H Forman & Son

Did you know that the art of salmon smoking was actually brought to the UK by immigrants from Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th century? Originally the salmon used were imported from the Baltic in barrels of brine, soon however they discovered the magnificent wild fish arriving at Billingsgate market from Scotland every summer. Switching to this native raw material resulted in a much finer product and the art of salmon smoking was born.

Harris Forman founded H Forman and Son in 1905 and they have stuck to his original technique and recipe ever since, through 4 generations. The London cure used in the East End to smoke uses a little salt to preserve the fish and a light oak smoke that brings out the flavour of the delicate raw ingredients. This differs from the traditional Scottish technique that involved a heavier use of smoke and was not so suited to a fish so fine as a wild salmon. Forman's is one of the only salmon smokers to survive the mass cull of smoke houses in London brought on by the onset of salmon farming and the introduction of mass produced smoked salmon from Scotland. The secret was to stick to quality and the high standards that had been the hallmark of the company since 1905.

H. Forman & Son buy the best raw fish. They clean and fillet by hand. They cure in dry rock salt. They don't inject brine to increase weight. They don't over salt to increase shelf life. They never add sugar. They hang out our cured fillets to dry while pure wood smoke permeates the flesh. Hardly anyone else does that. And it is all done in East London, under the watchful eye of Lance Forman, descendant of Harry Forman, who founded the business a century ago.

These days H Forman & Son's salmon is to be found on the tables of some of the world's finest restaurant tables. Customers include The Savoy, Claridges, The River Café, Gordon Ramsay and even places as far a field as Wynn Las Vegas and Sandy Lane in Barbados. Through Forman & Field more and more private customers are joining this illustrious list.

The Country Victualler

The Country Victualler was set up in the early 1970's as husband and wife team, based at Winkburn Hall, Nottinghamshire. Richard Craven-Smith-Milnes continues to personally supervise the family business and their hams, smoked duck and chicken are second to none.

Originally created by a Colonel Dickinson in the small village of Alderton, The Country Victualler is the sole maker of the fine flavoured, naturally moist Alderton Ham. They arrive ready to carve and eat. They contain no added water, no artificial colouring and the finest legs of ham are used. Steamed, then baked with an old-fashioned marmalade glaze to give a tangy edge to the ham's delicate taste, it's a memorable and decorative centrepiece to any gourmet table.

Rick Stein rated the Alderton Ham as essential for Christmas 2005, we are proud to recommend the Country Victualler as our most popular ham producer.

Seldom Seen Farm

Claire Symington, who started her career as a chef with Prue Leith at Leith's restaurant in London, is one of the leading lights of the British taste revival. The 200 acre Seldom Seen Farm in Leicestershire is where she and husband Robert settled, some 20 years ago, when Claire decided the only way to ensure top quality produce was to produce it herself. Seldom Seen was traditionally a soft fruits farm but that all changed when her husband Robert bought her a pair of Brecon Buff geese called Mac and Mabel, They began producing 3 bird roasts and oven ready geese for friends and family but soon found that the word spread far and wide.

Claire now plays mother goose to over 2,000 honking beauties, all of whom are raised to impeccable free range standards. The geese are slaughtered humanely, dry-plucked because wet-plucking ruins the skin; singed, not waxed, again to preserve the skin; eviscerated by hand, not hot water, which can encourage bacteria; and hung for at least 10 days. The extra effort and care is worth it, believe us.

Seldom Seen are the makers of the 3 Bird Roast: a goose, stuffed with a chicken, stuffed with a pheasant. Each joint is made entirely by hand by Claire's expert team of pluckers, boners and stuffers. By special request she also makes stuffed chickens, ducks and partridges to the same exacting standards.

