Butchers vs Supermarket

chesky369

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

oh welshwoof I sort of agree. But in fact Sainsbury's DOES do shin of beef - it just doesn't call it that. It says 'stewing beef' but I can always tell by the look of it whether or not it's shin of beef, and I do buy it then. It's by far the best cut for a decent beef casserole. As for breast of lamb, oh I've given up even looking for it. I've asked in butchers and supermarkets alike - the last time I bought it was in WholeFoods in Kensington (very chi-chi and upmarket); haven't found it anywhere lately. At least both Waitrose and M&S do belly of pork now.

Skint_Lynne

My personal preference is butcher's meat and sausages, they are, by and large better quality. However, I shop in costco and I buy meat from there on a regular basis as I find it to be as good as the butchers. The chicken breasts are good as well, they are not injected with water.

I always buy sausages from the butcher as I don't like supermarket ones myself.

I think that the butchers may be slightly more expensive than the supermarket, but you do get what you pay for most of the time. I have picked up bargains in the supermarket from time to time, but they do have to be very reasonable for me to do this, I then cook this meat in my slow cooker.

The only thing that I find to be better from a supermarket is liver, the slices are better and you get good value for money.

Lastly, I think it is important to remember that everyone has different lifestyles, beliefs and budgets. It's not good to criticise someone for buying supermarket meat or vice versa. Live and let live and let everyone have their own opinions.

geordie_joe

A._Badger wrote: »

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

To make it easier, I have kept my bits but quoted them without my name.

"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."

A._Badger wrote: »

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

Often is not always. You can put the name of the farmer on not so good meat too. There is no law that says only good meat can have the farmers name on it.

"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._Badger wrote: »

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.

But we are discussing the quality of the meat, and the effect putting the farmers name on the label has!

But never mind, how many people actually do check. And the only real way to check is to pay a surprise visit to the farm.

A._Badger wrote: »

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.

Supermarkets have people al over the country who can check farms, they are not restricted to just local farms. Just because one butcher in Kent can't check a farm in Yorkshire it doesn't mean Morrisons can't check that farm.

A._Badger wrote: »

Moreover, while you may not much like the idea of traceablity,

I didn't say I didn't like it, I just questioned it's true worth on the basis that a having the farmers name on the label does not make the meat good. You can put the farmers name on bad meat just as easy. You can also not put the farmers name on good meat just as easy.

A._Badger wrote: »

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?

Because they buy so much meat from so many farms it would be too costly to keep track and label each cut of meat. If a supermarket says it only buys british meat from good farms then you can be sure that's what it is without knowing the exact farm it came from.

And to turn your argument around. Butchers are well capable of weighing a joint of meat and putting the price on it, but they don't. I wonder why?

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

A._Badger wrote: »

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.

Are you saying non british chickens are fed hospital waste, and non british meat is not kept in good conditions?

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."

A._Badger wrote: »

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

No, it would be the fact that customers wanted the price put on the meat, so they know how much it costs. Supermarkets listened to the customers and did what they wanted, butchers didn't, and the customers left the butchers in droves.

it wasn't carefully engineered by the supermarkets, it was just that the butchers didn't listen.

They still don't. Every survey for decades that asks why people don't shop at butchers comes up with the same answer at the top. They don't know what it's going to cost. Butchers know this, but don't change, so you can't blame supermarkets because the customers went somewhere that did change.

"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."

A._Badger wrote: »

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?

I don't think it's an issue, I know for a FACT it is an issue. Time and time again people are asked why they don't shop at butchers and not knowing the price always comes top of the list of reasons.

You and I, and others may have no problem in asking for meat then changing our mind because it turns out to be more expensive than we thought, but many people do. And it is because they have this problem that they don't shop in butchers.

Take your case in Waitrose, most people would not do what you have no problem doing. But if Waitrose put the price on the joint then if someone only wanted half they could ask the butcher to cut it in half and have a good idea what it will cost.

The simple fact is, most people can't afford to go out and buy something without knowing the cost, and they don't want the embarrassed of saying no when they find out the cost. So they take the easy way out and buy meat that is pre-packaged and has the price on.

The supermarkets realised this decades ago, so did the butchers, but very few butchers did anything about it.

PasturesNew

The (one) butcher in this town is open during normal office hours, so if you work it's closed by the time you come home from work. The supermarket, on the other hand, is open until 8-10pm, so handier.

You also queue in a butcher's, then feel the world's listening as you're served, so there's more pressure to make a decision... you can't always see what they have until you're being asked what you want as people/baskets/kids get in the way of seeing what's for sale. I also "feel guilty" about not wanting a lot in a butchers, whereas in a supermarket you don't mind asking the deli woman for 2 sausages, or picking the smallest pack of mince, or grabbing the reduced sausages.

