Congratulations to the latest winner of Masterchef: The Professionals, Alex Webb of Square 1 Restaurant, Great Dunmow.

Traymoor proudly supplies Square 1 where 25 year old Alex works as head chef.

Andy Hyde, managing director at Traymoor comments: “We’re obviously ecstatic that a local person has won Masterchef. I must add that it’s especially gratifying that Alex Webb works for one of our most highly esteemed customers. We wish Alex and Square 1 ongoing success.”

Alex plans on continuing his work at Square 1 which has a reputation for excellent customer service and attention to detail. Visitors can, therefore, be confident of a meal to remember.

Restaurant quality meat at Traymoor

Traymoor is proud to supply a spectacular range of high-quality meats to wholesale customers, we also offer a retail service. We deliver all over Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and London (North & East). Our range includes 21-day aged steaks, roasting joints, speciality sausages, chickens, lamb steaks, burgers, and kebabs.

We also offer a wide variety of great value meat packs. These meat hampers contain an assortment of household essentials including minced beef, chicken breast fillets, pork chops, sausages, and bacon. In addition, our incredible steak lovers pack is filled with sirloin steak, ribeye steak, rump steak, fillet steak, and T-bone steak.

When you’re in charge of cooking Christmas lunch, there’s every chance that you’ll feel under pressure to serve a sumptuous meal so think about following a Christmas cooking schedule. This will help you to get the timings right, cook everything to perfection and ensure that no detail is missed. It’s easy to get bogged down with what you should be doing and when so a schedule, albeit a loose one, is a great way to help you stay on track and reduce stress.

The Christmas cooking schedule we offer below is based on a typical Christmas lunch with a 5 kilogram turkey served at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. If you’re having a different type of meat, or a turkey of a different size, you will need to adjust your timings.

Although this schedule does not tell you how to roast a turkey, can link you to a recipe.

One week ahead

Most of your fresh ingredients won’t perish overnight so you can get a lot of them a couple of days before Christmas Day. Ideally, you’ll have saved yourself the stress of actually going to the supermarket and have instead placed an order for delivery. If possible, have everything, including your turkey, delivered on the 23^rd. This means that you will have all you need to start prepping on Christmas Eve.

Stock up on drinks. Wines, spirits, liqueurs and soft drinks to suit all tastes are a must. Are you thinking of kicking off with a festive cocktail? Make sure you have all the necessary ingredients including a bag of ice.

If you’re using a frozen turkey, transfer from freezer to fridge on the 23^rd.

Christmas Eve

Try to get the majority of your prep done on Christmas Eve. That way, you can be leisurely about it so that on Christmas Day, all you need to think about is cooking the various items in the right order.

The first thing to do is make your mince pies and sausage rolls. It’s nice to have these done out of the way so that when you’ve done all your other work, you can sit down for a nibble and a well-earned rest.

Make the stuffing (don’t cook it) wrap, and store in the fridge.

Peel and parboil the potatoes in readiness for roasting. Once cool, store covered in the fridge.

Peel sprouts, cover and refrigerate.

Peel and chop carrots, cover and refrigerate.

Vegetables such as parsnips, cauliflower, and other items that tend to quickly discolour can also be prepared now but must be stored in acidulated water. Make acidulated water by mixing two teaspoons of lemon juice with every litre of water.

If you’re having braised red cabbage, cook this now according to your recipe, and refrigerate when cool. It can be reheated in a saucepan or in the microwave just before serving.

Any frozen items that need defrosting can now be transferred to the fridge.

If you’re making your own pigs in blankets, wrap your chipolatas in bacon now, cover and store in the fridge.

Scrutinise the remainder of your Christmas cooking schedule and make edits and additions to suit your menu.

Christmas Day

8 am 

Remove turkey and stuffing from fridge.

9:30 am        

Preheat oven to 190 c (170 c fan)

Stuff the turkey neck, weigh, and calculate cooking time.

10 am 

Put the turkey and wine or stock in roasting tin and place in the oven.

Check every 45 minutes to ensure that the tray has not gone dry. Add a cupful of hot water if necessary.

11 am  

Set the table, make stuffing balls, and do any final prep.

1 pm    

Remove the turkey from the oven and use a meat thermometer to check it is cooked. It should be 65 c at the thickest part of the breast and 75 c at the thickest part of the thigh.

(Note that if the meat has not reached this temperature, it needs to go back into the oven and checked again in 15 minutes. You will need to adjust subsequent cooking times accordingly.)

Transfer the turkey to a plate and cover with foil. Turn up the oven to 200 c (180 c fan) and put a roasting tin filled with goose fat or oil into the oven. This will be for the potatoes. If you are roasting additional vegetables, now is the time to put in roasting tins for those too.

Deglaze the turkey roasting tin to make the gravy.