Jeremy Wagg

Our Foie Gras de Canard is supplied by Jeremy Wagg who left his London deli business to escape to the country in Hampshire. He makes every batch of Foie Gras by hand and the results are quite simply stunning. Apart from a few restaurants, he is almost certainly the only maker of 'fresh' foie gras in the UK. He imports the highest quality free range duck livers from small-scale farms in France and marinades the livers in nothing but port and seasoning before cooking. Impeccably produced; tinned varieties don't even come close.

Somerset Cider brandy

In 1989, Julian Temperley of The Somerset Distillery was granted the first full cider-distilling license in history! Records of cider brandy can be traced back to 1678 so it wasn't before time.

The production of this unique product begins in the autumn. Vintage cider apples, with wonderful names like Dabinett, Kingston Black, Stoke Red, Yarlington Mill and Harry Masters, are gathered, blended, pressed and the juice is then fermented in huge oak vats. After three months the cider is distilled and clear spirit, known as Eau-de-Vie or the 'water of life', is drawn off and trickled into barrels. The barrels play a very important role in the ageing process but it is the apples, the soil and the climate of Somerset which give our Cider Brandy it's unique character, similar but also very different to French Cider Brandy produced in the Calvados region. The barrels are either sherry barrels from Jerez or new oak barrels from Hungary and the Limousin forests of France. In the barrels the spirit slowly gains colour from the oak whilst losing a small amount of alcohol through the wood - 'the angels share'. Finally after gaining depth and mellowing for a number of years it becomes a deliciously smooth Cider Brandy.

Somerset Pomona is a secret blend of juice and cider brandy matured in small oak barrels. It's full bodied with a smooth butterscotch finish. Kingston Black is an aperitif blended from cider brandy and vintage cider apples, best served on ice. "This has got muscles, this has got brawn, this has got a hairy chest; I think it's gorgeous", said Jilly Goolden on tasting it. Steady, girl, one sip at a time!

Simply Sausages

"The best of the wurst!" announced The Independent when Simply Sausages first started gaining media attention. Despite the cringeworthy headline the company has gone from strength to strength. Former chef and restaurateur Martin Heap now heads a sausage empire that's a far cry from the corner shop he set up in Smithfield Market in 1991. Over 250 recipes have been developed, the Ivy and Le Gavroche are among his customers and the British public has rediscovered its love affair with the humble banger. There are some wild and wonderful combinations available - Creole Smokey Sausage with Peppers, Chilli & Hickory is not something Mrs Beaton would recognise though she would surely approve - and the quality is always outstanding. Prime meat, the freshest ingredients; we urge you to try them.

Metfield Bakery

When Stuart Oetzman, a former Roux pastry chef, took his culinary skills to Norfolk - he worked at the Michelin-starred Adlard's restaurant in Norwich - he was asked by a local butcher to develop a pork pie using Gloucester Old Spot pork. The resulting pie was so stunningly good, and so popular, that Stuart started his own business. The Handmade Food Company was born. Last year Handmade acquired the Metfield Bakery, a well-established organic bakery known throughout East Anglia and the two businesses amalgamated under the Metfield Bakery name. You won't find finer pastries and pies anywhere else in the country. Old Spot pork pies and unbelievably good quiches made with free range eggs, fantastic Tunisian puddings packed with almonds.

Musk's of Newmarket Sausages

The recipe for the Newmarket sausage is unchanged since the days of Queen Victoria in 1884. James Musk's original recipe lives on, passed down through the generations, and remains a closely guarded secret by the current owners, ensuring the sausages continue to be made to the same exacting standards as they always have been. Handmade with care in small batches, the sausages are free from colouring and additives, the very idea of using them being as unthinkable now as it was in James Musk's day.

Musk's have been a favourite of the Royal family for generations, having been the proud holder of four Royal Warrants during its history, having recently been granted a Warrant by Her Majesty the Queen. King George V in 1907, whilst Prince of Wales, granted the first Warrant and later in 1929, Edward, the then Prince of Wales, followed suit. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother granted her Warrant in 1965. Royal patronage has always been part of the company's heritage.

