Meat for a Week, from Allens of Mayfair

Those of you who are regular readers may remember that late last year, the OH visited Allens of Mayfair for a butchery course and arrived home with many delicious looking cuts of meat. Well, since I don’t line or work in London nad can’t just pop along to Borough Market, or into a restaurant quality butchers, the nearest I can get is ordering meat online and this week was the first time I’d done it. I was prompted by an advert in Good Food magazine which had an extra discount with Allens for their Meat for a Week box. SO, what do you get? Is it really meat for a whole week? Well, yes. You get enough meat for two for a meal a day, plus extra. For example, the mince pack is plenty for four servings and the beef joint enough to serve at least four for Sunday lunch. On top of this, you know the meat is of excellent quality.

If you ordered over £70 worth, the delivery is free, so, since I had (read: made) space in the freezer, I decided to order two boxes, each box being £36. Originally £59.65 if bought separately, then reduced online to £45 as a box and with an extra discount, this really was excellent value for money. Jut to compare prices, I put all of the items into a supermarket price comparison site and the baskets ranged from about £34 to £39. With the extra quality and source knowledge of Allens, you really couldn’t get better. Contents comprised of:

2 x 200g Sirloin Steaks
2 x 220g Pork Cutlets
2 x 190g Cornfed Chicken Breasts - skin on
5 x 120g Lamb Loin Chops
6 x Cumberland Sausages (454g pack)
950g Beef Topside Roasting Joint
454g Steak Mince

The chicken that arrived was actually supreme of chicken, so you had the extra advantage of the wing )?) as well, and the whole breast. I was a little disappointed the sausages didn’t appear to be their own, but haven’t investigated fully to find out if the meat is from Allens and made elsewhere under a different company. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

The box was ordered on Sunday and arrived Tuesday morning, before 8.30 am to the delivery address requested. No hassle, no worrying if and when it would arrive. Perfect. Inside was a leaflet recognising that the polystyrene box and ‘keep cold’ strips did constitute rather a lot of packaging but that one could recycle the box and reuse the cold strips. Not actually being able to chat to the butcher himself, I did find myself wondering where the meat was sourced. It would have been lovely if, alongside each package of meat, there was a little card or note explaining which farm it came from, what breed the animal was, etc. Just for interest really and to know a little more about what we were going to be eating.

We began with the chicken and made a Mediterranean-type dinner as I hadn’t much time, and tonight it’s the turn of the pork chops, smothered with apple sauce and sprinkled with cheese! Lovely.