Newsletter
Spring 2015
For Food Technology, Home Economics and Catering teachers
My Cooking Counts launches
Meat and Education is delighted
to bring you a brand new,
free and innovative website
to support food teaching in
your classroom. My Cooking
Counts enables pupils to record
their own recipes, assess their
food skills and track/record
the main ingredients they use.
Teachers will be able to share
recipes provided by Meat and
Education, sweet and savoury,
upload recipes themselves
and monitor and track pupils’
cooking achievements and
repertoire.
My Cooking Counts will provide
invaluable data to support
teaching food subjects. It can
enable you to demonstrate pupil
progression during the time you
teach them, as well as over a Key
Stage. Pupil certificates can also
be printed and awarded at any
point during the academic year.
iPad
My Cooking Counts is free to use – to register
go to www.meatandeducation.com
Make it with Mince challenges
Challenge your KS3 or
KS4 pupils to be creative
with beef, lamb and
pork mince.
Recipe feature
Completing one or more of the challenges
would give pupils the opportunity to gain
a better understanding of where food
comes from, discuss and apply healthy
eating messages, demonstrate how to
write a clear and easy-to-follow recipe
and to calculate the cost of ingredients
for dishes. Different contexts are provided
to add variety.
There is a teacher’s guide to accompany
each challenge with aims and objectives,
suggested activities and links to further
supporting resources. Pupil certificates
are also available to download.
Check out the NEW recipe on the back
page. For more 60 minute recipe ideas,
visit: www.meatandeducation.com
The new Make it with Mince
pack is available now at:
www.meatandeducation.com
1
The story of the beef and lamb mini roast
The mini roasting joint is a fantastic midweek meal option for 2-3 people
that is boneless, easy to cook, carve and excellent value for money.
In recent years, there has been a steady
decline in the roasting category of
the retail market. The British roasting
occasion is down 5% year on year
(Kantar Worldpanel). This can be
attributed to the desire for shorter food
preparation times in the home. The
time taken to prepare and cook the
main meal has fallen from 60 minutes
in 1980, 45 minutes in 1990 to only
32 minutes in 2013 (Kantar Worldpanel).
The midweek mini roasts are oven
to table ready in under an hour.
Other factors linked to the development
of the mini roast include a change in
consumer eating habits as a result of
busier lifestyles, smaller households
and a squeeze on the weekly food
expenditure. The upward trend towards
Spice up your
savoury selection
Are you tired of using the same
recipes lesson after lesson, year after
year and need some inspiration?
There is a wide variety of recipes on
www.meatandeducation.com to
inspire you and your pupils to make
exciting, delicious and healthy savoury
dishes using red meat. We know
time is a key factor when planning
practical lessons, which is why all of
our recipes are categorised by cooking
time and have clear, and easy-to-follow
instructions. Equipment lists are also
given on each recipe along with top
tips and nutritional information. In
addition, food skills are listed – helping
pupils to monitor and track their
progress.
A number of recipes have been recently
uploaded to the website including
exciting ways to encourage the use
of offal, eg steak and kidney pudding,
crumbed pork liver, stuffed lamb’s
heart, braised oxtail with star anise
and elderflower wine braised pork
cheek with root vegetables.
To view, go to the Recipe section at:
www.meatandeducation.com
2
dished based meals, such as spaghetti
bolognese or curry, using more versatile
meat cuts has resulted in the reduction
in the traditional roasting joint meal.
However, the way in which many
retailers present and market roasting
joints has not changed in line with
consumer demand either. The idea
behind the new product development
of the mini roast was to maximise
the value of the carcase by adapting
alternative butchery techniques
thus producing innovative cuts to
complement changing consumer
lifestyles, providing consistency in
taste, quality and value for money.
For more mini roast recipes and ideas,
go to: www.simplybeefandlamb.
co.uk/recipes/simply-magazine
Teacher survey –
help to improve
Meat and
Education’s
service to you
The Meat and Education programme
aims to support both the practical
needs of teachers and the
development of valuable life skills
in students. In order to continue
with this aim and ensure that the
resources produced are effective,
suitable for the classroom, up-to-date
and valuable for teachers, Meat and
Education is hosting an online teacher
survey. Your feedback is vital for the
success of the programme in the
future, with suggestions being used to
plan new resources and CPD events.
As a thank you, a £50 voucher will
be given to four teachers chosen at
random from those who participated.
