Has anyone bought meat from Donald Russell --

[CarmelitaMiggs]

And how do you rate them?

Not used myself, but have read fab reviews, possibly in the guardian food awards? There's often offers on special trial packs but it does seem very £££ I would give it a go if I ever had room in my freezer to put it all.

I currently have some mutton in my freezer. I'll let you know when I find the time to cook it!

MY MIL orders stuff from them. extremely good I hear (not that she's ever invited us round to try it...

My Mum has used them and they seem to be good. I haven't used them myself as we have a very good butcher just down the road.

I got some steaks from them 2 weeks ago. They were yummy and we still have 3 in the freezer.

Another bonus is the fact that they came packaged with dry ice chips, so DH and I had literally hours of fun messing around with those.

Actually I think it's worth ordering more from there just to get more dry ice.

We have used them twice - using their heavily discounted offers.

Very tender beef but extremely small portions, but the quality is good for a special meal.

Personally I'd never pay full price for it.

I have a few times and everything I have had has been fantastic, particularly their rib eye steaks. Expensive though so not for everyday (at least not for us!).

My dh was given a steak selection by my parents for his birthday. We have so far sampled teh chateaubriand, the fillet medallions and 3 minute steaks. I thought it was nice but not spectacular (but woudl not tell my parents this as it costs a bomb!) In my opinion, the fillet steaks I occasionally buy from Morrisons are better.

If I remember they dont state what breed of animal they are using hence this is why you dont get the taste. Best beef is hung/matured for min 3 weeks but this carries a cost and most top quality beef producers cant supply to such demand. Like ourselves we did the box schemes but couldnt sell enough. Personally, I would shop around for a more local producer. Anyone that supplies that much steak cant be putting the quality of the animal first. One beast only carries about 16 fillets.

Questions to ask are the breed of the animal and this should be a traditional breed native of this country. Continental breeds work if crossed but you wont get the taste and dont hang so well. Grass feed or barn feed on concentrates because this is where you get your cheap beef from your premium. Hang/matured for min 3 weeks sometimes up to 8 weeks but may be too strong. You wont get this in a supermarket or average butchers you need to do some research.

Seems a bit extreme really having beef delivered from scotland when there are probably excellent award wining producers in your vacinity.