Description
The Ryeland is one of the oldest sheep breeds in England, and a Herefordshire one. It takes its name from the rye stubble it was grazed on around Leominster, where the monks were breeding it in the twelfth century. Its fleece was known as Lemster Ore and was, for several hundred years, the most valuable wool in the country. Its meat earned a quieter reputation as the sweet meat of Herefordshire, and that is still the fairest description of it.
We keep our Ryelands on Herefordshire pasture and grow most of them slowly, past a year old, to hogget. It is not the efficient way to produce lamb. It is the way to produce lamb worth eating. Hogget carries more fat, more colour and considerably more flavour than spring lamb, and it will take slow cooking without falling apart into nothing.
This is half a carcass, butchered on site and boxed for the kitchen and the freezer.
What’s in the half:
Leg. Approx. 2.75kg, on the bone. Roast it pink and carve it thin, or give it four hours with garlic and rosemary.
Shoulder. Approx. 2.75kg, on the bone. The cut to put in low and leave alone. It comes out pulling apart under a spoon.
Chops. Approx. 2.5kg, loin and chump. Cut thick enough to take real colour without drying out. A hot pan, a few minutes’ rest, and very little else.
Breast. Approx. 1.75kg. The cheapest thing in the box and, cooked properly, close to the best. Roll it, stuff it, and let the fat do the work.
Kidney. Approx. 0.25kg. Supplied fresh and best eaten within a few days. Kidneys on toast, delicious
Approximately 10 to 11kg in total. Weights vary a little from carcass to carcass. Everything is butchered on site by Jim and the team.
