TGF Rated Review: Paganum Meat Hamper

What is it? Paganum is Latin for ‘Rural Tradition’ and the company offer meat from traditional and rare breeds that are then hung and prepared in traditional ways. Traditional farming methods are used to ensure slower grown, happy animals and all Paganum meat is fully traceable to family farms in the Yorkshire Dales. The company knows all its farmers and producers personally and have selected them for their commitment to animal welfare, sustainable agriculture and conservation.

Meat is ordered via the Paganum website and is then delivered fresh to your door, usually within 48 hours.

Who is testing it? Me, with help from my husband and two daughters.

In use: I received a meat hamper from Paganum with a selection of meats including pork and honey sausages, pork chipolatas, cumberland sausage, lamb chops, leg of lamb, dry-cured rindless bacon and rib-eye steaks. The hamper arrived in the morning and was really well-packaged. The meat is vacuum-packed and then placed in a cardboard box lined with British Sheep’s Wool Insulation. Cool packs are placed in with the meat to ensure it stays fresh and cool for up to 48hrs while it is delivered. I thought the sheep’s wool was a brilliant idea! My daughter was fascinated by it and the box and insulation are so neat I’ve kept them to re-use again when I have to transport cold food myself!

The meat is packed into usable sized packs, so if you order 1kg of sausages you will receive 2 x 500g packs. This makes it ideal for ordering in bulk and then freezing. We had several packs of sausages so I froze a few to use later and they all tasted just as good after being frozen.

I usually buy all our meat from our local farm shop so I was really keen to give the Paganum meat a try. It was all fantastic! The bacon was wonderful. It is sliced thickly so makes delicious bacon sandwiches! It’s hard to choose a favourite out of all the sausages we tried, they were all lovely! My daughters loved the Pork and Honey Sausages. I wasn’t sure what these would be like, but they have a lovely moist texture and taste delicious. They’re great for children. We all liked the Cumberland Sausage (delicious in a sausage casserole!) and my husband and I liked the strong taste of the Chipolata Sausage. The chipolatas would be  perfect served with the dry-cure bacon for a really hearty winter breakfast!

The rib-eye steaks were my favourite. I have always loved steak, and these were delicious. The meat was really moist and tender. The lamb chops and leg of lamb were wonderful too. I liked the fact that the leg of lamb was boneless as this made it really easy to cook and serve.

I was really impressed by the whole service from Paganum and think that the whole idea of the website being your ‘local butcher on-line’ is great. There’s a lot of information on the website, but if you need more help you can phone or email and ask for advice. There’s also a mouth-watering recipe selection.

Any negatives? You can’t request specific delivery times, e.g. morning or afternoon, but you can contact Paganum to request a delivery day so that you can make sure you are in. You can also give special instructions so that your parcel can be left with someone else.

Price and Availability: All meat can be ordered direct from the Paganum website. You can either order a pre-selcted meat hamper, or choose your own selection from the various options on the site. The minimum order value is £40, and this includes free delivery. Paganum also sell wine, so you can select the ideal wine to go with your meat purchase.

Overall: I was very impressed with the whole service from Paganum. The website is easy to use, delivery was on the day specified and the meat was really well packed. All the meat we tried was absolutely delicious and very good value for money. I would definitely recommend Paganum, especially if you don’t have a local farm shop.

TGF Rating: 5/5

TGF Rated Review: Paganum Meat Hamper, 10.0 out of 10 based on 7 ratings

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