meat from butchers V supermarket

jr666

I'm confused by peoples definition of quality? I doubt anyone really knows what they mean by "quality meat". Your butcher may tell you that your meat comes from a farm 5 miles away, but so what? If you've always had meat from a supermarket then your idea of a quality meat may be 'organic' but if you've always had your meat from butchers then what is quality to you?

Can you all really tell the difference when your chicken is chopped up and put into a curry? I think there is a definite 'placebo effect' going on here. A blind taste test would be intersting.

As one poster has said, none of us are more right than another with regards to where we buy our meat from, i'm just facinated by the proportion of people who go to the butchers over a supermarket. Why not get everything under one roof? I dont know maybe its just the way i was brought up?

djhworld

I've just phoned my Mum about the issue and she said £2.36 for two pork chops is ridiculous.

Going to shop at the supermarket for my meats next time

Curry_Queen

jr666 wrote:

ICan you all really tell the difference when your chicken is chopped up and put into a curry?

Actually, yes I can

It's not just about the flavour, but also the texture and the way in which it cooks. Using chicken as an example, as you mentioned it, much of that which can be bought in a supermarket - especially pre-frozen packs - can contain as much as 30% water (which you're also paying for) and breast meat in particular feels very soft and mushy instead of plump and firm. It will also shrink on cooking as it exudes the excess water, which incidentally can then affect the consistency and flavour of the dish you're cooking, and is often bland and tasteless even in a spicy dish!

Good quality chicken has much more flavour and will retain size and shape when cooked, producing firm textured meat with no yucky water and additives exuding into your dish. Even in a curry, when you bite into a firm chunk of meat you can still taste the chicken

jr666

fair point!

nicola1982_2

Our butchers does 'meat for a week' for £20. It's for a family of at least 4 or more tho. OH and I worked out that it would last us at least a month poss more. You'd have to buy really low quality value produce for supermarket equivalent.

Sarahsaver

Theres a shop just opened up literally a minute from my door, butcher and grocer, and there I can get all these cheaper than the suparmerket with the bonus of not having to get the bus:
onions £1.80 a whole sackfull
couscous large bags for a couple of quid
Feta cheese and Halloumi at least 50p less than sainsbury's or tescos
meat - all cheaper than town including oxtail which you can't get in town anyway!
milk the biggest size you can get(cant remember what that is but huge) for £1.15
plain yoghurt 35p for a large tub
pesto for about £1.30 a jar
about 20 varieties of olives and the same number if not more pickles, preserves etc.
Who said the corner shop is dead?!

Sarahsaver

Oh by the way CQ when i was doing some research about chickens I just put chicken into a search engine and came up with loads of meat processing plants who offer the buyer a variety of levels of water content. EUGH! So i know exactly what you mean, and you can taste the difference!

funky-footprints

jr666 wrote:

I'm confused by peoples definition of quality? I doubt anyone really knows what they mean by "quality meat". Your butcher may tell you that your meat comes from a farm 5 miles away, but so what? If you've always had meat from a supermarket then your idea of a quality meat may be 'organic' but if you've always had your meat from butchers then what is quality to you?

Can you all really tell the difference when your chicken is chopped up and put into a curry? I think there is a definite 'placebo effect' going on here. A blind taste test would be intersting.

As one poster has said, none of us are more right than another with regards to where we buy our meat from, i'm just facinated by the proportion of people who go to the butchers over a supermarket. Why not get everything under one roof? I dont know maybe its just the way i was brought up?

I try to avoid the supermarket when there is an alternative, yes i do use them, but brought up on farm i know how they shaft the farmers !

i guess as you posted .. its the way i was brought up. most meal times as a child i would of known where the majority of what was on my plate came from either our farm or it would of been 'traded' with a neighbour .. say bag of carrots for bag of swedes etc, likewise with the meat, it was either dads butchered for him, or the local butcher would tell my mum whose farm it was from, so mum always tried to buy and support locally. moving away from home i now do the same. i do like going to the local farm shop etc, but would only buy organic from source. its nothing to do with snobbery on my part, just pure and simple support.

Sarahsaver

We grew all our veg as kids and caught some of the meat:)

iwanttosave_2

I have tried buying everything from meat markets/buchers and I dont know if its just were I live but the meat is horrid. About 2 weeks ago I bought a massive cut of sirloin steak from asda (plenty for me and OH) and it was absolutly gorgeous, juicy, tender full of taste, I then bought some steak (again sirloin) and it was horrible, it had a very bland taste, very chewy and fatty. Looking round our meat market (which apparently is world famous :rolleyes: ) they are all the same. It used to be lovely, but now I find it more expencive unless buying in bulk which I have no intention of doing and less quality.

Right let the pounding begin