Last weekend, we decided to try a little experiment. We bought meat from three different NC farms and decided to compare them all to find our new beef and pork source. We had already had dry-aged filet from What's Your Beef? butcher in Ballantyne (he gets his meat from Frontier Meat Processing Co in Waxhaw) and were impressed, but I'd like to know exactly which farm my meat comes from, in this world where recalls on contaminated food seem to be the norm. We've tried Grateful Growers chorizo and prosciutto, and it's delicious, but the price keeps going up.
At Atherton Market, we bought hot breakfast sausage and Italian sausage (both pork) from Windy Hill Farm, and ground beef from Proffitt Family Farms (they were out of filet... next time we go earlier!). The breakfast sausage has a nice crumbly but thick texture, and it doesn't taste greasy. We haven't tried the ground beef or Italian sausage yet, but I'll keep you posted.
At Earth Fare, we bought a tenderloin roast from Hickory Nut Gap Farm. I rubbed this with salt, pepper and garlic, then pan-seared it in olive oil. I let it rest and then slow-roasted it at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes, then broiled it for 5. Perfectly cooked, perfectly flavored and perfectly tender.
Proffitt Family Farms was featured in this month's Charlotte Magazine: http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/September-2010/Raising-the-Steaks/
ReplyDeleteThe Italian sausage was "perfect" according to John. We had it first on pizza but still have two links left for spaghetti, mmm! The texture was spot-on just like the breakfast sausage, and the heat from the spices was perfectly balanced with the traditional rosemary, thyme and fennel seed. We officially found our pork sausage source!
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