Bristol Farms

If any of you have kids between the ages of 7 and 14, then your weekends are probably like mine.  Mine consists of running from one event to another following my kids’ sporting events and cheering them on.  All the while they lean on dad for advice during the game and because they are young they think I know what I’m talking about!  Why should this past weekend (Mother’s Day) be any different?

I found myself with the dreadful reality Saturday afternoon as I cheered on my son who had just won his game, and in doing so had just qualified for the Championship game and guess what day it was?  Of course!!!  None other than Sunday, right smack in the middle of the day!  Happy Mother’s Day!  What was I to do?

Game time was at 1 o’clock sharp so I had to think quickly.  Being that all of the families were so close, I felt the need to throw a massive BBQ for all after the game!!  Everyone was on board and loved the idea.  Of course, I would supply the meat and everyone else could divvy up the rest of the duties.  When the game ended we ran to the car and went to the nearest Bristol Farms (South Pasadena) where I loaded up on burgers for the kids and USDA Choice Natural Bone-In New York Steaks for the adults.  This is going to be a great treat I thought to myself!

Now I knew that I had purchased some pretty great burgers but I had no idea what was in store for me when I started to BBQ them up.  You see, the hamburger patties I purchased were hand made right in front of me at the store and they had different items that they hand mixed together prior to forming the patties.  So I ended up with a natural, handmade 1/3 of a pound bacon & cheddar burger patty with all the cheese and bacon mixed throughout the burger patty.  But that wasn’t enough!  I also had to get the Blue Cheese, Black Pepper, and Jalapeño burgers as well!!

What blew me away is that the gourmet steaks I purchased for all the moms on their special day were hardly even touched!  All the excitement was wrapped around these stuffed burgers!!  Kids were devouring them and the moms were cutting them into smaller burgers so that they could try all the flavors!  Me?  I was just overheated at the BBQ flipping burgers like a screen door in a hurricane!

For all the mothers out there… Happy belated Mother’s Day!

So did my son win the big game?  I’ll let you know on my next blog…

What is a Kurobuta Ham?

Its origins date back almost 300 years, when legend has the Berkshire hog being discovered by Oliver Cromwell’s army in winter quarters at Reading, the county seat in the shire of Berks in England. Fancied for its tremendous eating quality, the Berkshire breed was refined in the early 1800′s and has remained pure ever since.

The Japanese discovered the wonderful flavor of this pork, imported the breeding stock, and the rest is history. Dubbed Kurobuta (‘Black Pig”) by the Japanese, pure Berkshire pedigrees form the base of the Snake River Farms brand. Snake River Farms cures and smokes pure bred Kurobuta pork legs to create the succulent Kurobuta Ham. Bristol Farms is proud to offer Snake River Farms’ Kurobuta Hams.

DaBecca Flame Glazed Spiral Hams

Known for their fantastic apple wood smoked bacon, DaBecca’s products are prepared “the old fashioned way”, using real smoke generated from real wood chips rather than liquid-smoke that is now the industry standard. The country’s top chefs prefer DaBecca’s products due to the incredible taste. They do not use fillers, preservatives or any artificial ingredients. All of DaBecca’s products are minimally processed, naturally tender, juicy and flavorful.

Flame glazing is a process by which sugars and spices are melted and toasted onto the outer surface of the ham. The result is a sweet, spiced, roasted crust that enhances the wonderful smokiness of apple wood and succulent pork.

Spiral slicing is a process by which a bone-in ham is evenly sliced around the bone yet left intact for ease of preparation and eventual carving. A simple knife cut along the bone will free the even slices for serving. Bristol Farms is proud to offer DaBecca Flame Glazed Spiral Hams for our customer’s Holiday Celebration.

What makes Bristol Farms’ Dry Aged Rib Roasts so special? Unwrapped subprimals of USDA Prime or Choice beef rib sections are placed in a specially constructed, very cold storage locker for up to thirty days. At Bristol Farms, we place our Natural Beef in a refrigerated locker for 21 days at a temperature of 32 to 34 degrees F., 75-80 percent relative humidity, and an air velocity of 0.5 – 2.5 meters per second.

Sounds a bit picky, but these three conditions are crucial to the proper aging of beef. This locker’s environment, from temperature, to humidity, to air-circulation, lighting, and cleanliness is strictly regulated to conform to carefully determined standards. Over the duration of the dry-aging process, the beef will lose a significant amount of weight. As it loses moisture, the flavor is allowed to develop, becoming richer and more intense. At the same time, natural enzymes in the meat break down the muscle tissue, ensuring a tenderness that cannot be replicated otherwise.

