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Since leaving the marketing industry in the 1980s Richard Lutwyche has dedicated his knowledge and experience to helping to conserve rare breeds of farm livestock. In 1995 he was employed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, a charity, and rose to Marketing Director before leaving to establish and run the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company in 1992. He lives near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, with his wife and a menagerie of animals, and serves on the committees of a number of institutions largely concerned with farming and food.
Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company Ltd., FREEPOST (GL442), Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 5BR,
Tel/Fax: 01285 869666
www.tbmm.co.uk
greatmeat@aol.com
Photographs by Richard Lutwyche |
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Meat from Britain's rare breeds by Richard Lutwyche
The Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Co Ltd works with approximately 50 accredited Rare Breed butchers throughout England (and slightly into Wales) supplying only pure-bred stock from local farms through local abattoirs.
 The company was established by the charity Rare Breeds Survival Trust to create and maintain a market for Britain's rare and traditional breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs by encouraging the consumption of their superior produce.
Every carcass is certified by TBMM, who are specially licensed by DEFRA under the Beef Labelling laws allowing TBMM to describe the breed, the method of farming and where and when the animals were born and raised.
Richard Lutwyche, General Manager, explains why it’s so important to support rare breeds.
It can seem to be a real anomaly that anyone could be persuaded to eat anything labelled 'rare', except in the circumstances of a bloody piece of beef perhaps, but one of the fastest growing niches in the specialist food market is doing exactly that.
Britain’s rare breeds are basically the old-fashioned types that got left behind as post-war agriculture hurtled headlong into intensive farming to produce more and more as quickly as possible.
- Breeds such as Middle White or Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs simply curl up their trotters and die if you put them into an intensive indoor pig unit with computer controlled feed supply and ambience.
- Beef breeds such as Longhorns or White Park cannot be bulk fed on concentrates to be ready for slaughter at 15 months of age. Given good grass with hay and silage in winter, they may just make it before the mystical '30 months' decreed by government in the aftermath of the BSE crisis (which largely passed these traditional breeds by anyway). The slow growth helps to develop flavour and intensity.
- Sheep such as Wiltshire Horns and Manx Logthans will not end up with the muscular frame of a Texel, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier of the ovine world, but they will have discernible and memorable flavours that help give a chef distinction to his dishes.
Fifteen years ago, such animals were almost unsaleable. The charity, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, (RBST), was established in 1973 to conserve all Britain’s remaining rare breeds (around 70 in all). Part of the problem was that enthusiastic keepers would be found to keep and breed such animals but when they took surplus stock to market they were derided and humiliated by the commercial buyers. To survive, therefore, they either started cross-breeding or got out altogether, a situation that left the breeds dangerously rare.
The commercial buyers did not want these animals because they were too small, too fat, too big, had pigmented skin, long horns or because it was a Tuesday. There was an inherent bias because with the increasing dominance of the supermarkets and their need for production line consistency meant that they shied away from anything not strictly meeting their criteria. Thus the old-fashioned, slow growing breeds that had flavour and succulence were left as a remnant of the past.
The RBST was persuaded in 1993 to do something to change the situation and the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Scheme was established. Taking pure bred rare and traditional breeds - they were afraid of using the word ‘rare’ in case it put people off eating the meat - direct from farms to local abattoirs to local butchers, people were able to taste and enjoy the flavours and qualities associated with times past. The scheme accredited individual butchers with the nous to prepare the meat properly and market it as something special (a rarer breed than many of the animals) and set up local hubs of supply. The number of butchers were always limited by the availability of pure bred stock.
Of course, by cross breeding, the scheme could have developed much more quickly but it was always the ethos of the scheme to maintain the highest standards of eating quality and traceability. By accepting only pure bred stock, numbers of the breeds were increasing thus ticking the conservation box and it was relatively easy using pedigree records to maintain strict traceability. The eating experience too could be predicted. This should not be sneered at – after all just about anyone can tell the difference between different varieties of apples such as a Cox and a Golden Delicious so it should not be surprising that beef from a White Park can be described as rich and gamey whilst that of a Dexter is sweet.
 This also differentiates what we do from other 'breed names' in the mass market. Go into Waitrose or M&S and they indeed offer Hereford and Aberdeen Angus beef. But look closely at the small print and you will see that the beef came from an animal sired by a pedigree bull of that breed. In other words, it was a commercial hybrid. It is expecting a lot of genetics for the supermarkets to believe that the male of the breeding equation is supplying all his beef qualities and that the female is having no influence at all!
As the scheme grew it was moved away from the charity and they established the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Co Ltd who now run the operation independently, maintaining the integrity and ethos established by the Trust. With around 50 Accredited Rare Breeds Butchers it is still a relatively small operation but even so it is surprising how many leading chefs are able to utilise meat from our butchers to enhance their menus. Thus you will find, among others, John Torode of Smiths of Smithfield and Mark Thatcher at the House of Lords and Mark Hix at the Ivy all enthusing about meat from our breeds. Henry Brosi at the Dorchester and a number of the Conran Group chefs are also great supporters. Then of course we have on our TV screens the likes of Rick Stein and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall promoting the eating qualities of rare breeds at almost every turn.
Of course, with all this interest, there are the inevitable cowboys offering Gloucester Old Spot this and Traditional Hereford that which may or may not be as close to the real thing as the supermarkets’ Aberdeen Angus but if you source through one of our Accredited Butchers, all the genuine rare breeds that they have will be certified by us and you should demand to see a copy of the certificate in question. Without it, there’s no guarantee from us and you might just be wrecking a great dish by using an inferior ingredient.
If you go to www.tbmm.co.uk you will find a list of the Accredited Butchers and a great deal of information about all aspects of rare breeds. Whilst there might not be on your doorstep, many will deliver to chefs so do contact some in your general area.
Because the butchers pay a premium to the producers, this won’t be the cheapest meat you can find but I guess if you’ve read this far, you’re not in that market anyway.
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