To take part in the survey, which
finishes on Friday 20 March at 5:00pm,
go to: www.surveymonkey.
com/s/MeatEducation2015
Open Farm Sunday
7 June 2015
Open Farm Sunday is a project managed
by LEAF (Linking Environment and
Farming) which has seen hundreds of
farmers across the UK opening up their
farm for one Sunday each year since 2006.
It is a wonderful opportunity for children to
learn about food production and the role
farmers have in preserving and enhancing
the environment.
Group and school visits can also be
arranged throughout June by contacting
the LEAF office: 0247 6413 911 or
[email protected]
To find out more, go to:
www.farmsunday.org
Future food
trends
Last year, 4,400 schools took part
in BNF Healthy Eating Week. Did
you? Registration is now open for
2015 and it promises to be the best
yet! The themes of the week will
focus on creative cooking, food
provenance and eating and drinking
well. Resources will be provided
for nursery, primary and secondary
schools throughout the UK.
To register your school, go to: www.healthyeatingweek.org.uk
Healthy eating for
examination time
Teachers are often asked to give advice about
healthy eating for students around exam time.
There are many sources of information and nearing
exam time, newspapers will probably be full of
articles offering advice to parents and students
alike. However, it is important to give practical
advice that is evidence based such as the information
below from the British Nutrition Foundation.
During the stress of exam time it is
easy to let healthy eating habits slip.
Students may feel that preparing food
is a waste of valuable revision time
and grabbing a coffee and a slice of
pizza is a quicker and easier option.
However, good nutrition is even more
vital at times of stress when young
people may be run down and eating
healthily should be an important
part of a study plan.
Top tips for students – clever eating
during exams
•Remember to eat a healthy
breakfast!
•Eat at regular intervals. This will
help keep your energy levels more
stable, curbing the temptation to
grab a high fat or high sugar snack.
•Eat lots of fruit and vegetables.
A variety is best as different fruits
and vegetables give you different
vitamins and minerals.
• Stay hydrated.
•Meet all your daily nutrient
requirements – include foods
from the four main food groups.
This will help optimise your mental
energy for peak performance.
It is important to obtain all your
requirements from your food
and drink.
More information about healthy
eating for young people and
students can be found at: www.
nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/
lifestages/students.html
Ideas for quick, easy and
nutritious red meat dishes ideal
for revision time can be found at:
www.meatandeducation.com.
Some ideas include:
•Bacon, carrot, butterbean and
coriander soup
• Chilli nachos
•Lamb fajitas with chunky
yogurt dollop
What does 2015
have in store for food trends?
Chillies will continue to dominate the food
arena, in particular the Chipotle, Ancho,
Habanero and Cascabel varieties. The rise of
Middle Eastern foods, in particular Mezzes
that include a variety of hummus made with
not only chick peas but also layered with
flavoursome herbs and seasonings.
Other trends include the rise of fermented
flavours such as Kimchi (a fermented Korean
side dish), Miso (fermented soy beans),
Gochujang (a fermented Korean hot pepper
sauce), Kefir (a cultured milk product) and
Labneh (Lebanese strained yogurt).
There is also a growing interest in resurrecting
British and heritage vegetables that were once
commonplace. These include purple carrots,
heritage and heirloom tomatoes as well as
heritage potatoes and asparagus.
The Street Food Revolution – many food
concepts stem from the global street food scene
featuring dishes from all around the world at
market stalls and vans across major cities in
the UK. This trend will continue in 2015
and beyond.
All things American – American food and
flavours continue to dominate (burgers, fried
chicken, hot dogs and regional barbecue
cooking).
Some Japanese influences are in the mix too.
There is a growing trend in all things Ramen via
the street food scene, all things Umami (the big
savoury “fifth taste flavour, after salt, sweet,
sour and bitter “) and new sushi concepts.
Simply Magazine… in the Spring edition
the Japanese food trend is highlighted by
introducing some recipes and new ingredients.
The free online magazine is produced four
times a year (spring, summer, autumn, winter).
To view the magazine and recipes, go to:
www.simplybeefandlamb.co.uk
3
Recipe feature
Beef mini roast with chipotle butter
Serves: 2-3 • T
ime to prepare: 10 minutes
Time to cook: 40-50 minutes (for medium)
Food provenance
on your doorstep
The latest poster, inside this
newsletter, links well with the focus
on food provenance in the new food
preparation and nutrition GCSE and
the requirement for KS3 pupils to
explore and understand the origin
and production of food products
and ingredients.
