Beefing up the Christmas Dinner Table

Chris Berry tells of how it's not a festive closed shop on the big day

While turkey takes much of the limelight on the festive dinner table up and down the country on December 25 there are those who still prefer their traditional mouth-watering Sunday roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, tasty gravy and fabulous fresh vegetables as the main dish of the festive season and dependent upon your joint of cut it can create just as spectacular a centrepiece!

There are leading TV chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who have shifted from turkey to beef on Christmas Day purely because their feeling and opinion is that pink, juicy, tender, succulent roast beef is No.1 the rest of the year with good reason.

Pure heritage breed beef, from traditionally raised native cattle, cooked to perfection from a 5-rib joint or sirloin of beef on the bone to any other joint of beef that is a personal favourite, will look fantastic with its caramelised meat sugars, taste gorgeous with sensational marbling adding volumes to the flavour and be enjoyed by all leaving a lasting impression among your guests.

Beef is quite simply never to be left out of the equation when talk gets around to which meat will take centre stage on the big day - and even if it doesn't make it as the centrepiece on the 25^th sales of beef spike considerably over the festive period as it is invariably back to the top of the tree at least once or twice in the week that follows.

Farmison has earned a considerable reputation for the quality of its native heritage beef reared in their natural environment ranging from Highland, Aberdeen Angus, Dexter, Longhorn, Shorthorn, Belted Galloway, Galloway and Hereford breeds. Each breed provides a possible new taste experience at Christmas, especially if you always thought beef was the same no matter what the breed.

CARE & PASSION

Whichever native heritage breed of beef you choose there is one guarantee that is irrefutable. The care and passion that will have been shown to each animal throughout its life will have been beyond question.

Native heritage breed cattle graze free range in rugged, beautiful lush pastures in countryside where they can enjoy a grass fed, outdoor, healthy lifestyle that means the beef they ultimately produce is stress free and is rich with a deep flavour.

The beef produced by Farmison's cattlemen and women is true to each breed's characteristics and rather like fine malt whiskey each has its own individual, unique flavour that is worth exploring to find your own personal favourites.

SOMETHING NEW TO TRY WITH FRIENDS THIS CHRISTMAS

Christmas is all about getting together with friends and family, but sometimes life can become a little predictable. This year why not try a 'Three Beef Challenge' cooking a trio of joints or steaks from three different breeds, remembering of course which is which when you're cooking them and when you set them out in the kitchen or on the table.

Get your guests to mark each of the three breeds of beef in whichever scoring system you choose and to put down any comments. Once all scores and comments have been made tot them before revealing which beef breed each is and your guests' own Christmas Beef Champion! You'll soon have beef breed connoisseurs all around your table!

BEST COOKING

You might think that cooking a joint of roast beef for Christmas Day is no different to the norm but that's where you would be wrong. Like everything else in life it's what you make of something that determines greater enjoyment and fulfilment.

This is most definitely not purely Sunday roast territory. Christmas requires crackers by way of something that creates an impact and traditional pure native breed beef gives you not just a talking point about provenance and tracebility but also the prime example of why Farmison's heritage beef has become so popular.

Farmison's beef is hung for at least 21 days, dry aged in order to provide you with produce that is quite simply the best quality native heritage beef available in the UK. Its pink, juicy, tender, succulence when cooked carefully is a taste sensation that will last long in your and your guests' memories of another fantastic Christmas centrepiece.

Christmas often puts added pressure on whoever is cooking the table centrepiece whether for Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve or other celebrations during Yuletide and that's why Farmison's chefs offer their cooking tips and unique recipes elsewhere on this site. They are well worth a look.