Butchers vs Supermarket

Storck

Our local Tesco doesn't have a butchers in store at the moment, but the deli counter is closing tomorrow to be replaced by a Halal butcher, outside franchise.

This might sound daft but does Halal meat taste any different from non-Halal meat?

Plus what does anyone think the chances are of getting clubcard points on it.

yalisrib

Storck wrote: »

Our local Tesco doesn't have a butchers in store at the moment, but the deli counter is closing tomorrow to be replaced by a Halal butcher, outside franchise.

This might sound daft but does Halal meat taste any different from non-Halal meat?

Plus what does anyone think the chances are of getting clubcard points on it.

Nice to know I'm not the only insomniac with meat on the brain!

I once went to a friends place and had meat, was told it was halal and found it tasted 'funny', yet then realised it was the same kind of meat I had been eating at hers for ages and just not realised. Looking back, it doesn't taste any different from other meat, it's just my pre-conceptions that make it taste different.

Nite!

geordie_joe

Storck wrote: »

This might sound daft but does Halal meat taste any different from non-Halal meat?

I could be wrong, but I thought halal meat was just ordinary meat where the animal has been killed in a certain way. So it shouldn't effect the taste.

anotherginger

geri1965 wrote: »

I don't use my local butchers as they all sell halal meat, so it's supermarket for me.

My mum gets hers from a farm or a local butcher to her and it's always good quality.

So? What does it matter if it's Halal or not, its not going to make any difference to you.

The meat is of the same quality and will taste the same, the only difference is that the animal hasn't been rendered unconscious before it is killed and a prayer is said to.

Would you not eat lamb from New Zealand because most of it is Halal?

geordie_joe

anotherginger wrote: »

So? What does it matter if it's Halal or not, its not going to make any difference to you.

Some people don't like an animal to suffer just to provide meat. They accept the animal has to be killed, but like it to be killed without it suffering.

anotherginger wrote: »

The meat is of the same quality and will taste the same, the only difference is that the animal hasn't been rendered unconscious before it is killed and a prayer is said to.

Not quite true, in the UK the animal is stunned then killed by having it's spinal cord cut, death is instant and no suffering. Cutting the throat is only to drain the blood from the dead animal. In halal meat cutting the throat is the method of killing the animal, it bleeds to death over several minutes.

anotherginger wrote: »

Would you not eat lamb from New Zealand because most of it is Halal?

Also not quite true, the New Zealand way is to stun the animal then cut it's throat and it bleeds to death. This satisfies the rules of halal and also satisfies those who don't want the animal to suffer before it dies.

A._Badger

Problems with the quoting system - the remarks in inverted commas are earlier comments from geordie joe, to whom I am responding.

"What difference does that make? Knowing the name of the farmer only makes certain people feel better, it does nothing for the meat. You can get good meat without knowing the name of the farmer."

You can, yes. But in my experience, you often don't.


"What difference does being able to trace the meat do? Nobody is going to trace the meat back to the farmer and complain to him if it is not to their liking. So what's the good of it being tracable."

A lot. It enables those of us who give a hang to find out whether the meat was produced under acceptable conditions of animal husbandry. My favourite butcher (see the thread on Kent butchers for a series of enthusiastic endorsements from MSEers) only sells meat from Kent and Sussex for just that reason. How the hell is he going to know if meat fron, say, Yorkshire or Devon, is well farmed? He takes the trouble to find out and his customers care.

Moreover, while you may not much like the idea of traceablity, it is government policy for reasons of food hygiene. So your pals at Adsa and Tesco know where theirs comes from. They just don't tell you. I wonder why?


"Ah, I get you now.......You are trying to tell us to buy British meat."

It would be sensible advice if she had. I would, for example, rather not eat chicken that had been fed on hospital waste, nor pork from pigs that had been kept in conditions that would have resulted in a British farmer being prosecuted.

"As a farmers daughter, can you tell us how much meat british farmers supply to supermarkets, compared to how much they supply to butchers?



Good is the word we need to look at. Not all butchers are good, you can be a specialist, but not a good one. Some of the good ones who went out of business due to a lack of customers now work for supermarkets."

That would be the lack of business carefully engineered by the supermarkets, over the past 50 years, would it?


"Does this mean a good butcher who has had to get a job in Tesco is now bad in some way? "

Well, he certainly wouldn't have any influence over the quality of the product, would he? In fact one might even question whether he as a butcher at all - maybe a 'meat technician' would be closer to the mark: reduced to portioning whatever he is sent from the distribution depot.

"If butchers are so good, why do so many of them not bother to weigh their joints and put the price on them, when they clearly know that is what their customers want to know."

I can't see why you thnk think is such an issue. I have exactly the same experience in Waitrose when I ask for a portion of a joint to be cut. Until it has been weighed, they can't tell me how much the bit I want is and, if it's too expensive, I say I won't have it. What's the problem with that?

Welshwoofs

I go for Butchers, but then what I buy you can't get in the supermarkets in the first place.

Supermarkets won't do the cheap cuts by and large - you can't get shin of beef, breast of lamb (bone in) etc etc

The quality is also an issue for me. I don't often buy a joint of beef, but when I do I want it hung around 30 days and I want a good layer of fat on it as it renders down during cooking and protects the meat underneath, making it tender.

The only meat I will buy from the supermarket is mince as there doesn't seem to be much of a difference price wise or quality wise.

Sequeena

I shop for almost everything at my local butcher. It costs more but the quality is better and I find the meat stays 'fresher' for longer. You definitely get your moneys worth for what you pay and my butcher always gives me a big bag of bones for the dogs

The ony meat I like from a supermarket is Morrisons minted turkey steak. Mmm!

tryingtoruletheworld

I personally prefer to use a good butcher who knows where the meat is from, or buy direct from a local organic farm. I like to know that my meat has been raised in good conditions, better than the bare minimum set by government regulations. I also don't understand why I would want to buy pork from Denmark, or chicken from Thailand, causing huge amounts of pollution during transportation for food we can raise here with higher welfare laws.

The fact that water and fillers etc have been routinely injected into a lot of vacuum packed supermarket meat means that even if it is cheaper, it may not be better value. I also like to support the local economy and skills, so it is win win as far as I am concerned.

DCFC79

Ive startged using the butcher for sausages and im not sure whether its the quality of meat but i find theres less fat that come out of the butcher bought sausages compared to supermarket ones. Ive not tried any other meats yet from the butchers but i plan to do it at some point