Kitchen trip to Powell’s

At the Bird we are constantly trying to source the best quality ingredients we can, whilst ensuring they are local to the restaurant and sustainable. We are so fortunate in the west country to have a tremendous supply of outstanding quality ingredients all on our door step.  Powell’s of Olveston in South Gloucestershire are one of these suppliers producing some of the best quality meat the region has to offer. Here at the Bird we use Powell’s for the majority of our meat requirements including our beef rumps and pork shoulders for Sunday roast. So it felt right we go visit the boys and learn more about the hard work they are putting in at their end to deliver such incredible products to our door.

Everywhere you look at the moment you always see beef being advertised having been ‘aged’ for a certain amount of time. The most common are 21 day aged, 28 and sometimes 30. This refers to the time the meat has been hanging since being slaughtered. The process allows moisture to leave the product, drying it out and intensifying flavour. At Powell’s Scott and his team are aging beef to a minimum of 38 days. The meat has hung for such a long time the flavour has developed into something unique and special, we believe it is the best we have tasted from any local suppliers.

We spent 4 hours at the shop watching and learning how a fore and hind quarter of beef is broken down into it’s primal cuts and then down again into the cuts we receive at the restaurant. It was a great experience and we now have an understanding of how labour intensive the butchering process is. We also discovered a few new cuts of beef we never knew existed. Like the spider steak. Below are a few photos we took on the day. Enjoy!