1:15 pm 

Place potatoes in hot fat ensuring that you coat all the potatoes. Do the same with any other roast vegetables. Return tins to the oven.

1:30 pm   

Place the pigs in blankets and stuffing balls on a baking tray and place in the oven. If they do not need quite half an hour to cook, either delay putting them in the oven, or ensure that you have somewhere to keep them warm once cooked.

Boil water for vegetables

1:40 pm  

Put most vegetables on to steam or boil, but remember that brussels sprouts only need around five minutes. Therefore, you may want to delay putting these on.

Warm up your gravy and check for taste and consistency. Now is the time add additional seasoning and thickener if necessary. In addition, you can warm up any other sauces at this point as well as your braised red cabbage.

1:50 pm 

Warm your serving dishes and plates. The dishwasher or a sink of hot water is ideal for this.

All the vegetables, roasted, boiled or otherwise should now be ready. Transfer them to serving dishes.

Turn off the oven and put the pudding in to warm through in the residual heat.

If you want to serve the turkey already carved, do the carving now. Otherwise, simply remove the foil and surround the bird with stuffing balls, roast potatoes, or anything to give it a festive appearance.

2 pm    

Take food to the table and sit down to lunch.

Traymoor at Christmas

We hope that by providing our Christmas cooking schedule we have helped make Christmas Day a little bit easier. Traymoor can help you further by offering home delivery of Christmas meat packs.

We deliver our restaurant-quality produce to homes in Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and London (North & East).

Traymoor is delighted to have been chosen to provide meats for The Great British Bake Off. The latest series of the show was filmed at Down Hall Country House Hotel in Matching Green, Essex. The production company chose us as we are a leading supplier of top-quality meats to hotels and restaurants across the eastern region and London. Furthermore, our reputation for quality produce, speed, and professional service, ensured our success.

Our managing director, Andy Hyde, responded to the news: ‘At Traymoor, we take great pride in our work. So, to supply our produce to The Great British Bake Off, and at such a prestigious venue is a huge accolade. We’re all incredibly excited to be part of the new series.’

Over 10 hour-long episodes, the show sees amateur baking fans battle to win the title of UK’s best amateur baker. Competitors young and old from all over the UK face different challenges each week. And each week, the competitor showing the least ability is eliminated. The judges are Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood, and the hosts of the latest series will be Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding.

The Great British Bake Off returns to Channel 4 at 8 pm on Tuesday 22^nd September.

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/greatbritishbakeoff/

WIN!

A top-quality barbecue pack worth £50!

Over the summer, we’ve been flooded with orders for our tantalising barbecue packs. Filled with lamb chops, pork belly, chicken wings, ribs, and burgers, they have everything to make your next barbecue a sizzling sensation. And we’re offering you the chance to win one!

We just want to know what you think we could be doing better. Are there other products you think we should be offering? What sort of changes would you like to see on the website? Is there anything at all we’re not doing that would improve your experience of shopping with us?

To enter, simply go to the competition post on our Facebook page, hit “Like” and leave a comment giving us your valuable feedback.

And if you’d like to give your friends a chance to win, feel free to share the post with them!

Full terms and conditions

• There is 1 prize of a £50 barbecue meat pack.
• Open to UK residents aged 16 and over, excluding employees and relatives of Traymoor Ltd.
• Prize will only be delivered within Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and London (North & East)
• Closing date for entries is 11.59pm GMT on 25th August 2020.
• Only one entry per person.
• Entrants must leave a comment on the Facebook promotional post suggesting changes that Traymoor could make to improve the online shopping experience – one comment per person.
• The winner will be chosen at random.
• The winner will be informed by a reply to their comment plus a Facebook message within 28 days of the closing date and will need to respond within 28 days or a new winner will be chosen.
• The winner’s name will be available on request and published in the Traymoor blog and on social media accounts.
• The promoter is Traymoor Ltd, Great Dunmow, Essex.
• By participating in this prize draw, entrants confirm they have read, understood and agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.
• This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook or Instagram.

Listed On Loquax

In the warmer weather, we like to spend as much time as possible outside. Hence why barbecues and our barbecue packs are so popular. However, if you enjoy a traditional joint of beef or a sizzling pork loin, but don’t want to turn on the oven in an already stifling kitchen, why not cook your Sunday roast on the barbecue?

These directions involve using a gas or electric barbecue with a lid and temperature gauge. Whilst roasting a joint of meat can certainly be accomplished on a charcoal barbecue certain additional steps are required.

Prepare the meat

If your joint was in the freezer, make sure it is completely thawed before you start cooking. Brush with oil, and season with salt and pepper, or if you have a favourite rub or marinade, apply that now.

Pre-heat the barbecue

As always, you want the barbecue to be hot before you start cooking. Light all the burners and close the lid. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge and let it get up to somewhere between 150° and 200° centigrade.

