But what has no doubt surprised many, however, is just how popular the method has become.
So much so, in fact, that EBLEX has just launched a dedicated campaign around it.
The Slowly Does It campaign is encouraging caterers to make the most of some of the less well known cuts, which, according to EBLEX, are widely available and offer great value for money.
There are, of course, plenty of industry figures that don’t need reminding. Tom Kerridge for one has been a huge advocate of slow-cooked food in recent years. Earlier this month he told Pub Food that the British public was starting to appreciate “great tasting” slow-cooked roasts.
Common cuts
Two of the commonest cuts of meat used for slow-cooking are belly of pork and shoulder of lamb.
The Old Swan, in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, offers both. Its slow-cooked belly of pork comes on a bed of white beans and vegetables with an apple pork reduction, and pork crackling.
The pub’s slow-cooked shoulder of Orchard View Farm lamb, meanwhile, is served with buttered mashed potato, roast carrots, wilted spinach and minted lamb jus.
Beef is the slow-cooked option on Stonegate’s latest Classic Inns menu. It currently has a pie that contains slow-cooked beef in a rich Rioja and chorizo sauce.
Other meats can work equally well. The Moleface Pub Company claims to offer the best of pot roasted, braised and slow-cooked beast and fowl on the slow-food Thursday menu at each of its four Nottinghamshire sites.
Mains on the menu include: pot roast curried lamb shank, red lentil & squash Dahl (£14); braised squid, chorizo & tomato stew and crusty bread (£12); and beer-braised pork faggots, peas & onion gravy (£8).
Venison
One of the signature dishes at the Guildford Arms, in Greenwich, is a slow-cooked venison with polenta mash, kale, roasted chestnuts and parsley for £17. Chef Guy Awford has also been known to offer a slow-cooked beef brisket with red cabbage and roast parsnip mash.
And then there’s slow-cooked rabbit, which happened to be part of Emily Watkins’ winning dish on this year’s Great British Menu.
The chef, who owns the Kingham Plough, in Kingham, Oxfordshire, included slow-cooked rabbit leg in her winning mains dish, ‘don’t come back empty-handed’, along with rabbit bangers, rabbit belly and baby vegetables as part of a quirky allotment scene.