Autumn lamb: Three Rivers, Richard Gunner, Breakout River and Clare Valley
Autumn lamb makes the spring variety look overrated. Try it yourself at these discerning shops and restaurants.
Here are the lamb providores who are delivering the goods right now. Can’t be bothered cooking it? Here also are the restuarants they supply to.
Three Rivers saltbush lamb. So you thought spring was the last word in lamb? Think again. Seasonal lamb is the thing today, and the best autumn lamb can make some of those over-promoted spring babies look pretty second-rate, frankly. At Three Rivers, near Echuca in Victoria, autumn is saltbush time, your chance to eat lamb that is naturally leaner than many others on the market yet with a tenderness usually associated with much fattier meats. Oh yes, and if you close your eyes and pay attention, you can actually taste the saltbush the Dohne breed animals have grazed on.
The season ends soonish, so get in for your chop (or rack, our preferred cut from this producer) at Melbourne restaurants including Union Dining, Fitzroy Town Hall Hotel, The European and Saint Urban (selected retailers also). Threeriversmeats.com
Richard Gunner’s Pure Suffolk lamb. So there’s this lamb rack dish on the menu at Melbourne’s Dinner by Heston, “Best end of lamb with roast cucumber heart, sweetbreads, peas, barilla and mint”. Guess if you’ve made it to a Heston Blumenthal restaurant, that’s as good as it gets if you’re a sheep, right? I should have realised when I ate it, anyway, that it was the same brand of lamb — from the black-faced Suffolk breed, raised on South Australian producer Richard Gunner’s family property on the Coorong — that made last year’s Christmas dinner in Adelaide such an unqualified success. For the record, Gunner also supplies Suffolk and saltbush lamb, according to the season, to Orana, Adelaide and Quay, Sydney. Feastfinefoods.com.au
Breakout River Cowra lamb. The annoying thing about so much lamb today is not just that the formerly everyday meal is now in the luxury category but that even the priciest cuts can be puzzlingly chewy. Which makes the discovery of Cowra lamb, from Breakout River in NSW, a double delight; beautifully tender and sweet-flavoured, it’s also usually more affordable than a lot of the competition. Anthony Puharich, from gourmet butcher Victor Churchill in Sydney, recently has introduced the Dorset-breed product to his retail stores after supplying it to restaurants for the past two decades. “That Riverina area of NSW has always produced some of the best lamb in Australia,” he says. Breakoutriver.com.au. Victorchurchill.com
Clare Valley lamb. OK so this is a double-header, if we may, justified on the basis that South Australia’s Clare Valley is such fine sheep farming country. First to Savannah Farm, whose focus on sustainability and “regenerative agricultural methods” has made it a regional hero of the past two Tasting Australia festivals (this year’s event, held earlier this month, was hosted by River Cottage Australia chef Paul West). And you don’t need to count all the medals the brand has won to know how good the product is: it speaks for itself. Next, to the lower-profile Dunira Prime Lamb, from Manoora (near Clare), a crossbreed Merino-Dorset that the farm, depending on season, will finish on grain. Whatever: it’s bloody good meat. Savannahlamb.com.au. Dunira Prime Lamb is available at mathiesmeatshoppe.com.au