New guide promotes veal cuts

With British veal growing in popularity after promotion by chefs such as Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, pubs are being offered support to put it on the menu with a new cutting guide from EBLEX.

Following a similar format to the existing beef and lamb cutting guide, the new advices is aimed at caterers and suppliers, illustrating how to cut veal to specification and maximise return.

The new guide is available to Quality Standard Mark (QSM) members as a CD-ROM

"Often all we see on menus is veal escallops and calf's liver, but there is so much more than can be done with the right cuts of veal," said Dick van Leeuwen, EBLEX master butcher and author of the new cutting guide.

"The veal cutting guide shows how much more versatile the meat is and includes almost 100 veal cuts, each supported by a full step-by-step cutting specification.

"Finding a commercially viable way of making best use of bull calves would avoid many of them having to be put down at birth - a practice which nobody is comfortable with and the public are rightly concerned about.

"We hope this veal cutting guide can help to stimulate the debate and give a welcome boost to the veal market in the UK."

TV chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recently highlighted the British veal industry and the efforts being made by some farmers to rear the animals in superior conditions until they enter the food chain.

For more information call the scheme hotline on 0800 781 4221.