Beef

First our cattle are specially selected from the farm. We look for an animal that is of a good size, is well muscled and has a good covering of fat. Having a covering and marbling of fat within the meat is very important as it keeps the steak moist (to a point) during cooking, as a lot of moisture is lost when dry ageing. The best taste tends to come from a female animal that has been out at grass, and then finished on grain for several months. The animal is taken to the slaughterhouse and from there delivered straight to our meat fridge in whole quarters. The hind-quarters (which contain all of the steaks and roasting joints) and the fore rib from the fore-quarter are left to hang for a minimum period of 6 weeks to dry age, usually longer.

If you would like to look in our meat fridge, please do not hesitate to ask.

The minced beef is a quality lean mince and is used in our pies, and burgers. The burgers are made to our own recipe and contain no additives or preservatives. The bones are used to make stocks and sauces. Diced beef is used for pies, curry and stews.

Fisherman's Charolais

The Fisherman's Retreat is set in 80 acres of countryside; this countryside is home to our herd of award winning, pedigree Charolais beef cattle. Some of the cattle have been shown at agricultural shows such as the Great Yorkshire Show, the Royal Show (Stoneleigh), the Royal Welsh Show and the Royal Highland Show. The herd have won several places when shown, proving the quality of the herd and offspring. Charolais cattle were chosen as the breed best suited to the Fisherman's Retreat due to its quality meat - it is regarded as one of the best breed of cattle for eating.

Sires of the herd are made up off Balthayock Nougat, Seawell Offshore, Cader Regal to name a few, all of which are regarded as some of the best Charolais sires available. The dams of some of the cattle are Brailes Loppylugs, Ensdon Hilary, and Brailes Moondrops, again these are predominate names in breeding.

Cattle are kept in during the colder months of the year, and fed on silage, hay and barley; no concentrates are used as sometimes this can taint the meat. In the summer the cattle roam the land around the Fisherman's Retreat.

The best quality meat comes from the younger animal; because of this all the cattle reared for beef are slaughtered at around 20 months of age. The meat is juicy and full flavoured at this point. This, together with our dry ageing process of the minimum 6 weeks, ensures the customer has an eating experience never forgotten. The calves bred from these cattle (pedigree of course), are what make up the infamous meat section of the menu. 50% of the meat available on the menu is from our own herd, and is a quality product, unique to The Fisherman's.

Top ^

Steaks

Our steaks are a premium quality product: therefore we are unable to guarantee the constant availability of each steak.

• Fillet - the leanest and most tender cut of meat there is
• Sirloin - less tender than the fillet, with more fat around the steak, but definitely more flavour
• Rib Eye - more fat content than sirloin but very tasty
• Rump - less fat than sirloin, and when dry aged this is a really tender cut, full of flavour
• T-Bone - the best of both worlds; the flavour of the sirloin and the tenderness of the fillet in one big satisfying steak

Top ^