Has the chevalburger incident changed your mind about food or shops you buy it in ?

gailey_2

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I know what you mean about trying to find a good butcher you can trust.

Where we get our meat from there are 2 butchers, used the other one once or twice, I wanted welsh lamb, and he told me he even knew the farm it came from, when I got home there was a huge new zealand stamp on it:eek::eek::eek::mad::mad::mad:

With the 'posh' butcher, if they are expensive, you might be able to choose diff cuts of meat, or buy slightly less.

The farm shop might be a good place too, but again I am a bit dubious with some of them, meaning they have jumped on the band wagon and maybe not all what they seem....

Those 2 piggies are going in the next 2 weeks, they are just the right size for farmhouse bacon..

so will need to get the next batch of piggies in asap, so we don't miss them too much:o:o

I do realise I may come across as paranoid loon here.

Of the 2up the high street

butcher 1 looks skanky fro outside and bit too cheap.
Butcher 2-I have been in in past many years ago but dident find him very freindly.

The super posh organic one used to work near and often would look in their window and think omg at the price.

I need just to get good sense of price so they dont see me coming and rip me off so if say non organic butcher in village is more expensive than organic riverdale I might think why?

You must have been mad with butcher did you take it back?

Know what you mean about farm shops.
few years ago must have been around time of chicken out campaign.

we visited few farm shops and farmers markets and hubby couldent get his head round price.

1farm shop near me they so grumpy and rude never went back.

Other one does look better and they have piggies that my kids like to feed and cafe. with butchers at the back.

Another we drove all way wiltshire for seemed to have everything imported nothing seemed to be produced at that farm.

If I can get into city centre theres 3 well thourght butchers I can try but its £4 for bus and dont go very often but maybe when weathers nicer.


im not really expert on diffrent cuts

always get confused when ordering as order my current meat by value so say give me 5quids worth sausages, fivers wort bacon and he weighs it up to that amount.

Edwardia

My New Year resolution was to try different sources for food. So far I've bought organic ground coffee and ordered organic detox tea, organic gingerbread men and organic ghee (clarified butter). Eating the freezer down took longer than expected but I'm looking to start filling it up now.

gailey_2

after reading this article

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/horsemeat-beefburgers-the-end-result-of-cutting-costs-and-corners-8458860.html

Im concerned about bread and other nasties.
wondering how i avoid them and buy things as pure as possible.

A._Badger

prowla wrote: »

In my opinion, what it says on the label should be what you get.

If something only lists "beef", then it should contain products from no other animal.

Of course, a burger should contain other items, such as rusk, onions, so it would never be 100% beef.

If you'd ever eaten a real American burger, cooked properly (over charcoal) you'd discover that there is no need for rusk, onions, or anything else.Onions are an optional addition. Rusk is just a filler to make it cheap. Proper burgers are made from 100 per cent minced steak.

You're right, of course, about labelling.

Bananabrain

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Won't make any difference to me at all - will never renounce my vegetarianism.

Me neither. One of the reasons I became a vegetarian was because of all the nasties in meat.
PP who said 'we can't trust the supermarkets.' Thanks for that, you have made me chuckle.
Trust the supermarkets!!!:rotfl:

A._Badger

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I know what you mean about trying to find a good butcher you can trust.

Where we get our meat from there are 2 butchers, used the other one once or twice, I wanted welsh lamb, and he told me he even knew the farm it came from, when I got home there was a huge new zealand stamp on it:eek::eek::eek::mad::mad::mad:

With the 'posh' butcher, if they are expensive, you might be able to choose diff cuts of meat, or buy slightly less.

The farm shop might be a good place too, but again I am a bit dubious with some of them, meaning they have jumped on the band wagon and maybe not all what they seem....

Those 2 piggies are going in the next 2 weeks, they are just the right size for farmhouse bacon..

so will need to get the next batch of piggies in asap, so we don't miss them too much:o:o

You have to watch what someone I know ( a fruit grower) calls 'a farm with a shop attached', that's certainly true! Very few farms can justify employing a butcher, so they buy meat in, too. Similarly, none of them grow every piece of fruit and every vegetable they sell and many are just there to cater for the BBC Food Programme addicts who think of little else.

