Porchetta is a marvellous dish. Easy to cook but presents beautifully with a beautiful golden roll of crisp-skinned crackling - a piece for every slice, and tender juicy pork loin that has been seasoned to give extra flavour. This cut is super easy to cook, even easier to slice and almost as good as the roast itself, are the incredible sandwiches you can make from the leftovers!

Rostbiff is a cut from the centre rump, with the rump cap and fat layer removed. It’s a cut with remarkable flavour, especially when roasted. Rostbiff can be roasted whole in a hot oven, barbecued, or sliced into steaks for a tender, delicious stir-fry. Ironically, we use the French term "rostbiff" — meaning "roast beef" — to describe this very English cut.

Pork shoulder is affordable, tender, and delicious. You don’t need to buy a whole pork shoulder — a smaller 2kg portion is perfect for a smaller gathering and cooks in the same way, just more quickly. For a richer, crispier roast potato, use the rendered pork fat instead of olive oil.

Pork shoulder is perfect when serving a crowd. It has more flavour than most other cuts, cooks to a lip-smacking succulence, and boasts skin that crisps to golden crackling. Here, we pair it with rich and delicious roast hasselback potatoes.

This grass-fed rack of lamb is tender, rich, and succulent, cooked on a bed of vegetables seasoned with Middle Eastern spices to soak up all the delicious juices. It’s a super colourful dish and perfect for large celebrations and feasts.

Serving up a whole leg of ham, beautifully glazed to a golden brown, is one way a home chef can really bring a sense of seasonal occasion to the Christmas table. Not only does a glazed ham look great, but it is also super tasty, with a hint of sweetness in every slice. This version has a touch of honey and Chinese five-spice to add another layer of deliciousness to the big day.

Lamb loin chops are one of the best cuts in the butcher’s shop window. I love them grilled over charcoal, but I have discovered another way to keep their juicy and succulent texture. This is a one-pan roast packed with vegetables and finished with a vibrant and tangy green sauce made with spring dill tips and fresh mint.

Lamb shoulder is so delicious. It is full-flavoured and cooks beautifully juicy and tender. It cooks more evenly and faster when it is boned, rolled, and tied, something we do in-house here for you gladly. We will even give it a rub with our special Middle Eastern Spice mix. Order online or come in-store and ask for one. We love the recipe so much we are going to share it with you.

Jack Powlay is the head chef at Sault, one of Daylesford’s most beautiful restaurants. We love how he transforms classic dishes into meals that are both spectacular to look at and even more wonderful to eat.  We are honoured that Jack and the team at Sault have shared this wonderful recipe with us for you to try at home. 

Almost every cuisine around the world has versions of a green sauce – essentially an uncooked sauce featuring fresh green herbs, a good quality oil, and an acid component (vinegar or lemon juice).

A beautiful rich slow cooked shoulder of lamb served on a salad of moghrabieh. You can buy these hand-rolled balls of semolina at Tonna’s in Daylesford or any other great deli where middle eastern products are sold. They are used in Middle Eastern cooking and soak up the flavours of everything they are cooked with.

This is a sneaky and slightly spicy way of pimping your chook so it is always golden brown. The trick is to coat the skin with a layer for golden turmeric, a healthy spice used in curry. Add to that some ground cumin for aroma and roast as per the recipe below. We’ve added a sure-fire stuffing too.

In the BBQ houses of Brazil, one of the most popular cuts is Picanha (pronounced peek–an–ya). The name comes from the pole used by the ranchers to tend their herds and in this delicious dish, it refers to the skewer on which the steaks are secured.

Porchetta is a dramatic dish presenting a beautiful golden roll of crisp-skinned, boneless pork that looks impressive on the plate. The breadcrumbs are optional but do absorb a lot of the cooking juices, giving a juicer piece of pork. You can make the porchetta using pork belly, or you can purchase a porchetta already seasoned and trussed for a really easy impressive dish. The fat rendered from the pork is used to roast crisp, crunchy and tasty potatoes. Great with fermented cabbage, coleslaw or other brassicas serve with a medium bodied red wine, such as tempranillo or sangiovese.

This is a sure-fire method to stop complaints about a dry turkey. We take a whole turkey and brine it in a solution of salt, brown sugar, bourbon, and other spices and aromatics. We cook it until it is almost done, wrap it in a towel and finish it in an esky where it will cook a little more and become super juicy and super tender. You’ll need a big pot, a container that will fit a turkey AND fit into the fridge, a big Esky, aluminium foil, and some clean towels.

Serve it warm, serve it cold. Serve it with sparkling shiraz. Serve it on Christmas Day as an alternative to a hot roast or entertaining guests when you want to do the cooking before everyone arrives. This is a country classic that has been doing the rounds of farmhouse kitchens for over half a century and still tastes fresh and delicious. Serve with salads, especially potato salad and fresh tomatoes.

We are a land of pork and honey here in Daylesford, with some of the best pig growers and beekeepers in the nation right here on our doorstep. We love the honey from Des O’Toole in the heart of town and John Cable out near Glenlyon and use their honey to make this delicious glaze to go with our house-smoked free-range hams.

We are incredibly proud of our butchery at Daylesford Meat Co. We love how we can take a piece of meat that is a pretty decent cut already, but with a bit of knifework and decades of experience, we can make it into something truly special. The rolled shoulder is a great cut, with skin that crisps into crackling and meat that is tender and juicy with the added flavour of our special stuffing. Easy to carve and so delicious.

Winter is pork season. Roast shoulder, roast leg, roast belly. Call ahead and order a whole shoulder, and we can bone it out, roll it and even stuff it.

It has been a ripper season for mushrooms with thousands of the little fungus popping up in the forests and fields. For those who can’t get out for a forage, Daylesford has a ripper mushroom grower called So Mush Goodness at the Sunday farmer’s market. Mushrooms are the essential ingredient in this classic beef dish that is making a retro comeback. Serve Beef Wellington with some local greens and a good cool-climate pinot noir and you’ll have the perfect weekend lunch. Plus, it’s a surprisingly easy recipe to make.

This is more a method than a real recipe. It allows you to bathe your turkey, or turkey buffe, or large chicken, in an aromatic solution of salt, sugar, herbs and spices. This salty bath allows the flesh of the bird to soak up the flavours and a little bit of salt and sugar, making for a delicious but very juicy bird.

We are a land of pork and honey here in Daylesford, with some of the best pig growers and beekeepers in the nation right here on our doorstep. We love the honey from Des O’Toole in the heart of town and John Cable out near Glenlyon and use their honey to make this delicious honey glazed ham with one of our free-range hams.