meat from butchers V supermarket

crnflke

TheDoolallyDilly wrote: »

Not true - I know a butcher there that I use all the time! I will PM you

I'd also like to know where there is a butchers in Bromley please!

Menolly_2

competitionscafe wrote: »

Rib-eye is my favourite steak for flavour it has an 'eye' of fat which melts during cooking and really adds to the taste - I fry it in a very hot (preheated) griddle pan for a couple of minutes on each side to brown them (and get a nice stripey effect) and a few seconds on each edge then if it's a thick steak it goes in a hot oven (180 to 200c) for 5 minutes then rests in a warm place for another 5 minutes or so. This is for a medium steak like so: http://picasaweb.google.com/msouthgate/Food#5261205822568690562

A frying pan works just as well if you don't have a griddle pan (although you don't get any stripes).

For thinner steaks or for rare I would not bother with the oven bit. After a bit of practice I can tell how the steak is by prodding it with a finger but I think I will stick with asking the butcher to cut a nice thick steak to order from now on as it's so much easier to cook to how I like it. Means you spend a bit more but it's not exactly an everyday meal and could always be cut in half (I would only do this after cooking and resting) to serve 2.

This is how we do our rib-eye steak - like you, we would rather have better quality meat less often (and will cut the steak in half to get a 5-6oz steak each).
We decided to look elsewhere for meat after having a VERY poor quality "Finest" steak from Mr T's. We go to the local family-owned and run farm shop every couple of months and stock the freezer - they have an excellent team of butchers who are more than happy to help/advise/suggest recipes/pack for the freezer. Their meat is not organic but it is free-range, the abbatoir is local so the animals don't have a long stressful journey. We very rarely buy supermarket meat (free-range chook is the only exception to this).
We had a joint of topside from the farm shop on Sunday - just over 1kg in weight. We had plenty for Sunday dinner (with all the trimmings), had cold beef, bubble&squeak and pickles on Monday and there was enough left for DH to have two very generously filled sandwiches and for me to have one equally well-filled sandwich today for our lunch. The joint hardly shrank at all, unlike some joints that we have had from the supermarket.

Jorgan_2

I went to the butcher's today to check a few prices out, asked him how much skirt would cost, he was surprised by the question as he only has one customer he sells this to, I was surprised by his answer, £6.62 per pound. Ended up buying Welsh top rump in Morrissons for 4.49 per kg, on special at the moment.

Can anybody tell me what prices they pay for skirt and other, cheaper cuts?

glitterycloud

I use my local butcher occasionally, mainly when I am organised and I think I get a better deal there than at the supermarket. Everything is fresh and tastier by far. I love pork chops and cubed pork from them.
I should get myself organised and shop there for my meat all the time.

Scubabe

I went to a butcher recently for the first time, it's a butcher's counter set up in my local farm shop.
I didn't know what to ask for but I remembered reading some OS-ers raving about Ox Tail so I bought 2 pieces of this from him... and I almost died at the price!! It was £6.80 for my 2 pieces of Ox Tail - and they are not large pieces! It was £7.40 per kilo.

Ouch!

Is Ox Tail normally this expensive at butchers? If I paid a fortune for it then I won't go back to him again.

Thanks!

Ness

Debt_Free_Chick

Scubabe wrote: »

I went to a butcher recently for the first time, it's a butcher's counter set up in my local farm shop.
I didn't know what to ask for but I remembered reading some OS-ers raving about Ox Tail so I bought 2 pieces of this from him... and I almost died at the price!! It was £6.80 for my 2 pieces of Ox Tail - and they are not large pieces! It was £7.40 per kilo.

Ouch!

Is Ox Tail normally this expensive at butchers? If I paid a fortune for it then I won't go back to him again.

Thanks!

Ness

Ox Tail ought to be cheap, but it's not. Trouble is that it's now incredibly "trendy" so demand is up. But because it's been out of fashion for such a long time, the supply is low. So you've paid a premium to get a "prize product". The same was true of lamb shanks a couple of years ago and they're still more expensive than they ought to be.

Is it just a counter with no cold-room out back? If so, then they presumably have to bring the cut meat in. My butcher has all the carcasses hanging out in a cold-room so if it's not on the counter, he'll fetch the carcass and butcher it there and then. So you can ask for any cut of meat and he'll do it. Without a cold room, your butcher will have to think about those cuts that sell; sell well and sell at a premium in order to bring them in, specially.