The result is a Holiday Rib Roast that is incomparable in flavor and texture. Dry-aging beef requires very special care, time, and the best quality USDA Graded beef available. For this reason, you don’t often see retailers taking the extra steps to offer it to their customers.

Halloween is over and we are already well into the grind of the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. Just as much as we are preparing at Bristol Farms, we know our customers are starting to prepare their holiday gatherings with friends and families and thinking about the evening’s meals. To help with your early planning and preparation, we are now taking orders for fresh turkeys and other proteins in our Meat departments, or online by clicking here.

Bristol Farms Turkeys

So, what’s so special about Bristol Farms’ turkeys? Three words…Never, Never, Ever. We’re talking about the bad stuff. Bristol Farms Turkeys are Never administered antibiotics, Never given hormones, and Never fed any meat-by product. Instead they are raised in the Central Valley of California, fed a vegetarian diet, and are free to roam in spacious custom ranch houses that have natural ventilation and sunlight. Turkeys don’t need antibiotics if they have good conditions and space to roam! Bristol Farms is proud to partner with the Pitman family in offering Bristol Farms’ Fresh Free Range Turkeys.

Heritage Turkeys

Today a growing number of people are skipping the traditional supermarket version of the Thanksgiving turkey for richer-flavored breeds that were once near extinction. Breeds such as the Narragansett and the Bourbon Red were once common Thanksgiving fare in America. With the advent of large scale farming, these breeds lost favor to the more dominant bird in today’s supermarkets: The broad breasted white. Today, interest in these Heritage breeds has been reborn thanks to a movement among conservationists who understand that endangered species can be saved if a commercial market is created for them. The Heritage turkey breeds—the image of the “perfect” Norman Rockwell painting notwithstanding—are a part of American culinary history. The Heritage turkeys take us back to the days when we anticipated the Thanksgiving meal with pleasure. It seems too good to be true: Eating something this unique and delicious is a strategy for preserving biodiversity. Bristol Farms is proud to offer Heritage Turkeys for our customer’s Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.

Turducken

Our Turducken is a chicken in a duck in a turkey…or is it a duck in a chicken in a turkey? Well, whatever order you get it, it’s good!

“Now and then the owner of Corinne Dunbar’s [a Creole institution in New Orleans] will work up a special dinner. It seems that someone had heard somewhere that you can stuff a bird into a bird into a bird just as long as you can find a bird big enough to contain the last one. He found nine birds around town, and tried it. The dish he served consisted of a snipe that was stuffed into a dove that was inserted into a quail that was placed in a squab that was put into a Cornish game hen that was tucked into a pheasant that was squeezed into a chicken that was pushed into a duck that was stuffed into a turkey. All the birds had been boned, and each had been boiled separately with seasoning to make a stock. A stuffing of wild cherries and almonds was placed around each bird to make it fit snugly into the next. The final nine-bird result was poached in all the combined stocks. When the chef carved it, the partakers felt as if they were eating a single legendary bird, a sort of poached phoenix.” – From American Cooking: Creole and Acadian (published in 1971)

Monday Night Football’s John Madden has made the turducken well-known the world over by mentioning it during Thanksgiving football broadcasts for many years. From San Francisco to New York City, turducken has graced holiday tables for a few years now, and its popularity is rising. Place an order online or visit our meat counter to set aside a turducken for your holiday celebration.

The Beeler pork tradition started in 1846 when Tim’s great-great Grandpa Fred immigrated from Germany to the gently rolling hills of Madison County, Iowa. On his farmstead, Grandpa Beeler began raising hogs. Today, six generations later, Tim Beeler’s Danish Duroc sires crossed with Landrace/Yorkshire sows are the cornerstone of this exceptional Duroc pork. These hogs are raised in the Heluka™ method, pioneered by the Beeler family. “Heluka” is derived from the Native American language meaning “full of sun”. Heluka™ is an all inclusive proprietary system focusing on pig comfort, welfare and genetics.
For example, gestation crates are not allowed on Beeler’s Heluka™ Farms. Rather, mama pigs enjoy the comfort of deep bedded nests of straw where they are free to move around, root and socialize with the other animals. They are also provided free access to food and water courts, and of course, outdoor paddocks to enjoy the sunshine. Also, Beeler’s Heluka™ Farms do not allow farrowing crates. Instead each Mama pig is provided her own birthing ward where she is free to get up and move around at will, yet still providing the best care for her young. The fattening phase is conducted in specially designed Heluka™ houses. The pigs are not confined, they are free to lounge, play, root or nest in deep straw bedded areas or go outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Beeler’s Heluka™ pigs are raised without any antibiotics or growth promotants ever and are never fed any animal by-products.  Bristol Farms is proud to be a partner with the Beeler family in offering you Beeler’s Heluka™ raised Duroc pork.