The poster highlights and promotes
regional/traditional meat dishes
that use beef, lamb or pork along
with explaining the protected name
schemes and
Food provenan
identifying the
on your doorst ce
ep
relevant red meat
and meat-based
products. This, and
previous posters,
can also be
downloaded from:
www.meatand
education.com
TRADITIONAL/
REGIONAL
FOOD
The way food is
along with customs, prepared and made,
and the use of local
and seasonal ingredients
often combine
to create dishes
unique to a particular
region. Traditional
British meals have
ancient origins,
stewed meats and such as roasted and
meat
traditions change pies. However,
would you consider with time – what
to be a traditional
British dish today?
Ham and Pease
Pudding Broth
NORTH EAST
Irish Stew
NORTHERN
Lakeland
Herdwick
ENGLAND
Traditional
Cumberland
Sausage
IRELAND
LAKE DISTRICT
Toad in the
Hole
Lancashire
Hotpot
CUMBERLAND
Roast Beef
and
Yorkshire Pudding
YORKSHIRE
Lobscouse
YORKSHIRE
LANCASHIRE
Melton Mowbray
Pork Pie
LIVERPOOL
Fidget Pies
Welsh Lamb
Welsh Beef
Newmarket
Sausage
MELTON MOWBRAY
Welsh Cawl
SHROPSHIRE
WALES
Bedfordshire
Clanger
NEWMARKET
WALES
WALES
CORNWALL,
DEVON
GLOUCESTERSHI &
RE
Pie & Mash
BEDFORDSHIRE
West Country
Beef
West Country
Lamb
Squab Pie
CORNWALL,
DEVON
GLOUCESTERSHI &
RE
LONDON
Steak & Kidney
Pudding
CORNWALL,
DEVON
GLOUCESTERSHI &
RE
Cornish Pasty
Traditionally
Farmed
Gloucestersh
ire
Old Spots Pork
SUSSEX
CORNWALL
KEY
Products with
protected status
Traditional or
regional dishes
For more information
about meat and
Protected Geograph
ical
Indication (PGI)
Traditional Speciality
Guaranteed
(TSG)
Products which
must
produced, processed be
or
prepared within
the geographical
area and have
a reputation,
features
or certain qualities
attributable to
that area.
the recipes featured
Products which
are
customary names traditional or have
which distinguish and have a set of features
them from other
These features
must not be due similar products.
area the product
to the geographical
is produced in
on technical advances
nor entirely based
in the method
of production.
here, go to www.meatan
Protected Designati
on
of Origin (PDO)
Products which
are produced,
processed and
prepared
particular geographical within a
area and
a reputation,
features or certain have
attributable to
qualities
that area.
deducation.co
m
Keep in touch
Ingredients
1x 400-450g/14oz-1lb beef mini roast
(such as mini topside roast)
Freshly milled black pepper
Equipment
Vegetable knife, chopping board, small
mixing bowl, measuring spoons, mixing
spoon, red chopping board, roasting
rack and medium non-stick roasting tin.
For the chipotle butter
50g/2oz unsalted butter
1x 15ml spoon (1tbsp) flat-leaf parsley
2x 5ml spoon (2tsp) prepared
chipotle paste
Meat and Education distributes both
a termly newsletter and bi-monthly
email updates to help provide teachers
with topical news items and highlight
interesting resources. Sign up to the email
or newsletter by submitting your contact
details at: www.meatandeducation.com
Acknowledgements
Produced on behalf of
Method
1.Preheat the oven to gas mark 5
or 190oC.
5.Season with freshly milled black
pepper and spread over the butter.
2. Prepare the chipotle butter:
6.Transfer to a roasting rack in a
medium non-stick roasting tin
and roast for 40-50 minutes (for
medium). Cover with foil if browning
too quickly.
•Chop the parsley and place
in a small mixing bowl
•Add the chipotle paste and
butter and mix well.
3.Place the joint on a red chopping
board. Wash and dry your hands
thoroughly after touching the raw
meat.
4.Using a small sharp knife, make
several slashes over the surface
of the meat.
4
7.Remove the joint from the oven,
transfer to a warm plate, cover and
leave to rest for 5-10 minutes, 20
minutes if time allows.
Contact
Jane Charlesworth,
Meat and Education, Agriculture and
Horticulture Development Board,
Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth,
Warwickshire CV8 2TL
Tel: 0247 647 8807 or 0247 647 8809
www.meatandeducation.com
Top Tips
•Slice the roast and serve with any
meat juices, chips and seasonal
vegetables or salad.
BPEX and EBLEX are divisions of the Agriculture and
Horticulture Development Board.