The veal deal

FOR the past few years there has been a big mutton revival going on in Britain, championed by top chefs and the Prince of Wales.

Others, like Fergus Henderson of St John, have given offal a cult following. The most recent development was the veal campaign at the recent Organic Food Awards in Bristol.

This initiative should interest Irish dairy farmers and has potential for the bull calf industry. Intensively reared veal has long carried a stigma among chefs and diners because of the negative image of the system used to produce white veal. Chefs are now calling for high welfare veal to be more widely available.

The Good Veal Guide forms part of the initiative, which is backed by the country’s leading chefs — such as Barny Haughton, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Sophie Grigson — and the organic farming industry.

Veal is often boycotted by people who are animal-welfare conscious because of the negative image of young calves herded together in dimly-lit pens. However, the production methods used by organic farmers mean the animals have plenty of space and light. They are outside in warmer months, enjoy a varied diet and are very often in the care of a foster cow.

With a life span of six months, organic calves live twice as long as even the slowest growing chicken, share the same life span as a good organic pig and live longer than many organic lambs.

Compassion in World Farming chief executive Philip Lymbery says: “We applaud this initiative for providing better lives for calves through higher welfare systems and thereby helping to save them from the inhumane live export trade.”

Chef Barny Haughton, of Quartier Vert and Bordeaux Quay in Bristol, has been championing sustainable food production for over 18 years. He produced The Good Veal Guide, which includes recipes, to coincide with the launch of the campaign.

“Organic veal is a meat with a delicate but sweet flavour,” he says.

“It is tender in texture, pink in colour and it is also wonderfully versatile; from saltimbocca — thin slices, a few seconds in the frying pan with butter and lemon — to osso bucco — shanks, slowly braised with tomatoes and white wine — to a beautiful golden veal and ham pie.

“It is for sound gastronomic reasons that veal is at the heart of traditional European cooking.”

THE first humane organic veal system was pioneered 10 years ago by Helen Browning, a dynamic farmer who runs Eastbrook Farm in Wiltshire, England. Browning, who is also food and farming director of the Soil Association, says consumers can play a key role in reversing what can be an uncertain future for many calves.

“The calf’s mother will go back into the organic dairy herd producing the pints, the yoghurts and the cheeses many of us enjoy every day,” she says.

“But what of the calf? The typical male dairy calf will never turn itself into a great beef animal, but good farming will produce superb meat from these livestock at a younger age. This veal should not be tarred with the same brush as the imported white slab of protein often served in Britain.”

Browning also rears organic pigs

My interest was immediately stirred when I heard about this initiative because my father-in-law, Ivan Allen, had a Jersey herd for over 35 years. Myrtle served the bull calves in the restaurant and called it baby beef. They were killed at about five months- — the meat was pale rosy pink, the flavour sweet and delicate.

Now I have two little Jersey cows for milk for the house and cookery school; we also cherish our heifer and bull calves equally and are looking forward to tasting ‘a forgotten flavour’.

* Fore more information on Helen Browning, see www.helenbrowningorganics.co.uk.