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Grill Ready: Some new items in the shops this week…. All geared towards the grill. Butterflied Quail in Soy, Molasses and Lemon Lime & Sriracha Brined Butterflied Chicken Apple & Sage Brined Pork Chop We’ve been experimenting with different brines. This a great way of imparting flavour and juiciness into the meat. Enjoy Read "Grill Ready" more
Bang for your Buck part 3: With Easter and Passover fast approaching, we thought this would be great time to highlight a cut from our Haldimand County and Georgian Bay lamb…. Lamb belly This inexpensive cut is super easy to prepare and tastes great. Think about all those pork belly dishes you love…same thing but with lamb. Be sure to call ahead and order [...] Read "Bang for your Buck part 3" more
Bang for your Buck part 2: We’re back with another bang for your buck cut. This week, we’re showcasing a recipe that uses one of our favourite cuts of pork; the boneless blade eye, also known as capicollo. It’s cut from the shoulder and is by far the best part. It has an excellent meat to fat ratio and slow cooks [...] Read "Bang for your Buck part 2" more
Makin’ Bacon: Yeah, yeah….. cheesy, we know. We held back our best Heritage sows from last year so we could breed them this year with “Boris”. Boris’ Harem Boris is on loan from our neighbour Mike down the road. He is a purebred Tamworth boar and this is him in action! Cue the jokes….we’ve heard them [...] Read "Makin’ Bacon" more
Bang for your buck: It’s no secret that since the economy slowed in 2009, people are very careful with what they spend their money on. We’ve all become more conscientious and concerned with value for our food dollar. This trend is widely evident in both the retail food and restaurant sector. I guess I’m writing this to let all [...] Read "Bang for your buck" more
Farm update: improving on a good thing: Going into the seventh year of our Wagyu program, we’re always working on making a good thing even better. Last year we had our purebred Wagyu heifers artificially inseminated by the #1 Wagyu scored bull in all of North America. (Offspring pictured below.) Once they’ve matured, we’re sure that this beef will be nothing short [...] Read "Farm update: improving on a good thing" more
Deboned Stuffed Whole Chicken: New in the shops this fall… We are deboning whole chickens and stuffing them with a thin layer of proscuitto, parmigiano reggiano, provolone and fresh basil – classic flavours. This makes for the ease of cooking a boneless chicken breast, but with all the flavours of the whole bird and its crispy skin. It’s a [...] Read "Deboned Stuffed Whole Chicken" more
Twelve Winds Lamb Farm: We’ve added a new lamb farm to our roster. The farm is situated just down the road from our farm in Jarvis, Ontario. They raise purebred Dorset lambs that we’re sure will be a great addition to our selections. The first lambs arrived in the shops this week, they have been on pasture all summer. [...] Read "Twelve Winds Lamb Farm" more
New From The Kitchen: Butternut Squash Ricotta Cannelloni Perfect fall dish. We roasted butternut squash and added ricotta and parmesan cheese to make our cannelloni filling. Then we crisped up our smoked Guanciale and added that to the stuffing. We finished it off with a browned butter and sage sauce. Beef Short Rib Lasagna Taking our bone-in short ribs, [...] Read "New From The Kitchen" more
Cumbrae Farms Cattle: We’ve got some great cattle coming through the stores over the next few months. These are our Angus & Angus-Charolais cross breeds raised by Cumbrae Farms own Nathan and Rob Pond. We sampled the hanger steak off the first one and it was fantastic. Read "Cumbrae Farms Cattle" more
BBQ Basics: Check out our quick BBQ tip videos on theglobeandmail.com Perfect BBQ’d pork back ribs Feast on slow-cooked BBQ’d pork shoulder How to keep BBQ’d sausages juicy and succulent The secret to juicy BBQ’d chicken breast Read "BBQ Basics" more
Sausage of the Week: With summer fast approaching, demand for sausages increases. At our shops, our butchers and chefs have collaborated to come up with different sausage recipes for our customers to sample. Linked Wagyu Sausage Check out the videos below. Some of our specialty sausages of the week are: Wagyu – with Bordeaux,shallots and demi [...] Read "Sausage of the Week" more
Berkshire+Pulled Pork Burger: Not a week goes by that we aren’t creating a new recipe. Some make it into our counters, others don’t. This one we just had to share. We took Brenda’s Berkshire shoulder, ground it once, seasoned it. Then added our Slow Baised Pulled Pork and a few drops of reduced pomagranate juice. This is one of [...] Read "Berkshire+Pulled Pork Burger" more
Suckling Pig: For years our customers have come to us and ordered suckling pig for special occasions and usually cooked it on a spit. Recently, we’ve started custom butchering them into their individual cuts, i.e., racks, loins, bellies, etc. So you can now enjoy suckling pig, whether it’s for two or twenty. Read "Suckling Pig" more
Corned Beef Brisket: We brined our brisket. Then slow cooked it in a water bath at 150 degrees for 14 hours. The result was fall-apart tender and the flavor, fantastic. Read "Corned Beef Brisket" more
Tawse Winery Lamb: The Tawse Vinyard Lambs are available in all three stores this week. These lambs graze all summer and fall in the vinyards. Paul Pender From Tawse changed the breed of lamb this year and the results have been great. Read "Tawse Winery Lamb" more
