Make D'Artagnan the Star of Your Holiday Table

The holiday season is on deck. There's no turning back now. With a year's worth of anticipation building up to this moment, you want to do things right this season. This is the time of year to pull out all the stops, whether it's devoting extra time to the labor of love that is your family's signature Sunday gravy or going the extra mile to source those top ingredients for your holiday-party cheese plate. Visit your farmers markets, shop locally, and when it comes to meat, consider D'Artagnan.

You may know the purveyor for its duck, but D'Artagnan is an excellent source for any kind of meat or poultry and the perfect place to upgrade your holiday table. That's because for 35 years, it's been working with small farms and ranches that adhere to strict standards, never using added antibiotics or hormones and always practicing sustainable, humane farming practices. It was a leader in the sustainability movement before it even was a movement, and you can taste it. When you're putting out a beef tenderloin or leg of lamb as the table's centerpiece, D'Artagnan has you covered. Here are some ideas to get your wheels turning.

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Slow-Roasted Beef Tenderloin

Lean and flavorful, beef tenderloin doesn't need a lot of seasoning to shine (although basting it with brown butter and herbs doesn't hurt). We love slow-roasting this cut with the reverse-sear method, which prevents the lean meat from overcooking and drying out, as in our slow-roasted beef tenderloin recipe. Big, beautiful, and a real crowd-pleaser, it's a no-brainer for the holiday table, and D'Artagnan's tenderloin is a cut above the rest.

The Angus tenderloin is 100-percent natural beef from Black Angus cattle that were grass-fed on ranches for most of their lives and raised without any antibiotics or hormones. That means denser texture, stronger flavor, and a marbled, delicious cut you can feel good about. The meat is wet-aged a minimum of 21 days and equivalent to Choice-Plus graded beef.

If you are interested in vintage beef, D'Artagnan offers a grass-fed tenderloin that is raised without any hormones, stimulants or antibiotics for at least five years (twice as long as the average). This results in rich, beefy flavor, complex, golden marbling and all the nutritional benefits you'd expect from grass-fed beef.

Get the Recipe for Slow-Roasted Beef Tenderloin here

Leg of Lamb With Garlic, Rosemary, and Lemon

Leg of lamb isn't just for Easter. It makes a richly flavored, festive centerpiece for any holiday, and we love it when the weather is cool and the meat matches our favorite wintry flavors like rosemary and citrus. Case in point, this slow-roasted boneless leg of lamb with garlic, rosemary, and lemon, which is both simple and show-stopping. Again, cooking low and slow with a crank of heat at the end will do you well, leaving the meat moist in the middle with a charred crust. A secret ingredient of anchovies in the rub brings out the meaty flavor with no fishiness at all (we really love this pairing, and you will, too, if you haven't tried it yet). Look no further than D'Artagnan for lamb that's ethically raised—free-range, grass-fed, in optimal growing conditions—for flavor that's clean and not gamey at all. D'Artagnan's lamb is raised in Victoria, Australia, where the semi-arid climate and mineral-rich soil is known for producing the best lamb in the country. Of course, if you'd prefer a more domestic leg, D'Artagnan has that, too. This flavorful cut is pasture-raised in the Rocky Mountains.

Get the recipe for Slow-Roasted Boneless Leg of Lamb with Garlic, Rosemary, and Lemon here

Crisp-Skinned Roast Goose and Gravy

Whether it's a Christmas goose or for another big day, it doesn't get more festive than this delicious bird. The fat is the headliner to contend with, and our method makes for tender, deeply flavorful meat. First, we prick the skin and blanch the bird. Then we dry brine it with the unexpected addition of baking powder, which creates a supremely crispy skin. It’s a few simple steps that make all the difference. Don’t let expectations down by buying a less-than-worthy goose. Buy D'Artagnan's birds, raised on small-scale Midwestern family farms and fed free range in pastures with access to spring water, natural light, and fresh air.

Get the recipe for Crisp-Skinned Roast Goose and Gravy here

Turkey

A moist but crispy turkey that feeds the whole table is the holy grail of holidays. It’s no secret it's notoriously difficult to achieve. This year, dazzle those turkey-haters with our simple approach, wherein we use a baking steel to direct heat to the legs for evenly cooked meat throughout, and a V-rack in a roasting pan to promote air circulation, which translates to extra-crispy skin. With this recipe, your turkey is guaranteed to shine, especially if you buy a bird from D’Artagnan. The White Broad-breasted hybrid breed is raised free-range on a diet of 100-percent organic, non-GMO, all-vegetarian corn and soy, and pure spring water without chlorine or fluoride. The small-scale Midwestern farms that raise them support sustainable agriculture and preserve the natural ecosystem, caring for the turkey’s welfare as much as the land’s. All that translates to quality you can taste on the plate, even underneath all that delicious gravy.

D'Artagnan also has heritage birds—if you'd like to celebrate a truly authentic holiday. We love that the heritage birds have lots of rich dark meat. And since they're air-chilled and hand-processed, they achieve that delightful crispy skin that we can't get enough of.

Get the recipe for The Best Simple Roast Turkey With Gravy Recipe

All-Belly Porcetta With Porcelet

Nothing says special occasion like porcetta, the iconic Italian pork roast and its crackling skin. Go big or go home with this cut, we say, which is why we love this recipe that calls for all pork belly, omitting the typical pork loin. It’s a lot easier than it looks, making it a great one for a dinner party where you’re aiming to impress but don’t want to risk screwing up. Make things even easier on yourself by buying the porcelet belly from D’Artagnan for this recipe. Exclusively available in the US at D’Artagnan, it comes from milk-fed Yorkshire piglets raised on a small family farm in Quebec. Fed a proprietary, nutritionally balanced warm milk formula, fortified with vitamins and minerals, and 40% fat content, the piglets produce meat that’s extremely sweet and tender.

Get the recipe for All Belly Porcetta here

Duck à l'Orange

Your Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas goose are all well and fine, but don’t overlook duck as another winning poultry to serve over the holidays. Rich meat, crispy skin, and a versatile palate for a whole range of flavors–from bitter cranberry and orange peel to spicy star anise–duck is the unsung hero of the holiday season, in our opinion. And there’s a reason D’Artagnan’s ducks are the company’s signature offering.

The D'Artagnan Rohan duck is a hybrid of several duck breeds, including the Heritage Mallard and the Pekin, and raised in open barns on a farm in Upstate New York on a strictly vegetarian grain diet without hormones or antibiotics. The ducks are lean and flavorful, and they do great when pricked and poached to render the fat. Case in point, our recipe for that French classic, Duck à l'Orange, which does just that and also roasts at two temperatures—high heat to start, low to finish—for a crispy, but moist, final product that’s occasion-worthy but worry-free. Just consider doubling the recipe to make sure there’s enough to go around.

Get the recipe for Duck à l'Orange here