A._Badger

There are really too many points to address in this, so I'll stick to the main ones.

geordie_joe wrote: »

Supermarkets have people al over the country who can check farms, they are not restricted to just local farms. Just because one butcher in Kent can't check a farm in Yorkshire it doesn't mean Morrisons can't check that farm.

I didn't say I didn't like it, I just questioned it's true worth on the basis that a having the farmers name on the label does not make the meat good. You can put the farmers name on bad meat just as easy. You can also not put the farmers name on good meat just as easy.

Because they buy so much meat from so many farms it would be too costly to keep track and label each cut of meat. If a supermarket says it only buys british meat from good farms then you can be sure that's what it is without knowing the exact farm it came from.

I didn't suggest putting the name of the farmer on a piece of meat guarantees its quality - though I suspect it has some bearing on it. You are wrong to suggest that it would be too costly for supermarkets to keep a track. They are required to do so by law and choose not to put it on most items. Though, when coyly trying to pretend they are offering an up-market product (notably free range chickens), they do tend to name the source.

geordie_joe wrote: »

Are you saying non british chickens are fed hospital waste, and non british meat is not kept in good conditions?

Yes. Some of it is. The scandal surrounding some Far Eastern-sourced chicken isn't exactly news, nor are the laxer welfare standards, even in some other EU countries. British consumers may not like the standards of British intensive rearing methods, but they would be horrified if they saw what happened in some other countries.

In fairness, the use of meat imported from questionable sources isn't confined to supermarkets. Catering is an even bigger worry. But there can be no question that a lot of the processed products sold by supermarkets contain meat products from unidentified sources.

You'd be unlikely to find such products in a decently run butchers shop.


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geordie_joe wrote: »

No, it would be the fact that customers wanted the price put on the meat, so they know how much it costs. Supermarkets listened to the customers and did what they wanted, butchers didn't, and the customers left the butchers in droves.

it wasn't carefully engineered by the supermarkets, it was just that the butchers didn't listen.

So, presumably, you believe the same happened to the bakers (who did individually price loaves of bread) and the greengrocers (who told you how much a pound your spuds cost) and the fishmongers (ditto)?

The butchers disappeared along with all the other small retailers, for much the same reasons - predatory pricing by supermarkets, planning decisions which favoured the 'convenience' of out of town retail sites, as opposed to the High St, which became increasingly hard to visit, massive advertising, the sleight of hand that, to a brainwashed customer, makes a piece of carefully lit, tough, under-aged, overlean piece of beef look appealing in its nitrogen-filled plastic box, even if it's tough as old boots and almost devoid of taste.

Fortunately, albeit a bit late in the day, people are starting to realise what has happened to our food - hence the boom in farmers' markets, farm shops and even a modest resurgence of quality butchers shops, bakers and fishmongers.

rosalie-lavender

I used to buy most of my meat in Tesco's but have recently discovered that a local butcher has a website and delivers free if I spend over £30. As I live nine miles from the nearest big town and don't drive I have my Tesco's delivered. I am really pleased to have found a good reasonably priced butchers who will deliver to me for nothing. An added extra is they also sell cheese and vegetables.

pelirocco

During the foot and mouth outbreak a few years ago i was watching a tv programme where people were discussing resulting job losses . They had someone on there who worked in a supermarket meat packing warehouse , he said because of the outbreak 300 peoples jobs were at risk . Somehow the thought of 'potentially' 300 coughing , spluttering and handling my food , put me off supermarket food . And if you consider we import something like £90 million worth of poultry into this country and a large % from countries with dubious hygiene and meat rearing practices it makes sense to buy your food from a local supplier . Food is only cheaper in another place for a reason

Kadeeae

I try to get the majority of our meats from our local butcher, usually the price is about the same as a supermarket - give or take - but he's a real star and there are 'freebies' available if you ask. The meat is a better quality in most cases than any supermarket, unless perhaps you pay for their finest/best quality/priciest line.

I can get sizes & amounts I want, if I wanted 3 sausages I could get them. There are also many cuts not available in major stores. I could die of old age before finding any oxtail at our local Tesco! I do occasionally buy meats from the supermarket - my main requirement being that it is from a British farm.

We no longer have a greengrocers, although the butcher does carry a few items from a small local farm- and I would hate to see our butcher go the same way! :eek:

egyptiangirl

Storck wrote: »

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

Well there is a good chance you've already eaten it! Most Indian takeaways/restaurants use it and many other take aways.

There is no difference except what has already been said and that all blood is drained.

dmbaxt

I buy from both Mr T's and my local butcher.
About once or twice a month on a Saturday afternoon I visit my local butcher about 3pm - he does a big tray of various meat for £10 to get rid of it for the weekend.
Last time I went I had a leg of lamb, joint of beef and pork, pork and lamb chops, steak, minced beef, chicken legs, chicken burgers and sausages all for a tenner and all ok to freeze.
I then just top up with other bits like diced chicken at the supermarket if I need it.