Sirloin roast joint
Tender, succulent and tasty – a classic ‘Sunday roast’. They can be big (2+ kg) or small (one customer orders a 700 g sirloin for her and her husband).
Rib roasts
A tender, succulent and tasty roast. Rib roasts come on the bone or rolled. Leaving the bones in means that the joint cooks beautifully as the heat is transferred along the bone and the flavour is enhanced. Just let us know how many you need to feed or how many ‘ribs’ you’d like.
Brisket
Brisket is a succulent rolled joint. People love this tasty ‘pot-roast’ – it has more fat in the meat and therefore the flavour is second to none.
Topside
This cut is best for slow pot roasting.
Silverside
Another cut that is best for slow pot roasting.
Fillet steaks
The most tender, mouth-watering steak – can be fried or grilled. Sometimes customers order whole or half fillets so that they can cut them to their own size.
Sirloin steaks
A wonderful, flavoursome steak – can be fried or grilled.
Rib eye steaks
If we do not have orders for rib roasts then we’ll often convert the beef into rib eye steaks, which are very popular. They have wonderful marbling and cook very quickly.
Minute steaks
Cooks in a flash! We pack them in 2s and 4s – they defrost very quickly (if you are in a hurry, put the unopened pack into warm water for a few minutes, get your frying pan, grill or barbeque hot and put on the minute steak – turn it once and it’s ready when it is brown on both sides).
Popeseye steak (Rump)
Can be fried, grilled or lightly braised. Some people buy these as steaks and prefer them to sirloin or fillet. At Portnellan, we tend to use popeseye as a strip frying steak – it is very tender and should be tossed until it just turns brown in the pan (it loses some of its wonderful flavour if you overcook it). Popeseye also makes the most wonderful (and cheaper) alternative to fondue meat.
Braising steak
‘Braising steak is a lean cut and cooks best by long slow braising leaving you with a tender dish that’s full of flavour. Ideal for curries.
Stewing steak
Has a little more fat through it than braising steak and many people prefer it to the slightly drier braising steak – there’s no doubt that this makes a lovely traditional steak and ale pie or a carrot and onion stew. The fat contributes to the flavour of the dish.
Steak mince
Ideal for meatballs, burgers, spaghetti bog or mince & tatties. Portnellan mince has developed a reputation – we usually sell out quickly. Many older people tell us that it reminds them of the meat they used to eat when they were young, when meat tasted flavoursome and the texture was better. At our very first markets, people came back to tell us how much they had enjoyed the mince but that it was too fine for mince and tatties. We agreed and so we now do ‘fine’ mince and ‘once only mince’ – a coarser texture that’s been put through the mincer just once. It tastes exactly the same but the finer mince is better for meat balls or spaghetti dishes.
Sausages
Our sausages are pure Portnellan beef – there’s no rubbish in them – and are available either with organic rusk or gluten-free. We have many customers who buy them week after week because it’s so difficult to get gluten-free links. We always sell out, which tells us we’ve got these right!
Lorne sausage
Lorne Sausage does have organic rusk in it – the rusk is necessary for the shape – but the rest is pure Portnellan beef. These are a wonderful breakfast treat, grilled and tucked into a bun or a bap. You don’t need too much tomato sauce (if any) because they are bursting with flavour.
Beef burgers
Pure Portnellan beef – and available with either organic rusk or gluten-free. Children are our best fans – kids really know what tastes good when it comes to meat and these are a firm favourite. They are easy and quick to defrost and cook – in fact we have to warn people not to overcook them: they just need browning on both sides.