That said, a good farm shop (and they certainly do exist) is a great resource.

Nice pigs!

A._Badger

gailey wrote: »

I do realise I may come across as paranoid loon here.


im not really expert on diffrent cuts

always get confused when ordering as order my current meat by value so say give me 5quids worth sausages, fivers wort bacon and he weighs it up to that amount.

May I strongly recommend that you get an old fashioned cookery book and read-up on the cuts of meat, as once every cook was expected to?

I'm currently reading the marvellous Food In England by Dorothy Hartley, but that may be a bit historical for your purposes. Still, it was written at time when people weren't anything like as squeamish as they are today and didn't baulk at an anatomical drawing of a pig or sheep, showing them where the various cuts of meat come from.

More or less any basic housekeeping/cookery book from the 1950s or earlier will equip you with this information and it puts real power into your hands as a shopper and a cook.

Armed with that knowledge, you can easily substitute cheaper cuts of meat for more expensive ones and astonish your friends and family with better flavoured, more tender and even (in many cases) actually more nutritious meat dishes.

Substituting, for example, a roast hand of pork (don't worry - it's not really a hand!) from a well reared pig, in place of a cheap joint of factory farmed leg of pork from the supermarket will give you a far superior meal for less money and no greater effort!

Most 'real' butchers know all about this as they are still taught the traditional skills and you'll see their eyes light-up when you ask their advice. They want to sell these cheaper cuts as they are far to often wasted and they will be only too happy to advise you.

As I've said before, skilled tradespeople are rightly proud of what they do and most like to be asked for their opinions, advice and help.

The tragedy today is that few of us (men as well as women) are taught anything about the traditional skills we once needed and that has allowed us to be manipulated by supermarkets and the food trade into the disgraceful position where a significant proportion of population genuinely believes that microwaving a plastic dish of processed pap is 'cooking'.

DCFC79

The chevalburger hasn't changed my mind where I buy the meat but its reinforced my decision to buy better quality meat. I by TTD sausages from Sainsburys purely for the better meat content but am a little concerned about the water content in the packs of bacon and the chicken so I may start to buy bacon and maybe otehr meat from a butcher I've used in the past. i mgiht start buying some organic meat.

supersally01

Afternoon all,

Been reading this thread with interest. I too feel differently about supermarket meat, and have vowed to avoid them as much as possible. I will use M&S, as I have staff discount, but try to do most of my shopping at,

http://www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk/home/bodnant-farm-shop

It is quite competitive in price, if you buy their value packs, and batch cook/freeze as I do.

I would urge everyone to support their local butchers etc, I also resent the hold supermarkets have over our purses!

Sally.

suki1964

I don't think you need to buy organic to eat well, you need to eat what is reared and slaughtered in this country ( I mean England , Scotland, Wales and NI)

I don't buy anything from supermarkets that's not and if I have to go without then fair enough

And I buy as much locally as I can, eggs from the woman two doors up who has a dozen chooks, spuds from any of the farmers locally who sell from honesty boxes, veggies from any local shop selling NI produce, butter and milk from the local dairy

Meat, always NI and never processed other then a sausage from the butchers

There's no such thing as local pork as its not farmed much here so we rarely eat it

Mostly we eat chicken. NI is one of the major chicken suppliers to the uk and most farmers here rear chickens for moy park. Some hold a dozen back from 6 week slaughter and bring them on for a few more weeks in their yards. Not really free range but tasty, and cheap and such a size they easily do two or three meals

I have eaten horse by choice and its really nice

I stopped buying imported meat years ago when I first became aware of farming standards. Where as we are not perfect in this country we do have some of the best animal welfare standards in the world because of that our meat and dairy is expensive to produce. I'd rather pay that wee bit extra and cut back elsewhere or go without then buy foreign imported meat