Meat in the mail: Keevil and Keevil

It's probably best if all our lovely vegetarian and vegan readers stop reading now as this post is pretty much meat based. Sorry.

I was a touch over excitable when I got an email from the lovely Jo at Keevil and Keevil offering to send me a selection of meat through the post. Although as I have often been known to champion the idea of meat as a gift, my giddiness is probably not that unsurprising.

Keevil and Keevil are the oldest butchers in Smithfields Market, with parts of the business dating back to 1794. The shop itself just like the rest of the Market is open from 2am to 8am Monday to Friday but if you aren't that much of an early bird or, like me, aren't based in London, then you can still partake in their delicious meat based fare by purchasing from their online shop. You can buy everything from a nice roasting joint for your Sunday dinner through to something a bit more exotic like kangaroo steak or crocodile tail fillet. They also do a rather nice range of deli meats and cheese as well as some rather delicious sounding speciality pies.

I opted for a weekly meat box for two, which retails at £42.50 and contains enough meat to keep even the most carnivorous of us going for a good seven days. From a beef topside roasting joint to a whole corn fed chicken, via a couple of sirloin steaks, lamb chops, pork steak, minced beef and enough sausages to fed a small army thrown in for good measure. The meat was absolutely delicious. We have eaten most of it cooked quite simply to get a real idea of the taste, although the sirloin steak did get a generous sprinkling of Japanese seven spice prior to grilling which added a nice kick. The as yet unused minced beef will more than likely find it's way into a bowl of Alex's choco-chilli con carne.

The meat is all fresh from Smithfields Market, with the exception of some of the exotic meats which are sent frozen. Orders are all packed up in an insulated box with lots of ice packs to keep it nice and cold and delivered by courier. This does mean that delivery is confined to within the UK mainland, so if you are in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Scottish Islands, Northern Island or Republic of Ireland you won't be able to experience the wonderful meat feast. Minimum order cost is £30 with a flat rate delivery costs £7.95, unless your order is over £75 in which case it is totally free.