ROCKET SCIENCE
CHERRY VALLEY FARMS has invested £11 million in a brand new slaughterhouse which means it can drop its price substantially to the trade. It is processing 14 million ducks a year chilled and frozen; whole and portioned with a cook facility to come shortly.
Because of the investment and the subsequent passed on lower prices, around £1.75 a bird, it is easier for Cherry Valley to promote duck as an alternative to chicken and turkey in every day meals. With that in mind the company has come up with a range of meal solutions from starters and snacks to entreès.
Cherry Valley's duck products can already be found on the menus of three major breweries and marketing director Eric Jagger says he is talking to national accounts about how the duck meat can be trimmed in all sorts of different ways according to their requirements. He reckons there are "big opportunities for both them and us".
"Duck gives menu variety. And key issues for caterers such as convenience, ease of use, portion control, cooking control and deskilling are all addressed," he says.
The company has also come up with a range of mouthwatering recipe suggestions for its ready prepared cuts which lend themselves to many modern meals. Gone are the days when the only duck you were offered outside a Chinese restaurant was coated in orange sauce at your local Berni.
Plain Sliced Duckling Meat from Cherry Valley can be served with a spicy salsa marinade mixed with a green salad, while Plain or Peking Sliced Duckling Meat can be mixed with a pasta salad.
Sliced Duckling can also be used to make various sandwiches such as the oriental duck wrap, which includes sliced duckling with batons of spring onion and cucumber, served with a plum sauce marinade. The sliced duckling range is available in 1kg bags.
Other products include Chinese Roast Duck, a boneless product which can be easily sliced or carved and served with salad in a sandwich or with rice as a salad.
Frozen Raw Boneless Breast Fillet is supplied trimmed and ready to cook and serve. Simply carve into thin slices and serve in an open sandwich or as part of a salad with vinaigrette, baby spinach and garlic croutons. Many more recipe suggetions are available from Cherry Valley's development team.
Cherry Valley ducks are bred to a genetic plan devised at an old World War II site in Caistor where Britain's answer to the V2 rocket was being developed in the latter part of the war. Forty years of experience have gone into producing the perfect duck. However, they are not genetically modified, they are the result of selective breeding and a scientific feeding programme.
In a variation of coal to Newcastle, Cherry Valley supplies breeding stock to the Chinese government. China is the biggest consumer by far of duck meat. The Chinese recognise Cherry Valley's particular strain of Pekin duck is just right for them. It hasn't got a gamey flavour so it is ideal for adding other flavours to - unlike Barbary duck which has dark meat with a strong flavour of its own. Cherry Valley's Pekin is the biggest brand in China in the breeding stock arena. That's some endorsement.
The breeding and the feed - these birds have an excellent feed conversion rate - produce the crispy skin so beloved by the Oriental restaurateur. To get the right balance between crisp skin and moist flesh, the feed has to be spot on. The cooked result is soggy if there is too much underlying fat; dry if not enough.
The birds, which are hatched at the Elite Hatchery at the headquarters at Cherry Valley, are reared on 50 farms from north Yorkshire to Linclolnshire.
Eric Jagger says: "We are not just flogging duck here but giving a service to go with it which will help caterers get duck on the menu.
"We have researched what consumers eat in pub chains. They love it."
Cherry Valley Farms
