As May brings with it some higher temperatures, the more ambitious around the country are beginning to bring out their tongs and grills for the first summer barbecues. As with every year, we are glad to bring some new products for barbecue season, and re-introduce a few as well - this years Barbecue range includes several successful products from previous barbecue launches, brought back by popular demand. We have also brought out some new lines for summer outside of the barbecue range.

New to our barbecue repertoire is the Green Harissa Beef Kebabs. These use our 100% British beef mince in a recipe containing parsley, coriander, cumin and mint, creating a succulent shish kebab which cooks in 12 minutes on the barbecue. These come pre-skewered and can be eaten straight off the grill, or sliced and piled onto flatbreads with fresh salad and yoghurt or chili sauce.

Also new are our 4 New York inspired Steaks. We have used a New York-style dry rub on these, containing garlic, demerara sugar, mustard and green peppercorns to give a wonderful flavour on the cooked steaks. They are quite small – two steaks make one portion - and benefit from being cooked quickly on a high heat.

Treacle Cured Flat Iron Steak returns for this years barbecue launch, after a popular first year last barbecue season. One of our more ambitious barbecue products to date, this uses the under-rated flat iron cut from the chuck and blade section of the animal, named for its distinctive shape – prized for its marbling and powerful flavour.  This has been cured with black treacle, allowing it a subtle sweetness, and oak-smoked, a further step in our work with smoked products. Packaged with dried apricots, which play off the sweetness of the treacle, and fresh, zesty lemon thyme, this product will serve 2 for an indulgent barbecue dinner.

Chimmichurri Bavettes will also be making a welcome return this year. This product celebrates another under-used cut, the bavette, popular in French cuisine. This classic cut is matched with a chimichurri marinade – a flavourful uncooked sauce which is oil based and contains chopped parsley, vinegar and garlic -  popularized in Argentinian and Uruguayan gastronomy. This product, a fusion of French and South American cuisines, works well grilled to medium rare on the barbecue and served with home-made chips – or indeed on toasted fresh bread for an indulgent take on the classic steak sandwich.

Of course, no barbecue launch would be complete without a selection of British beef burgers. All the burger lines of this years launch are previous products brought back by demand – the sweet  Applewood Beef Burgers, the savoury, hoppy  4 Caramelised Onion & Ale Burgers and the smokey 4 Hickory Burgers. Pre-pack Alongside our barbecue range, we have also launched a number of pre-packaged products for the Summer range. Brand new for summer this year is the Rump Steak Fajita Stir Fry. This uses strips of flavoursome rump steak matched with a smoky Mexican style rub which includes ancho and chipotle chili, dried bell pepper and smoked paprika for an earthy, moderately spicy flavour which works exceptionally packed into fajitas with sour cream.

There are some new burger lines for summer alongside the re-introduced barbecue lines, including 2 British Beef Rump Burgers, as well as a number of burgers using Hereford beef. Our popular Dry Aged Hereford Burgers have returned, this time with a slightly modified recipe, whilst we have used beef from our Hereford breed scheme in 3 added-value burger lines – Peppered Hereford Burgers, Hereford Burgers with Cheese and Hereford Burgers with Black Garlic. As a business who have championed Hereford beef for over 20 years, we are delighted to have a burger range which reflects this. The three Hereford Burger lines will form part of Waitrose’s ‘Scrumptious Summer’ range.

New for this year is our 2 British Beef Hanger Steaks with Ale. The hanger steak, also known as the butchers steak – is cut from the diaphragm and called so as butchers would reputedly save the flavourful cut for themselves after selling the more well-known cuts. Marinated in rich ale and spices, this is a superb product which can be used to make an incredibly flavourful steak sandwich (serve it with a pint of British ale on the side for full effect) or pan-fried quickly and served with thin cut fries.

Another new offering is our Venison Shoulder Steaks with Cherry Ketchup – this consists of four venison shoulder steaks and comes with a sachet of sweet, slightly tart cherry ketchup which, drizzled over the cooked steak, pairs fantastically off the tender venison. The shoulder is a well-worked muscle, and thus is best cooked quickly on a high heat. Other venison lines which will join the summer line-up are Venison Mince for pre-pack and a NZ Venison Steak.

We are excited to have launched such a wide range of summer products, and hope they will all find success in-store, on or off the barbecue! A great deal of gratitude is owed to our New Product Development team for their hard work in bringing such a wide range of products out at once – we hope you’ll give them a try next time you are in store!