Dripping Reigns Supreme

How can a product as simple as Beef Dripping win the Supreme Champion Award at the Great Taste Awards?

 

The kind of thing you don’t really think of as a vital ingredient, we all use it for Roasties, to make the perfect Triple Cooked Chips, to power up the Yorkshires, but it’s still just dripping.

 

Until, that is, a master of his craft turns his attention to producing the best dripping possible.

 

Pat Whelan inherited the family butchers James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel as well as the family farms and set out to provide the finest meats to his customers. With his own farms, an abattoir and an expanding range of shops as well as a strong network of farmers and other butchers to discuss ideas with he is ideally placed so to do.

 

But it’s Pat’s philosophy of food that is the real driver to success. He loves his farms and animals and wants to produce the best meats by respecting the animals and seeking to use every part of the animal that he has lovingly reared.

 

You can read more of Pat’s philosophy and background in his two books, An Irish Butcher Shop and The Irish Beef Book, written with Katy McGuinness.

 

 

Beef Dripping is a taste of our childhood, sadly side-lined by the years of attack on real fats and promotion of assorted oils by governments largely in thrall to big agribusiness. High time for a real comeback and now there is a growing realisation that fats like Butter and Dripping are not harmful and are natural products unlike the so  called ‘Spreads’ and cooking aids. Let’s be honest here I would rather trust a cow than a chemist, and it’s not Fat it’s Flavour.

 

So how does one man raise dripping from everyday store cupboard ingredient to Award Winning status?

 

By working long and hard to ensure that the product is the best, over several years, trying, tasting and refining to make the ultimate dripping.

The Dripping comes from the Hereford Cattle that Pat farms in County Tipperary, famed for its meat quality the Hereford would produce great fat for dripping, and it’s not just a case of rendering fat to dripping. The fats are carefully chosen and blended to bring out the best taste. The fats around the Kidney –or Inner Fats as Pat calls them are skilfully blended with Outer Fats – those from the working muscle areas that we would see as the various cuts of meat. The result is a smooth dripping which imparts a lot of taste to whichever dish you are using it in. If ever there was a Beef Extract this is it not that brown stuff that you add water to for a drink at a football match. Perhaps a little steak finds its way into the render to add that beefy goodness?

 

Now for the very minor role that I played in the development.

A few years ago I was talking with Pat who told me that he wanted to revive Dripping which had gone out of favour, and he asked me whether butchers in the UK still sold it. Certainly in our area they did. “Can you find out how they package their dripping” I was asked.

 

My memories were of tall waxed packets which stood on shelves in the shops with the butchers name and a picture of a cow on them, so that’s what we wanted to find so that Pat could package a traditional food in a traditional package. Would you believe it? A new team of EHOs had persuaded our local butchers that they were much better off selling their dripping in sealable plastic pots! A mad dash round butchers in a 50 mile radius couldn’t produce one example of traditional packaging.

Luckily Pat is not the man to take this as a setback and he designed this own elegant package that reflects the past.

 

So released last year, Pat put his Dripping into The Great Taste Awards where it won 3 Stars, the maximum possible.

More research and development and the 2015 version was submitted and again won 3 stars. As a 3 star product it was re-tasted to see whether it should make the Top 50 and earn a place at the dinner which celebrates the finest products of the year.

Pat was duly invited and made his way to London for the meal alongside some great Irish producers and the cream of contestants.

Each entrant has a chance of winning The Golden Fork for their Region or Sector of the food business and Pat was delighted to win The Golden Fork for Best Irish Product.  “At that stage I decided to celebrate” he told me, “The tie was loosened and drink was taken”.

Minutes later he was called back to receive the overall Golden Fork as Supreme Champion 2015!

 

 

Food industry insiders like Charles Campion and William Sitwell loved it as you can see from the video links below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZRwwDLZZEs

 

 

 

One amazing product that can change your whole cooking and bring so much flavour to every dish that uses it.

 

Where can you get it? Obviously in the Clonmel branch of James Whelan Butchers and from their branches in Avoca Ireland in Rathcoole, Monkstown and Kilmacanogue or online from  http://www.jameswhelanbutchers.com/

 

If you want this amazing Dripping in the UK you'll be heading for Harrods or Fortnum and Mason, the only stores to get their hands on this bovine ambrosia.

And as to the future ? Well, I might have heard a whisper about a very tasty Lard.

