks. I cooked them on the BBQ, just seasoned with salt and pepper, and we enjoyed these on their own without any sauces because the flavour of the meat was so good.
Reasons why we love Swaledale Butchers
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Always Fresh, Never Frozen®
They are committed to supplying the best and freshest meat, and orders placed before 9am are freshly prepared for next day delivery.
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Their principles
Sourcing from sustainable farms, promoting heritage and native livestock breeds, carefully selecting local abattoirs to ensure the best possible animal welfare, nose-to-tail butchery, the list goes on, and good quality meat doesn’t get better than this!
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Traceability
Working with a network of small farms in The Dales, Swaledale can guarantee full traceability of all the meat they supply.
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The product range
There is so much choice in their range… of course there are the usual things you would expect like steak, chicken, sausages etc, but with their nose-to-tail ethos the range also includes cuts such as ox cheek, kidney, heart, and you can buy bones too and make your own stocks at home.
My favourite products
Ox Cheek
This was the first thing I put in my basket! I’d tried their ox cheek on the menu at The Hawthorn, which had a crispy breaded coating and came with truffle mayo, and it was so delicious. I slow cooked the cheeks with a smoky mexican spice blend, and had these with tacos.
Tuscan-style pork, fennel & red wine sausages
There’s a big range of different sausages, including Yorkshire breakfast sausages, lamb merguez, cumberland, and cotechino. But I went for the Tuscan-style, and ordered this as a pack of sausage meat rather than individual sausages. I used it to make a quick pasta sauce, and the flavour was so good. I'm a big fan of fennel and knew this would be a product I would love.
Steak Burgers
What I really liked about the burgers (apart from the flavour) was the ingredients - they are made with grass-fed Heritage breed beef, nothing else! Nick is dairy and gluten free, and often when I’m looking for burgers they’ve got gluten in, so it’s great that these are made with just one quality ingredient.
Sirloin Steak
There’s a big range of different steaks with varying price points, with artisan steaks like two bavette steaks for £8.65 or two flat iron steaks for £11.30, and more prime cuts like two fillet steaks for £29.60, or chateaubriand for £49.
I ordered the sirloin, it’s usually my go to steak. I cooked this on my kamado joe and the flavour of this was exceptional.
When you’re placing an order on the Swaledale Butchers website, make sure you sign up for their loyalty program. Its a great way to spend and save… you receive points each time you spend, and these points can then be redeemed as money off future orders.
Ad - Swaledale Butchers sent a voucher for me to try their product range, and feature them on the blog. I wouldn't feature a brand or product on the blog unless I would purchase from them as a customer.