Turn off central burners

If you apply intense direct heat to a joint, you will end up with a tough underside. You are depending on the indirect heat produced by the burners to either side, and the heat that is retained by the hood.

Place the meat in the centre of the barbecue and close the lid

If you have a two-burner barbecue, turn one burner off and place the meat over the unlit burner. Aim to keep the hood closed as much as possible and maintain a temperature of 150° to 200° centigrade. Each time you open the lid, the temperature will fall considerably.

Leave to cook for the required time

Although we recommend that you resist the temptation to open the lid too often, it is a good idea to turn the joint once halfway through cooking. This will ensure the meat is cooked evenly.

To ensure that the meat is cooked through, use a meat thermometer and aim for a cooked temperature as per the chart above.

Finish off with direct heat

If you’re going to roast a joint on the barbecue, you want to achieve that great barbecue taste. So, to complete cooking, turn all burners on and roll the meat around on the grill for a few minutes until you get the desired crusty brown finish.

Leave meat to rest

Remove the joint from the grill and put on a plate covered loosely with foil. Leave to rest for around 15 minutes and carve.

Roasting joints from Traymoor

At Traymoor, we supply a wide variety of restaurant-quality meats. Our roasting joints include:

• Beef topside joint
• Gammon joint
• Leg of lamb
• Pork loin joint
• Pork shoulder
• Turkey breast joint

We also offer a great-value roasting pack which includes pork loin, leg of lamb, gammon and turkey breast. This is just one of a range of meat packs. Available in various sizes and prices, these meat packs are filled with an assortment of household essentials including minced beef, chicken breast fillets, pork chops, sausages, and bacon. In addition, our incredible steak lovers pack is filled with sirloin steak, ribeye steak, rump steak, fillet steak, and T-bone steak.

Through our online butchers shop, Traymoor offers next-day delivery throughout Essex, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and London (North & East). Our extensive range includes 21-day aged steaks, speciality sausages, chickens, lamb steaks, burgers, and kebabs.

For those weekends when you want that delicious barbecue taste but the weather just isn’t playing ball, try rustling up some tasty barbecue pulled pork. It’s easy to make and the long slow cooking time means that you can savour the delicious cooking smells for hours. Our recipe calls for pork shoulder, a fully flavoured cut that almost melts when cooked properly. This is a fabulous treat for all the family.

Ingredients

2 kg pork shoulder joint, skin removed

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp onion salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

4 tbsp barbecue sauce

For serving

Bread rolls, crusty baguettes, brioche buns, or tortilla wraps

Coleslaw

Barbecue sauce

Sliced pickled gherkins

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C or 130C fan. Rub the pork with 2 tbsp of the olive oil. Heat a large non-stick pan until very hot and sear the pork on all sides until golden brown.

Place the meat on a wire rack in a roasting tin. Mix the remaining olive oil, smoked paprika, mustard powder, garlic and onion salt, and black pepper. Brush all over the meat.

Add 1 cup of water to the roasting tin, cover tightly with foil and cook for 5 hours.

Remove from the oven and check for doneness. The meat should be falling apart.

Drain the juices from the meat into a measuring jug. Leave to settle and then skim off the fat.

Shred the pork using 2 forks.

Mix together 4 tbsp of barbecue sauce with 125 ml of juices, and add to the shredded pork.

Your barbecue flavour pulled pork can either be kept warm, or allowed to cool and reheated.

When ready to serve, fill bread rolls with pulled pork, coleslaw, pickles, and a spoonful of barbecue sauce. Or, for more fun, lay out the ingredients, and let people do their own assembly.

If you’re like most people, you may feel that you already know the correct way to cook sausages. You’ve been cooking them for years and are happy with the results. There is the possibility, however, that with a few tweaks, you could be rustling up some of the best sausages you’ve ever had. Follow our recommendations and get ready to enjoy a sizzling sausage sensation!

This guide is aimed at those cooking sausages in the kitchen. We can offer alternative guidelines if you’re cooking on the barbecue.

Bring the sausages to room temperature before cooking.

This is a step that many are familiar with when it comes to cooking steaks, but it’s also important for sausages. Removing them from the fridge around 20 minutes before cooking helps them cook more evenly. In addition, there is less chance of the skins breaking.

Don’t prick them.

In days gone by, it was common for sausages to explode while cooking, hence why we call them “bangers”. This was down to the use of a range of cheap ingredients and low meat content to make them more affordable. Although pricking them reduced the possibility of the sausages exploding, this is an unnecessary step when you cook sausages of high quality. Furthermore, much of the juices will seep out resulting in a dryer, less tasty sausage.

Heat a heavy-based frying pan on a low to medium heat.

If it’s too hot, the sausages will burn on the outside before cooking in the middle. Be patient and let them cook gently.