 

To Keep up with Pat and the team at James Whelan Butchers follow @Pat_Whelan and @JWButchers.

 

 

 

Pat Whelan, a great Irish Butcher

Darina Allen thinks that great butchers will replace great chefs as the stars of the foodiverse, and that butchery is undergoing a renaissance. If so the Michelangelo of Irish butchery is Pat Whelan in Clonmel.

Pat is a fifth generation butcher, the family firm is James Whelan Butchers,and much of his meat is raised on the family farm in Clonmel, slaughtered in their own abattoir and butchered by Pat and his highly experienced team. Meats that he doesn’t raise himself are all local as are the herbs and other products used in and available from the shop.

Aberdeen Angus and Hereford beef are mainstays with Lamb also being raised on the farm and sold in the shop. The meat is raised all grass fed, slaughtered and then dry aged by traditional methods to produce some of the finest meat that I have ever tasted. No matter how good the base product is, the processing can lead to it being (excuse the pun) butchered. It is the skill of Pat and his team that really brings out the best in the meat and makes it so desirable.

Almost overwhelmed by the choice available in the shop I had to think long and hard before purchase as we had only one plug in coolbox with us and I could have filled it many times over.

One thing was an absolute MUST for me the Wagyu Beef. Wagyu is an up and coming meat on both sides of the Irish Sea and one mouthful is enough to convince you of the added value of this premium beef. Space constraints meant that I could only buy the burgers but they were the ultimate taste sensation, even better than the Longhorn burgers served by Stephen Terry. I cooked them on the grill pan back at home and earned an “Amazing” from Mrs. K who usually gives a “Yum!” as her ultimate accolade.

There is a huge range available in the shop which has a long counter to the left and shelving to the right before a L turn takes you to further delights and the butchers are visible working in a separate room. “20 years ago the whole thrust was making the shop like a supermarket” said Pat, “Now with the new shop in Monkstown we want to bring the butchery back into the middle of the shop, show what we do. We’re already planning the changes here to put the focus on what we do as well as what we sell.”

The new shop was opened in the Avoca Foodmarket in Monkstown near Dunleary ( handy for rapid cross channel shopping trips from Holyhead)  and features three Maple butcher blocks where customers can watch the team in action.

I also purchased a terrific Chicken, again locally sourced, and a fillet of Ham to accompany it in a roast, and later as a chicken and ham pie.

Wonderful Inch House Black and White Puddings completed the purchases but as I said I was limited in the amount of space in the coolbox. The puddings served with organic free range eggs and home-made Soda Bread gave an excellent breakfast after an overnight ferry!

Stunning though the range and quality of meats were the really impressive thing about James Whelan Butchers was the atmosphere. Butchers spoke to customers, advising on cuts and cooking, enquiring how the last meal worked out and making suggestions but not trying the upsell or hard sell. This was a community butchers at its best and a model that many could copy.

Pat himself was on the checkout when I visited, and as well as sparing me a lot of time he spoke with every customer and obviously knew them well, you don’t get that in a supermarket!

I referred to Pat as the Michelangelo of the new butchery renaissance and this was not mere hyperbole, Pat really is a renaissance man.

As well as being a farmer/butcher Pat is a huge advocate of local seasonal artisan food and a tireless campaigner for Tipperary producers he is Chairman of Tipperary Producers. Every year he organizes a Long Table Dinner showcasing the best of local produce and last year had Rachel Allen to demonstrate recipes at a Food extravaganza.

His website http://www.jameswhelanbutchers.com/   features the product available and also has valuable resources such as cooking times, storage and a whole raft of videos covering everything from sharpening knives to boning chicken.

The new butcher blocks in Monkstown will enable an expansion of the butchery courses that are on offer and will be led by experienced butchers, the same facility is available in Clonmel.

Pat also writes a blog –find it through the website  –  based on his regular newspaper column, as does one of the team of butchers Liam Bourke who blogs at The Tipperary Butcher another brilliant series of food related posts.

Finally Pat wrote a marvelous book An Irish Butcher Shop with some 90 recipes for Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry and Game with very helpful sections on cooking techniques, temperature charts and virtually everything you need to know about cooking meat. I use it a lot for inspiration and instruction.

I will certainly be back in Clonmel to meet up with this giant of butchery, not least because Pat offered me a trip around the farm to see the source of the meat, but to buy some more of the finest that Tipperary (and indeed Ireland) has to offer.

Pat, his shops and his product are Local and Great.

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