A famous Dublin steakhouse and bar is offering a special selection of “limited guest steaks” on its menu as it celebrates 18 years in business this year.
Located at The Mansion House on Dawson St., Dublin 2, FIRE Steakhouse and Bar is offering what it describes as “exclusive steaks” sourced from the 2022 All-Ireland Beef Bullock Champion.
The beef was sourced from a champion animal that was owned and shown by John Kane from Ballinalee, Co. Longford.
The impressive beef animal won a number of significant titles this summer, including:
- The Sweeney Family All-Ireland Beef Bullock Championship at Strokestown Show 2022;
- The 31st Liffey Meats Champion Super Beef Bullock at the Virginia Show 2022;
- Champion bullock at Tullamore Show 2022.
The Limousin-cross bullock (steer) was just over two years old at slaughter and was bred from a Belgian Blue cow.
The steer was sired by the renowned Limousin bull known as Ballinloan Jaegerbomb and has won over €3,000 in prize money for John this summer.
Salt aging chamberrs
Speaking to Agriland , the culinary director of FIRE Steakhouse and Bar and SOLE Seafood and Grill, Richie Wilson said: “The award-winning steaks’ journey to perfection was completed at Peter Hannan’s Himalayan-salt aging chambers in Co. Down.”
The beef from the animal spent a total of 35 days in the chamber before arriving at FIRE restaurant, where it will be offered on the menu.
The chamber consists of a 12ft wall of 1,000 hand–cut Himalayan rock-salt bricks which, Wilson said, “concentrates the flavour of the meat and seals in the natural juices”.
Hannan explained the reason for the salt-ageing process. He said that dry ageing is “the process where you age meat in a chamber for a prolonged period of time to get the maximum tenderness and concentration of flavour by displacing the moisture”.
“We’ve taken it a stage further by using Himalayan salt. We have 16t of salt in the chamber,” he added.
About the champion bullock
In September of last year, Agriland paid a visit to the farm of John Kane, owner of the champion bullock.
John explained how he came into possession of the champion bullock; he bought it in November 2021 from Declan McKenna from Clogher, Co. Tyrone.
“Early last year, I began looking for an animal to show that would compete at the higher-level and would be a strong contender in the commercial cattle show rings,” John told Agriland back in September 2022.
“A friend of mine, Gareth Corry from Newtownards, Co. Down, spotted the bullock first and told me I needed to see him.
“As soon as I saw him, I knew I had to buy him. He had the potential. He was a real south-of-Ireland bullock and I knew he would have a good chance of winning the Liffey Meats competition in Virginia and the Strokestown classes.
“When I first saw him, he had the natural look and great, square feet with a superior top loin. He was in store condition and was looking very natural.
“The stance, the length, the character – this bullock had it all. I knew he had great prospects and thankfully, he matured into what we expected.
“It’s like a raw footballer; if it’s in him, it will come out in the character,” the farmer added.
In September of last year, the bullock weighed in at 900kg.
“He was 566kg when we bought him in November and on July 10, at the Mullingar Show, he was 836kg,” said John.
“He went to eight or nine shows from July 10 to September 10, and still gained 1kg/day in liveweight. We weighed him at the Strokestown Show on Saturday, September 10, and he was 898kg.”
At finish, the bullock killed out with a carcass weight of 650kg and graded an E+3=. The bullock finished with a liveweight of 960kg and therefore killed out at 67%.
John hopes to return to the showring in 2023 and told Agriland he has a few cattle with “great prospects” for the 2023 show season.