lets get back to basics... starting with the butcher

ferretkeeper

lindseykim13 wrote: »

So we had our burgers for dinner tonight and as nice as they were i was wondering if someone knows why there seems to be added items? I thought there would be no rubbish but the sticker reads
82% beef
rusk
salt
herbs
spices
E451
E223
E300

Is my butcher rubbish or is this normal stuff?

Yes this is quite normal, a 100% meat burger or sausage or whatever would fall to bits, the rusk helps texture and to bind it. Flavourings will vary, preservatives are optional if you make your own but fairly standard in anything a butcher would supply.

If you see anything saying more than about 90% meat it's not good, in fact my local trading standards officer said high 90's he'd immediately take that away for investigation!

gailey_2

ferretkeeper wrote: »

Yes this is quite normal, a 100% meat burger or sausage or whatever would fall to bits, the rusk helps texture and to bind it. Flavourings will vary, preservatives are optional if you make your own but fairly standard in anything a butcher would supply.

If you see anything saying more than about 90% meat it's not good, in fact my local trading standards officer said high 90's he'd immediately take that away for investigation!

Why surly hm burger be 100%beef?
if making homemade would egg and breadcrumbs do same trick to bind?

thats my problem hm ones on bbq they always fall apart.

Loving people brave enough to buy whole pig/lamb we do have large chest freezer but think hubby may think lost the plot.

spoke to freind who goes to butcher I want to try and rates him and suggested good fruit and veg shop too:).

Gigervamp

When I make burgers, I just add salt and pepper/herbs/spices and maybe some chopped onion. I have one of those burger presses that I picked up at a carboot, but I think Lakeland do them.
They press them together much better than using your hands and they don't fall apart.

Also, if you use a fatty mince, rather than a lean mince, that helps them to hold together and keeps them moist.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

ferret keeper we must use the same abotoir phillips in brynmorlais.

We had one pig butchered and vac packed... and the other one not... will def pay to have the vac pack done.. plus they are all labeled etc, so no worries about selling the meat on...

we charge £2.50 for 7 sausages ( approx 484gms) farggots we give away, as we are not too keen, but rather than leave the liver etc there..

Our pigs kill out between 60 - 65kgs..

I want to buy a whole lamb, so will ask the butcher next week to find out a price, will also phone the abotoir too, to see if anyone taking them in wants to sell me one

ferretkeeper

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I want to buy a whole lamb, so will ask the butcher next week to find out a price, will also phone the abotoir too, to see if anyone taking them in wants to sell me one

Be very interested to know what price you can get going direct to the abattoir compared to the butcher. I use Maddocks in Maesteg, (Liz Shankland approved of them so good enough for me too!) and they have a butchers shop on the premises so people probably get a slightly better deal there compared to a high street butcher, it's always busy.

Have you thought about getting a live lamb and taking it to slaughter yourself? Possibly cheaper and seeing as you've done it with pigs, no drama for you. Plus you can keep it on your grass and feed it what you want for a few weeks, make sure it's the size you want too.

I'm waiting for a couple of my sheep to lamb soon, so won't have any meat for quite a while, was thinking about doing that myself...

lindseykim13

Love to hear how the lamb price goes at the abattoir? Considering i've had such a variation of quotes and weights from butchers/farms.

I wouldn't normally buy a whole of anything but we love lamb and can't normally afford it. When buying a whole one your getting a pretty good discount and from what i've calculated the whole lamb works out at what you'd pay for the cheapest cuts in the supermarket per kg. Having 3 freezers helps & it will last us a long time as we'll only be having it once a week.
I do have 5 to feed though.

Fire_Fox

Maybe the variation in prices is, at least in part, down to how they are reared? As an analogy battery chickens apparently take six weeks to maturity whereas an organic bird takes a year, presumably free range and true Halal are somewhere in between. It must cost a lot more to rear an organic bird at those rates, I'm amazed there is not more of a price difference.

There are farmers/ producers who haven't bothered to jump through the hoops for organic certification, but are still thoughtful about welfare and cautious on chemicals. So maybe their costs are substantially higher, output is lower, meat is better quality, demand is greater (local restaurants)?

tdf010604

I have started to frequent my local farm as I get my chicken feed from there and they have a butchers on site. The meat is delicious and my youngest son age 4 loves going to the butcher shop because they take him into the fridge and show him all the different cuts of meat from the pigs and lambs, his highlight last week was going in and seeing a whole pig hanging up (I guess it's a boy thing!) They also make their own sausages on site which fascinates my kids no end!!

I do however need to broaden my horizons and try the cheaper cuts as I now have a slow cooker :j:j

This thread is GREAT!!!!!!

frugal_shopper_2

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Maybe the variation in prices is, at least in part, down to how they are reared?

Rearing costs do vary considerably for example in the winter a lot of farmers have no choice but to feed the lambs as the grass is not growing fast enough which costs a fair bit whereas in my area the majority tend to be driven into the hills & left to fend for themselves then brought down again in the spring.
The breed of lamb will affect the cost too some are considerably more expensive than others.
Prices vary from one season to another so the cost does actually go down as well as up.

I usually try to buy a hogget rather than a lamb,they have more depth of flavour & a slightly different texture but availability & having sufficient freezer space don't always coincide.

ferretkeeper wrote: »

Yes, processing into sausages etc will cost more, time, ingredients etc, but this isn't difficult to do at home with a kenwood/kitchenaid and the mincing and sausage stuffing attachment is affordable. It's good fun too, I tried it with a handful of girlfriends and a couple of bottles of wine. Cue lots of smutty jokes :rotfl:

One of the best things about that was choosing exactly the ingredients. We got the abattoir to make our last big batch of sausages and got three flavour options, all nice but would have liked more.

I do make my own at times but one of the meat vans on my local market sells very good sausages for £1 per lb which you can't make them for. They buy in short dated stuff from award winning producers rather than the cheap European meat a lot of market traders sell.
Only three flavour options seems very limited when there are so many premixed flavourings available & that's before you start thinking up your own recipes.
http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/Sausages.html

I did once present a sausage recipe to my butcher along with an order for half a pig but that was more of a windup rather than a serious request, his reaction was pretty much as anticipated I learnt a couple of new words as a result & his staff were struggling to keep straight faces.

System

I usually try to buy a hogget rather than a lamb

Excuse my ignorance but whats a hogget?