The Roast Beef of Olde England

When mighty Roast Beef was the Englishman's food,

It ennobled our veins and enriched our blood.

Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good

  Oh! the Roast Beef of old England,

  And old English Roast Beef!

 Henry Fielding 1731

Around the time that we Allsopps first started brewing (1730 in fact) Henry Fielding wrote his marvellous song celebrating the role of Roast Beef as an emblem of all that is great about Englishness. Fast forward 300 years and not a huge amount has changed. Or not at The Stoops, anyway. Each and every Sunday we serve a truly marvellous roast lunch featuring our famous beef, stoutly reared by Richard Vaughan at Huntsham Farm in Herefordshire. Around 25 years ago Mr Vaughan abandoned large-scale beef production as ‘a rubbish business’ with the idea that ‘there’s got to be a business to be had trying to produce meat in the way the great chateaux of the world produce wine. How do you make it better rather than how do you make it cheaper?’

And by God has he succeeded. Huntsham’s Longhorn beef is supremely rich and full-flavoured with a simply fabulous texture. I strongly commend this video of him setting out his philosophy. I have watched it repeatedly and have on a few occasions been obliged to wipe away a tear, such is the emotion engendered by his passion for producing the very best quality meat.

Most days we have a large chunk of Richard’s Longhorn beef on as a special, but on Sunday it really comes into it own as the centre piece of our roast beef offer. Final remark from Richard Vaughan: “The whole ethos is, how do we give our animals a really good life before they give us amazing food…” Watch the video!

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