On race days in Newmarket, people come into town to stock up with Musk's but they are also available in delicatessens and fine food stores around the country. Alternatively they can be sent direct to your door by Forman & Field.

Most sausages contain rusk but Musk's Newmarket sausages are made with bread, delivered daily by local bakeries, to give them the succulence for which they are renowned. Around 500 loaves a week are sliced before being soaked in water and added to the mixture. The meat used is prime British pork shoulder from fully traceable free-range pigs reared on BQAP farms. There is no doubt that shoulder meat is the best for sausage making. It is exceptionally lean and looks good enough for Sunday lunch! The pork is inspected, weighed into 60lb. batches, mixed with the spices and passed through the mincer.

Natural hog or sheep gut is slipped onto the machine's nozzle which is set for either sausages or chipolatas. Gut is thin but strong, so the machine can produce sausages without breaking the skin. Natural casings, which should never be pricked, are best as they will not burst when cooked and the end result is an attractive curved sausage.

Sausages are twisted deftly by hand into links then hung on racks to dry for twenty minutes. They show a good meaty appearance that is proudly displayed in open top packs or on trays. Covering the sausages in cellophane is the one automated process.

The factory practices have been brought into the 21st Century with full higher level EFSIS accreditation to give the quality assurance required nowadays. The small dedicated team who make the sausages have also been awarded Investor in People recognition for their part in maintaining a traditional process.

A reputation that has spanned two centuries brings you the texture and flavour of how sausages used to be.

The Wild Meat Company

The Wild Meat Company of Suffolk have supplied all our shot game. Established in 1999 by Robert Gooch and Paul Denny with the aim of "taking the muck and mystery out of buying, preparing and eating game", they have gone a long way to succeeding in a short time. Robert has worked in the farming industry all his life and knows many of the farms that harvest the game, while Paul, a gamekeeper's son, is a qualified butcher and an expert in preparing meat for cooking. All The Wild Meat Company game is harvested from their own farm or neighbouring farms and estates in East Anglia. The quality is exceptional, the flavours magnificent and the aromas that pervade the kitchen as you cook utterly beguiling.

John Williams Butchers

All our fresh beef comes from John Williams Butchers in the Vale of Clywd where we work directly with master butcher Dafydd. All their beef comes from traditional Welsh farmers rearing their Limousin cross cattle to the highest standards. The cattle is raised on a diet of cereals, grass and hay, and the beef is hung for at least 3 weeks resulting in a deliciously tender beef that really melts in the mouth.

Creedy Carver

'Free range' is one of those terms that's bandied about by food lovers, food producers and food suppliers (ourselves included) with gay abandon, but what exactly does 'free range' mean? Well, we can't speak for others, but Creedy Carver ducks and chickens, supplied by Pete and Sue Coleman of Merrifield Farm near Exeter, are reared in conditions that genuinely allow the animals room to roam. The chicks are brooded in specialist heated units until they are a month old then reared in small flocks with daytime access to grassy paddocks where a small pond acts as both a source of water and a swimming pool. They are fed on a GM-free diet of corn, vegetable protein minerals and vitamins, free of antibiotics and growth hormones.

Farmer Sharp Herdwick Lamb

The greatest success is borne out of adversity. Despite the widely publicised setbacks suffered by British livestock farmers in recent years there have been some heart-warming success stories. Herdwick Lamb, as supplied by the enterprising Farmer Sharp co-operative, a group of Cumbrian farmers who came together after the Foot & Mouth crisis, is certainly one. Herdwick sheep have been native to the Lake District since Viking times. It is a 'primitive' breed that would once have been overlooked because it is neither uniformed nor homogenized. Thankfully, the food revolution means people now appreciate that real food, the best tasting food, is not factory produced or conveniently shaped. It comes from plants and animals that are grown and raised as naturally as possible. For Herdwick sheep that means being able to roam the hills, enjoy the views and wonder where those funny blonde men with horned hats have gone.