Slow Food UK is incredibly proud to have Ark of Taste producers like Ben Weatherall from The Blackface Meat Company on board. Please read more about Kathryn and Ben and their forgotten food British Red Grouse below. Kathryn and Ben are also part of our Supporters Scheme.

Ben and Kathryn are Slow Meat producers.

How Ben got into producing British Red Grouse and why he chose this particular product
Nestled among the heather clad hills of South-West Scotland, the Blackface Meat Company aims to provide the public with the highest quality game available, as well as locally reared lamb, mutton, beef and pork. This beautiful, unspoiled landscape covered with wild grasses and berries provides the perfect location for wild grouse to live, eat and breed. With the abundance of such high quality wild game around it made perfect sense for The Blackface Meat company to provide British Red Grouse to restaurants and kitchens across Scotland and the rest of the UK. Grouse is such an iconic Scottish gamebird and Ben is proud to provide such a delicious ingredient and wants to promote it’s wonderful and unique flavour.

The challenges that Ben faces producing British Red Grouse:
The habitat is wild and this means that the population of British Red Grouse rises and falls as the weather changes. Grouse only eat heather and they nest on the ground so there are many factors that can affect their numbers.

Products that Ben is offering:
The Blackface Meat Company supplies a range of game, including grouse, all available on the website. He also supplies a range of other meats from lamb and mutton to beef and pork which are also available to buy on the website.

Ben’s favourite British Red Grouse recipes:
The Blackface Meat Company gave us a simple recipe to prepare Grouse. Keeping it simple means the unique flavour of the Red Grouse takes centre stage:

1. Take an oven ready young grouse.
2 Put a knob of butter inside and a piece of streaky bacon over the breast.
3. Put some fat into a roasting tin and put it into a hot oven – 220C/400F.
4. When the fat is hot put a piece of bread into the fat. It should brown in two minutes.
5. Turn over the bread and put the grouse on top.
6. Cook for 30-35 minutes.

Contact details:
Address: Crochmore House, Irongray, Dumfries, DG2 9SF, Scotland
Phone: +44 (0)1387 730 326
Email: via website
Web: http://www.blackface.co.uk/