Cumbrae’s Terrine: Chef Jerry has whiped up some lovely Terinnes for the holiday season parties. Rabbit and Apricot, Pheasant Berkshire and Pistachio, Fois Gras with Burgundy poached Pears. Also our Classic Duck and Pork Rillettes. Read "Cumbrae’s Terrine" more
Cumbrae’s article in the Globe & Mail, Report on Business: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/grow/three-things/stephen-alexander/article1765197/ Read "Cumbrae’s article in the Globe & Mail, Report on Business" more
The Final Wagyu’s of 2010.: Here are some shots of our Cumbrae Farm Wagyu for 2010. We have 3 steers and 3 heifers left. We plan to stretch them out so we have cuts available up until february. The first of our 2011′s will be available in May. Simply put, This is some fantastic stuff and if you see [...] Read "The Final Wagyu’s of 2010." more
Brined Whole Chickens: Many of our customers have told us what great results they’re having with brining our chickens at home, so, we’ve experimented in our kitchen and came up with a fantastic steeped lemon, tarragon brine. I guess you could say we’ve taken all the hard work out of it for you. They are now available in [...] Read "Brined Whole Chickens" more
Water Buffalo.: We just received our first sides of Water Buffalo From a farm in Stratford Ontario. The farm primarily uses the herd for producing milk for local buffalo mozzarella. We did some sampling and we’re pretty happy with the overall eating experience. Tasting note: very flavourful, perhaps a touch less gamey than Bison. Read "Water Buffalo." more
Fall sunset on the farm: Read "Fall sunset on the farm" more
Porchetta: With the weather starting to change, we’re getting back into slow-cooking. Here is our version of Porchetta from start to finish. For this I like to use the boston butt. It’s my favourite muscle on the whole pig. I find you get the best results with it. All you have to do is put it [...] Read "Porchetta" more
Homegrown Livestock Feed: A few fresh snapshots of Nathan Pond (managing partner of Cumbrae farms) harvesting barley and alfalfa on his property. All of which go to feed our livestock on the farms. Read "Homegrown Livestock Feed" more
Pasture raised heritage pigs: New arrival this week to Nathan Pond’s farm (managing partner of Cumbrae Farms). Our first batch of heritage pigs. The plan is to have them out on pasture for the summer. Nathan will also be coming up with some interesting feeds for them as well. We’ll keep you updated when the first ones are available [...] Read "Pasture raised heritage pigs" more
BBQ the perfect steak: Here is the first of six videos we shot with the Globe and Mail. They are all about BBQing. BBQ the perfect steak Read "BBQ the perfect steak" more
Hangin’ out with the Cumbrae’s staff: Read "Hangin’ out with the Cumbrae’s staff" more
Perfect Cowboy Cut Rib Steak: Sometimes you get it all right. This is the result of when everything goes perfect! This Angus rib was dry-aged for seven weeks. It will eat absolutely fantastic! And, yes, it’s raised right here in Ontario, just outside of Collingwood. Read "Perfect Cowboy Cut Rib Steak" more
Wagyu Crêpe: Putting our Wagyu to good use in the kitchen… We slow-braised some blade steak to fork tender and used it to make our Wagyu crêpe with snow peas, cashews & mint. Read "Wagyu Crêpe" more
Rhode Island Red Hens: Our new Rhode Island Red laying hens have arrived at Nathan Pond’s farm (managing partner of Cumbrae Farms). They are producing some pretty mean eggs! Which we are putting to good use in select dishes in Cumbrae’s kitchen. Read "Rhode Island Red Hens" more
Cumbrae’s Walnut Fed Wild Boar: A couple of pictures and a video of the latest walnut-fed wild boar that we currently have available in the shops. One thing that I forgot to mention in the video is the Orange, Roasted Walnut and Sage sausage that we are making out of the shoulder meat. (We are pretty happy with it!) Read "Cumbrae’s Walnut Fed Wild Boar" more
Where the hell is Dundas?: We often get asked at the downtown shops, “Where is Dundas?”, and “Why did I pick it to build Cumbrae’s?” Dundas is a great town about 10 minutes from Hamilton and borders Ancaster. The Dundas location has been a butcher shop since the 1920′s… You just can’t buy that kind of soul! As with our [...] Read "Where the hell is Dundas?" more
What makes a great burger?: In the video below, I take you through the various factors that go into the making of a great burger. What are the different cuts of beef used? How does fat content factor in? What are the best seasonings? How does grinding play a key role? After years of in house testing, we really have [...] Read "What makes a great burger?" more
cumbraes.com/blog: Born out of our desire to share with you Cumbrae’s constant evolution, we will be updating you on our latest developments; whether it be the raising of new livestock on one of our farms, new butchering and cooking techniques or the latest creation from Cumbrae’s kitchen. Our aim is to make this blog informative and [...] Read "cumbraes.com/blog" more
Great alternative grilling steaks: In the video below, I give you the insight into the relatively unexplored world of alternative grilling steaks. We explore the part of the animal the cuts come from, how to best prepare them and how to ask for and select the best one for your individual palate. These alternative grilling steaks are important to [...] Read "Great alternative grilling steaks" more