Hampshire for Taste

Hampshire Down lamb is renowned for its superb quality and flavour and meeting demand from both producers and consumers.

Hampshire Down lambs with their higher level of fat packs in the flavour and succulence into the meat. The marbling of the meat gives it a delicate sweet flavour. Many top-class restaurants and butchers know to choose Hampshire sired lamb as a mark of quality.

Testimony from Dutch Butcher and Caterer

Butchers Anton Smit & Niek van der Vlis with the Hampshire Down meat

Niek van der Vlis who owns a Catering business and Butchers shop in the Flevopolder (centre of the Netherlands) has used Hampshire Down meat for the last 3 years and is ‘Over the Moon’ with the carcass’s he has received and the quality of the meat.

‘The Hampshires we prepared this spring were of exceptional quality, a perfect fat cover with a beautiful colour & meat structure.’ Commented Niek

‘The loins were exactly how you would want them, super depth, the right amount of fat cover and a touch of intramuscular fat (marbling) which gives a very tasty product.’

Some of the meat has already been delivered to restaurants and they have said they only want Hampshire lamb in the future as they have particularly valued the taste and tenderness of the meat.

11 week old Hampshire Down meat from the Stal Herfte flock

According to Niek ‘The key factor for me is to slaughter at the right age, weight and fat cover. The lambs were 11 weeks this year and straight off the ewe, between 38 & 42 kg live weight and this has delivered us the perfect product’

Hampshire Down meat as a brand –

Niek believes there is huge potential in developing Hampshire meat as a brand to butchers and restaurants. Having already seen in the cattle industry the Aberdeen Angus develop as the premium brand and now more recently Wagyu, all being promoted for the quality of their meat due to the taste experience driven by good intramuscular fat, an attribute that the Hampshire Down lamb possesses.

Niek says ‘In our opinion the Hampshire Down has all the potential to be the premium lamb brand with their key characteristics of the beautiful meat structure, the young meat, intramuscular fat and superb taste.’