There’s more to running a butcher’s shop than butchering

Scotts of Carshalton diversifies with Rationals to make the most of good quality meat

Scotts of Carshalton is a family butcher and outside catering business established over four generations. It started simply in South East London with Alan’s grandfather and great grandfather selling meat from a horse and cart and grew into a popular butcher’s shop in Carshalton, Surrey, making its name by providing high quality meat. Scotts now employs 14 people in the butcher’s shop and associated kitchen. For outside events there are 8 chefs and 16 waiting staff, with extras drafted in as necessary.

To boost sales in the butcher’s shop, Alan Dye, great-grandson of the original founder, expanded the outside catering side for weddings and other functions.  The butcher’s shop and deli remain the core business, the deli counter has proved especially successful with customers as it focuses on home cooked meats and pies.

All the cooking for the deli counter, as well as everything for the outside catering business, is done using three Rational SelfCookingCenter combi-ovens.  One of which is the new SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency. This features HiDensityControl and Efficient LevelControl, these functions deliver outstanding cooking quality while allowing chefs to maximise output, since they can load up to 30% more food into the same size cooking cabinet.  Together they also reduce energy consumption by up to 20% and cut production time by up to 30%, compared to previous models. 

“We’ve only got a tiny galley kitchen,” explains Alan Dye. “So we needed to choose cooking equipment that could multi-function. We started off with two Rational SelfCookingCenter’s and have recently got a third – the new whitefficiency model. The Rationals are essential to our operation as space is so tight, we couldn’t do without them.

“Each week we roast about 30 hams and other joints as well as making pies, pastries and baguettes.  The pies are completely home-cooked – we make both the filling and the pastry. Overnight roasting is great in the Rational, the joints are perfect every time, with very little shrinkage. We flash roast gammon in honey and brown sugar and can even roast whole suckling pigs. Using the Rational probes we can cook beef medium or rare to absolute precision.”

On busy weekends Scotts can cater for up to twelve buffets.  Its speciality is lavish gypsy weddings where there are upwards of 100 guests – the biggest one hosted 1000 guests. Some of the popular dishes include marinated chicken portions, hot wings, huge gammon joints, scotch eggs, chicken drumsticks and sausage rolls. At these weddings presentation is paramount and Alan Dye uses his skills at carving fruit and vegetables to make huge, elaborate table displays.

“The SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency is brilliant and so easy to use,” he says. “It means I have time to concentrate on perfecting the presentation.  It is fast and has the same temperature from the top to the bottom of the oven. We don’t need to swap the trays about which saves a lot of work, essential when catering for a big function.”

Another area that the Rational triumphs in is in health and safety compliance. On a recent Public Health inspection the inspectors were impressed with the Rational’s memory stick, which logs everything that has been cooked, making all actions traceable. Being able to download the HACCP information makes it easy to control and report.

“I can only say good things about the Rational SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency,” Alan Dye finishes off. “It is just brilliant. The Rationals are the only cooking equipment we use now apart from hog roasters and BBQs for outside events.”

For information and brochures, or to arrange to come to a free SelfCookingCenter® whitefficiency® ‘Rational CookingLive’ seminar, contact your dealer, freephone Rational UK on 0800 389 2944 or see www.rational-UK.com. Visit the iPhone store for the Rational SCC Expert App.      

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Scotts of Carshalton – Oct-12

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