Winchcombe Burger Company

Review of Winchcombe Burger Company

Website: http://www.thewinchcombeburgercompany.com/

What they say:

We are suppliers of both Premium and Gluten Free gourmet burgers, sausages & meatballs and other meat related products, which are all made using prime cuts of meat, from quality 28 day dry aged cotswold bred, outdoor reared animals with full traceability. We supply to both retail and trade customers.

Price: Various.

Calories: Unknown.

We were recently given some Winchcombe Burger Company burgers to try, and after finally working our way through the awesome stash we received, we’re here to talk about some of the range we sampled.

Our selection and the plain 6oz beef…

Based in Gloucestershire, The Winchcombe Burger Company was formed in 2013 by Jeff Davies and prides itself on providing burgers that cannot be bought elsewhere, while supporting local farmers and artisan producers.

I knew the standard was going to be good, as they use 28 day dry aged Cotswold reared Longhorn Cattle – supplied by the multiple award-winning Martin’s Meats.

All the packaging contains full traceability information, as well as the date it was packed on and when it should be used by. Obviously full ingredients are also listed and up first we wanted to try the “Plain” 6oz beef.

As you can see from the pictures above, we kept it very simple for the first burger. One I kept completely plain with only a slight seasoning to accompany it. The other had the classic double cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard combination seen on the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder (Miss Milkshake’s favourite).

Although I overdid it slightly on the seasoning both were extremely tasty and the beef really shines through with that firm texture and juiciness. I cooked these ones well done because my next experiment would see how the beef copes when it is cooked rare.

A very rare, Beef & Blue Cheese…

“Holy smokes BL®… that almost looks like it is still mooing you’ve under cooked that!!”

Well yes I did, but I have always eaten my steaks rare and it’s certainly not uncommon to see a gourmet burger restaurant cook it this pink (upon request or warning!). And after cooking the plain burgers well done I wanted the Beef & Blue Cheese to be like a Star Wars Vlix figure, ultra-rare!

For this build we added a lettuce blend, crinkled pickles and Gourmet Burger Kitchen House Relish. Again, the beef really shone through and the blue cheese really compliments the richness of the patty.

Despite not being a huge blue cheese fan myself, this certainly had no impact on my enjoyment of this and it worked very well with the simplicity of ingredients used. I had no qualms about eating the soft, buttery beef so rare because of the top quality Longhorn. Recommended!

OK, so we’re cranking the gimmicks up a bit and for the Beef &a Horseradish we decided to make one of our favourites – a chilli cheese burger.

We loaded the patty with double cheese, homemade chilli con carne, crispy onions and jalapeños. Once done, I wrapped it in foil and put it in a heated oven just to melt the cheese on this dirty burger, and it was excellent.

Despite those strong flavours you still got the core beef flavour which is a testament to the quality of the meat they use. I expected a pungent taste from the horseradish and this wasn’t the case. It had a slight kick to it which worked well with the chilli and I’d definitely say this one from Winchcombe Burger Co. was my favourite.

Chilli Cheese & the Lamb-tastic…

Moving away from the beef selection, the next burger in our taste test was the Lamb & Mint. And for this I thought it would be fitting to try an idea I’ve been flirting with for a while. A burger topped with Doner Kebab meat, Pita Salad and red Kebab shop-style sauce.

Of course, we didn’t buy this from any old chippy but used the excellent Takeaway Secret recipes for all three components. Burger purists out there might be frowning now at the prospect of this but take it from us this worked very well!

I’m not going to talk too much about the kebab element but if you are a fan you should check out the recipe!

The Lamb patty was exactly how I envisioned the “Lamb-tastic” would be when combining a burger with kebab meat. The taste really was incredible and by luck or skill I cooked it just right to have a slight pink like lamb should have.

The mint really shone through and added extra dimension to the red sauce. All in all, out of all my inventions using the Winchcombe Burger Co. samples this was the most enjoyable and I can’t wait to do it again!

Mint > Feta…

Now I hate to end on a negative but put it down to personal preference ahead of quality. The Lamb & Feta was the last burger on our taste test but for me I didn’t enjoy it like I did the others.

I’m not a Feta fan and for me it was just a bit too much. I decided to do this last one with crispy bacon and Cholula Chipotle sauce so maybe it was this combination that spoiled my enjoyment. Like I said, this has no reflection on the actual patty but I would always go for the mint variation when getting lamb burgers from them in the future.

Next time I would definitely look at getting some better buns. I thought these store-bought Tesco ones did the marvellous meats a bit of an injustice. We still have a pack of Pork & Chorizo patties in the freezer and I’ve already earmarked these for using on our copycat McMuffin’s you’ve probably seen on Twitter.

Offering free delivery on all orders over £30 it would be rude not to try the fantastic range of burgers on offer at Winchcombe Burger Company – they also do meatballs and sausages alongside Gluten Free options and a Low Fat range.

From now on, if I’m not making my own patties from scratch I’ll certainly be using their burgers.

As we have demonstrated, you can have them on their own or piled high with other toppings, but every time the taste and excellence shines through! A range of juicy, meaty burgers… we cannot recommend them enough!

Burger Lad®