cheaper cuts of meat

I agree about shopping around for prices butchers and farm shops can easily be comparable against the supermarkets. Especially when you remember to compare like for like. TBH almost accross the boards supermarket meats are as low quality as they can get away with half the time pumped up with water so they shrink back to nothing. Makes me laugh when they trumpet the fact there "special" beef is hung for 21 days-that should be a min for good beef!

Just for comparison we went last week to our local meat farmshop, where the meat and produce is all their own or from other local farms.Is high quality, free range and high welfare as well as slow matured. They cure their own bacon etc and make lovely enormous high meat content snags mmmm. They also do more gamey stuff like venison, rabbit, duck,pheasant etc etc-locally shot or bred.

We got a 1/2 kg of mince steak, 1/2 kg braising steak, a medium sized FR chicken, 6 massive pork and apple snags (about the same weight as 12 in a pack from the SM), a large ham shank-will just fit the SC and do at least 2-3 meals for 6 of us, 2 lamb chops, 2 steak puddings,1 small porkpie, and 6 slices of thick cut treacle cured bacon. As we have been before it was a case of "call it £27". Tell me which supermarket would sell such good quality meat for so little. More than enough to feed 6 of us easily for say 10 days and probably could stretch to 14 no problem.

Definately have a look around, I know we are lucky in the farmshops we have here, but most people have a decent butcher or supplier who can beat the SM's hands down for quality and price.

Ali x