Raising the Steaks; Coombe Farm Organic

With its nose to tail philosophy, the team from Coombe Farm Organic in rural Somerset are championing eating less meat but when you do, choosing organic meat with exceptional flavour from animals that have been well cared for.

Ben White, Founder of Coombe Farm Organic shares more about why their organic retired dairy beef is a winner:

May0078807 Weekend; Pic shows the dairy herd at Coombe Farm, near Crewkerne, Somerset, where old retired milking cows are fattened for beef production instead of being discarded. Ben White, the business manager (right, in grey jumper) and herd manager Ryan Sloman-Brown (left, in brown). Pic Jay Williams 12-9-17

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, and we’ve been farming organically at Coombe Farm for twenty years with dairy at our core. Coombe Farm produces millions of litres of milk and five years ago we set up Coombe Farm Organic.
We decided to crossbreed dairy cows with beef bulls to produce our beef herd and make the most of surplus bull calves in the dairy herd. As well as grass-fed beef, we now rear organic lamb and pork and also support local producers that share our organic philosophy to rear organic chicken and venison. All our carcasses are carefully butchered by our in-house team to make the most of the animals that have been carefully reared.
Inspired by Spanish farmers who produce ‘Basque beef’ from animals as old as 15 years, we decided to create our own organic retired dairy beef and bring this culinary deliciousness to the UK. Retired cows from our organic dairy herd – which would not generally be used for meat – are grown on and graze on our organic pastures, producing beef with long-lasting flavour and wonderful marbling. Cut from the middle section of the back of the beef carcass, the sirloin steak is meaty and hearty with plenty of bite. The wonderful marbling and swathe of superficial fat makes the sirloin succulent and full of flavour and the result is beef with outstanding taste.

Here are our top tips for cooking one of our organic retired dairy beef sirloin steaks:

Make sure you bring your steak to room temperature before you start
Season with a little salt and pepper
Add a little oil to the pan and get this as hot as you can
Sear the steak for a couple of minutes on each side
Pop the steak into the oven for five minutes at 190C.This helps to tenderise the steak as the cut is from an older animal.
Rest for at least five minutes so that the steak can reabsorb the flavoursome cooking juices
Serve with a crisp green salad, a side of slaw and sweet potato chips.

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