Food at Crimson Manor

We have designed our menus at Crimson Manor to be in line with the nutritional guidelines of the Caroline Walker Trust:

• Eating Well for Older People
• Eating Well for Older People with Dementia

The Caroline Walker Trust is dedicated to the improvement of public health through good food. Established in 1988 to continue the work of the distinguished nutritionist, writer and campaigner Caroline Walker, the Trust is a charity which undertakes specific projects, funded by grants and donations. A major part of their work is to produce expert reports which establish nutrtional guidelines for vulnerable groups – including children and older people.

We are also able to meet a variety of dietary needs and follow published guidlines and recomendations from dieticians and other health professionals

e.g. diabetes, malnutrition, obesity, swallowing difficulites, medication contraindications

 We make as much of our food as possible from scratch. We use fresh ingredients to ensure the food is as nutritious as possible. We avoid pre-prepared processed food or processed ingredients.

• We make all our own ice-cream
• We bake our own bread
• We make our own pies including pork pies
• We make yoghurt by blending natural yought with real fruit
• We make fresh smoothies each day
• We bake all our own buns, biscuits, cakes and puddings
• We make fresh homemade soup everyday
• We make our own sandwich spreads such as pate and hummous
• We make our own gravy and sauces

All meat served at Crimson Manor is Red Tractor assured.   

All our pork and poultry is free range

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“Caterers using Farm Assured meat can claim with confidence that UK minimum standards on animal welfare are being met and that meat can be traced back to the farm. Without third party inspection, animal welfare standards have proven to be open to misinterpretation and occasional abuse. UK welfare standards prevent certain adverse practices in livestock farming still legal elsewhere, including sow stalls and higher stocking densities for indoor housed poultry” Food For Life Standards

  Crimson Manor does not use food or ingredients with artificial additives

“There have been many different studies concerning the safety of these additives with mixed findings. Until their safety for human health and wellbeing has been scientifically proven, they are not permitted for use in Food for Life menus." Food for life standards

  We use bone broth for all our stock. This is used in soups, pies, dinners, sauces etc.

Bone broth is a traditional stock/drink going back centuries and used in many cultures.  It is made by slow cooking bones for several days. Different herbs and vegetables can be added to enhance flours. Chicken feet are often added as they full of  glucosamine, chondroitin, collagen and trace minerals and so make a rich and nutritious broth

Health benefits of bone broth:

1. A natural source of collagen which helps protect joints and improves skin

2. Improves gut health by strengthening the gut lining ollagen/gelatin and the amino acids proline, glutamine and arginine help seal these openings in the gut lining and support gut integrity.

3. Enhances natural probiotics in the digestive tract

4. Improves detoxification. Bone broth stock contains potassium and glycine, which support both cellular and liver detoxification. 

5. Bone broth is a great way to obtain more glutathione which studies show plays important roles in antioxidant defence, nutrient metabolism and regulation of cellular events. 

6. Improved gut function has a range of overall benefits on health including reduced inflammation (an underlying factor in many chronic diseases) and improves immunity.

  Crimson Manor does not support the use of any vegetable oil in our home cooking. 

Good quality fat is an essential part of a healthy diet. Crimson Manor only uses traditional saturated fats in all our cooking e.g. duck fat, goose fat, lard, tallow, butter and coconut oil.

All our baking uses real butter.    

We make our own spreadable butter by blending real butter with olive oil. Olive oil is considered a healthy oil to use in dressings.  We don't cook with olive oil as this fat is not stable at high temperatures and so loses its health benefits.

Vegetable oils are oils that have been extracted from various seeds. The most common include rapeseed (canola oil), soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, peanut, etc. Unlike coconut oil or olive oil that can be extracted by pressing, these new-fangled oils have to be extracted in very unnatural ways. Industrial vegetable oils are a very new addition to the “food” world. In fact, they were practically non-existent until the early 1900s. But with the invention of certain chemical processes and a need for “cheap” fat substitutions, the world of fat hasn’t been the same since.

Vegetable oils are considered bad because they contain very high levels of polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). Polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable. They oxidize easily. These oxidized fats cause inflammation and mutation in cells. That oxidation is linked to all sorts of issues. Vegetable oils are also high in omega 6 fatty acids which can cause a skewed balance of fats in the diet. There are also often additional chemicals, additives and preservatives introduced through artificial processing. Some vegetable oils also contain trans fats.