Certain establishments like to deep fry sausages. It seems more efficient as it takes away the need to turn the sausages over every few minutes. However, deep frying usually results in dry sausages with tough skins.

Baking sausages is also not ideal as it doesn’t deliver the sort of umami flavour that is typical of frying.

Add around a teaspoon of fat to the frying pan.

It could be sunflower oil, peanut oil, or even goose fat if you’re feeling indulgent. Using fat adds to the taste and texture of the cooked sausage, but if you have a non-stick frying pan, you could go without fat completely.

Place the sausages in the pan. They should sizzle gently.

Turn them every couple of minutes so that they cook evenly and take on a golden-brown colour all round. A typical British sausage should take 15 to 20 minutes to cook through. If you have a temperature probe, aim for approximately 70°C.

Remove the sausages from the pan and allow them to rest for a few minutes.

Most meats benefit from a bit of time to relax immediately after cooking and sausages are no exception. A rest will make them juicier and more tender.

Serve.

Whether you pop them in a crusty roll with onions at a barbecue, or serve them with bacon and eggs as part of a hearty breakfast, following our simple steps will result in delighted faces all round.

Further reading

Now that you know the correct way to cook sausages, why not try your hand at cooking the perfect steak?

Speciality sausages from Traymoor

At Traymoor, we offer a wide selection of speciality sausages. These include:

• Cumberland sausages
• Venison and red wine sausages
• Old English pork sausages
• Wild boar and apple sausages
• Pork and caramelised onion sausages

If you would like a type of sausage that we have not listed, please contact us and we will endeavour to fulfil your request.

Traymoor delivers an incredible selection of restaurant quality meats all over Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and London (North & East). Our range includes 21-day aged steaks, roasting joints, chickens, lamb steaks, burgers, and kebabs.

We also offer a wide variety of great value meat packs. Available in a range of sizes and prices, these meat packs are filled with an assortment of household essentials including minced beef, chicken breast fillets, pork chops, sausages, and bacon. In addition, our incredible steak lovers pack is filled with sirloin steak, ribeye steak, rump steak, fillet steak, and T-bone steak.

Traymoor is once again proud to sponsor the Destination Dining category of the Essex Life Food and Drink Awards 2019.

Now in its tenth year, this major event celebrates all that is great about food and drink within Essex. Categories included Chef of the Year, Independent Food & Drink Retailer of the Year, Restaurant of the Year, Best Essex Producer and the Essex Life Food & Drink Hero award, and several others. Readers of Essex Life Magazine nominate candidates and a panel makes the final decision.

As part of our ongoing expansion, we have augmented our fleet of refrigerated delivery vehicles with some new vans. The advanced Ford Transit EcoBlue 2.0L TDCi diesel engines comply with the stringent Euro6 emissions standard. This purchase is a positive step in our continuing efforts to reduce our carbon footprint. Furthermore, the installation of up to the minute refrigeration equipment in our new premises, is part of our strategy to enhance the environment.

Many thanks to Toomeys leasing for their assistance and for Sign-it of Chelmsford for the new distinctive signage.

After much searching we have moved to our new purpose-built premises in White Roding near to the M11.

The increased space and up to the minute equipment will allow us to upscale our excellent customer service. Furthermore, as we continue to welcome new customers, these state-of-the-art facilities will help us maintain our continued growth. In addition, we will be able to more efficiently service our commercial and domestic customers in Essex, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and London (North & East).

The most unusual request we had this year was from Sky Television. They wanted to consult us on an episode of their hit series ‘Stan Lee’s Lucky Man’ starring James Nesbitt. Sky Television originally asked for our help to dress the set for a scene in a meat cutting plant. In addition, they required our advice on authenticity. However, on the day our Managing Director, Andrew Hyde, was called on set to act in a scene with James Nesbitt himself.

A new career beckons?…

On the 29th September, we attended the Essex Life Fine Food and Drink Awards 2016 at Down Hall.  As proud sponsors of the Best Family Dining category, we very much enjoyed the event. Whilst there were nominations for many worthy venues, the winner was the Rose and Crown Pub in Stansted, Essex.  Congratulations to them and to all of the winners on the night.

Traymoor is proud to supply top-quality meat to a wide range of sectors across East Anglia including, Essex, Suffolk, London, Hertfordshire, and Cambridgeshire. Furthermore, we offer next-day home deliveries.

In 2016, Traymoor celebrates 25 years as an unrivalled meat wholesaler supplying quality meats and poultry to the catering trade.

Thanks to recent exponential growth in business, Traymoor will soon be moving to bigger and better premises, as well as providing a retail service. This will enable us to offer our customers better service than ever! Furthermore, our online shop means we can provide home delivery of fresh meat to domestic customers.

Our delivery area includes Suffolk, Essex, London, Hertfordshire, and Cambridgeshire.