Finally .... is he actually a butcher? Does he butcher the carcasses himself? Or is he really just selling on stuff he's bought from the wholesaler?

Another way to judge a good butcher is to talk to him. Ask him "what's good value this week?" or tell him your budget and ask him what he'd suggest. Ask him about the meat - where does it come from? If he knows his stuff, he'll tell you all about it and he'll be proud of what he's selling.

Don't assume all butchers are the same. Some a simply selling pre-cut meat picked up from the wholesaler. And research the cuts to identify those that represent better value.

parsonswife8

At our local Sainsburys, we buy direct from the butchers counter in the store.

At the moment, they have a third off lamb chops, at approx £6.60 per kilo, got 4 thick cut chops for just over £3.00. Also, a third off sirloin steak, got 2 good sized steaks for a fiver, as a treat.

Sliced lamb's liver and lambs kidneys are also very cheap, for steak and kidney or liver and bacon.

I buy my oxtail from Waitrose at just over £6 a kilo which gives us about 4 large and 4-5 smaller pieces and makes 4 generous portions together with the added carrots, mushrooms and cannelini beans and mashed potato.

The pork hocks from Morrisons are about £1.60 for a good sized one, which I cook in veg stock with onions, celery, carrots, bay leaves and black peppercorns. The meat ends up falling off the bone. I chop up the leftover meat, remove the peppercorns and bayleaves from the leftover stock, mash the carrots, celery and onions, bung in a tin of mashed up mushy peas and the chopped up, leftover meat and have pea and ham soup from the leftovers.

I buy the value lamb shoulder shanks from Tesco at about £3.50 for 2 and do them in the slowcooker with veg, stock and red wine.

I got 9 lamb and rosemary sausages from Abel and Cole with my veg delivery. They are £3.90 odd for 6 but were on offer at 6 plus 3 extra free, so got 9 in total for that price. They were gorgeous and meaty and did not shrink at all. Fed me and OH for 2 meals each with mash and veg.

If you have the time to do it and to look in the different shops when you are in other areas, it is possible to eat lovely, nutritious ,tasty, reasonably priced meals.

I have always enjoyed cooking, so it is like a hobby to me and I love feeding my husband and on occasion, my other family members.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Glitzkiss

Another vote for the local butcher here. I travel 5 miles to visit mine but it is worth the visit. I tend to go once a fortnight and stock up on what I need. And you can always tell a good butcher when there are large queues waiting to be served. Mine is like that and it is partly because so many people shop there and partly because we all tend to discuss our requirements with them so each transaction takes a bit longer than it would in a supermarket. Nobody minds though as we talk to each other and there's usually a fair bit of banter going on between the butchers and the customers. It's quite a pantomine sometimes

The only supermarket I would buy meat from is a locally run one with it's own proper butchers department - as described by Debt-Free-Chick, they have a cold room with the carcasses hanging in it and butcher it all themselves. Again it is far superior to Mr Ts and the like but not as good as my independent butcher

I'm drooling just thinking about what I'm going to buy when I visit them tomorrow

sarahs999

I love my local butcher. I live in Brockley, SE London, and we don't have much in the way of good, independent food retailers, but he's been there 20 years and is brilliant. He does all the usual things, but knows his customers really well - even gave us all two bottles of wine on his 20 year anniversary! He does cashback, which is fab as we're in the midle of a residential area with no cash machines nearby, and he sells any kind of game you can imagine - last week there was a queue out the door for his rabbits. He has the most charming man you can imagine working with him who says things like 'not a problem at all my dear, it's my pleasure' and they make a great comedy double act while you're waiting to be served. There's always a queue and they do take a long time, but it's proper, old-fashioned service. They also have the obligatory gormless trainee boy - last week the butcher said to him, 'you know when we hired you you said you were good at lots of different things?' 'Uhhh. yes' says the boy. 'Well, I'd like you to go out the back and change those two legs of lamb into five more rabbits please' says the butcher, with a straight face. I swear, the boy really looked like he was thinking hard about it! :rotfl:

However, he isn't terribly cheap. But then the meat is far better quality than in some supermarkets I could mention. When we were struggling on one salary a while ago we stopped shopping there, but now we are back every week, with the queues...

Kerriebaby

I love our Butcher. The meat is all locally sourced, and lovely flavour, yes we pay a smidgen more, but its worth it.
I bought a beef joint from Tesco not so long ago, it was so dull and flavourless