Damon Buckingham is a butcher at award winning Black Barn Butchers in Milford who were runners up in last year’s Surrey Food and Drink awards. Surrey has a wealth of fantastic butchers who have been able to head off competition from supermarkets through their expertise.

Pre-packs and convenient shopping at any hour lured many of us away from traditional high street shops, but national trends show a return to selecting independent shops over high street chains is increasing. Properly hung and matured meat, beef from pedigree and rare-breed herds, free range pork, poultry and lamb are increasing in popularity. Surprisingly, a high spike in eating quality and flavour doesn’t always get reflected in the price, making this a real winner for savvy food shoppers.

One of the recent Surrey success stories, Black Barn Butchers is based at Secretts in Milford. Opening in 2012, it steadily built up its customer base and in 2015, when a larger unit became available, Black Barn snapped it up. Just settled into this new home before Christmas, Black Barn underestimated potential orders for its gorgeous quality turkeys and beef joints and had to turn a few people away. Next year it will be prepared.

Damon, shop manager at Black Barn, is among a younger, dynamic community of butchers emerging within the trade, contributing to a new style of creativity and a desire to design value added products (oven-ready, seasoned and stuffed). Damon started working in a butcher’s shop when he was fifteen and at eighteen was working full time in a traditional butcher’s shop in Greenwich. This shop, he says, was very old fashioned, but he learned to cut carcasses and it set him on a good path. Damon stayed for three years, but with no product innovation or added value ranges on the horizon, he decided to move to a more modern business. Taking a role as a head butcher in a Kent-based business, he found an opportunity to increase his skill set.

In another move (strategic as it turns out), Damon met David Mitchell at Osney Lodge Farm in Godstone where it was preparing meat for the food service sector. David already had a small business and when the unit went into liquidation he found himself one of the biggest debtors. He was able to take this business with him and luckily the timing was perfect as he offered Damon a job. David’s shop was at Secretts, and a good fit as the farm shop is well known for its quality food and home-grown produce. Initially the core (80%) of their business was for the food service sector, but gradually the retail side caught up. Gaining membership to the Q Guild in 2014 was also key to their success.

David Mitchell’s ethos for Black Barn meat means the quality and provenance of what he buys for the shop is faultless. Lamb comes from farmer Jessica Cross, who has a herd of South Downs’ sheep just 16 miles from the shop in Diss. Pure breed Aberdeen Angus beef is from farmer Angus Stovold at Lydling Farm in nearby Shackleford, and pedigree Hereford beef is from Tim Metson at Coverwood Farm in Ewhurst.

This clear provenance, their butchery skills, food hygiene and customer service have gained them entry into the Q Guild of Butchers who represent just over one hundred of the best butchers in the UK. This accolade and the awards scheme for butchery products gave Damon an outlet for his fantastic ideas for oven-ready products.

Free-range sausage patties with kale and potato cakes

This makes a great weekend brunch dish or light midweek dinner. I used a burger press from Lakeland to make the patties, but it’s possible to shape by hand too. This was a healthier take on the sausage muffin sandwich from McDonalds which my kids loved when they were younger. Older now, they liked my version too, and it’s now a regular on lazy Sunday mornings. I usually cook the potatoes the night before so they are cold to start the dish: they stick together better that way.

Sausage patties

Six large, free-range, pork and herb sausages (de-skinned) from a proper butcher: remove meat from casings and shape into six patties (use gluten-free if needed), OR one Black Barn sausage patty per person (available from the butcher at Secretts of Milford).

Potato cakes

600g of cold cooked red skin potatoes (leave the skins on)
50g white cornmeal (polenta)
50-75g finely chopped young kale leaves (if using older leaves, take the leaves off the centre vein)
Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper
A couple of pinches of ground chilli (optional)
Enough white cornmeal mixed with two teaspoons of sweet Spanish smoked paprika to coat the cakes
Sunflower oil to shallow fry

Accompaniments

Two rashers of streaky bacon per person
One poached or fried egg per person
One small bunch of roasted vine ripened cherry tomatoes per person
A handful of baby kale or salad leaves for each plate, tossed in a little lemon juice and oil to season

Method

• Place the potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer with the kale, polenta and seasoning. Mix until all are combined. The polenta provides the bonding
agent here!
• Divide the mix roughly into six portions and using a burger press or hands, shape into six cakes. Mix the polenta and smoked paprika to coat each cake. Chill until required.
• Pan-fry the cakes in a little sunflower oil to seal.
• Heat the oven to gas mark 5/190 degrees centigrade/fan 170. Place the tomatoes on a foil lined baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes.
• Heat a small amount of oil and pan-fry the sausage patty to seal with the bacon and then transfer to the oven and place with the tomatoes to finish cooking. Using the same pan, seal the potato cakes and cook until golden brown on each side.
• Heat some water in a small pan and poach the eggs. Assemble the dish on a warmed plate and enjoy. The potato cakes can be made in advance and cooked when needed.
• Serve one or two cakes per person, depending on appetite!

Damon, since starting at Black Barn, has filled the counters with seasoned meats, stuffed, hand-tied and stitched single portion creations and a stunning range of sausages. The sausage range (made in house) includes marmite, venison and red wine, Welsh dragon (a winning combination of herbs and chilli) and wild boar sitting alongside more traditional flavours. Black Barn’s gluten free pork sausages are
a hit with customers, which with a range of other creations, won the butcher a host of Q Guild product awards. Damon’s burgers, stuffed chicken breasts and pork dishes are legendary too, so, while he and David both butcher carcasses, his real forte is the added value he brings before the meat goes on display. It’s this skill as a finisher that won Damon a place on the GB team for the World Butchers’ Challenge.
Organised by Retail Meat New Zealand, the first event was held in 2011. At this time it was open to butchers from New Zealand and Australia. In 2013 Britain joined and it was renamed the Tri-Nation Challenge. This year, for the first time, there is also a team from France and another change of name to the World Butchers’ Challenge. Tougher competition and an already high standard set by a three time champion team from New Zealand ‘The Pure South Sharp Blacks’ means this will be no easy task for team GB. Held in a different country each year, this time around the hosts are Australia. Damon will be travelling there on September 5.

David Mitchell, Damon says, could not be more supportive of the time he has to put in for this event, which includes regional meetings. As a team, they have to butcher a side of lamb, pork and beef into their chosen cuts. They are allowed to have with them additional ingredients: seasoning, styling props and garnishes, with judges scrutinising preparation, presentation, finishing and display.

It’s clear at Black Barn, aside from this competition, that education and skill sharing is part of its commitment to the community. In addition to training an apprentice, Tim Bicknell, Black Barn run butchery courses, which are open to the public, and Damon works in the wider community running events with restaurants such as sausage making.

I can’t wait to see how team GB do at the Challenge, and whilst it would be great for a win, I’m sure Damon will bring back some brilliant ideas that will appear on the counter.

As a champion of our local Surrey food movement, I wish Damon and his team the best of luck. It’s brilliant we have a Surrey butcher at such a prestigious global event.

Shirlee Posner

essence info

Find World Butchers Challenge on Facebook Retail Meat New Zealand competition information: rmnz.co.nz
Websites: www.blackbarnbutchers.co.uk and www.eatsurrey.co