Butcher V Supermarket

We buy from local Farm shops as and when we can and quality butcher's on the high streets ,there are some poor butcher's too,you have to find the good ones.
Yes the taste is so much better than supermarket meat and the price is maybe slightly higher sometimes but you can get cheaper cuts too but far better quality. We find the price of our favourite ribeye steaks far cheaper at butcher's .

I use our local butcher too,its a huge difference in quality from the supermarket .We have two butchers in our small town both sell locally sourced meat and will trim it to suit what you want it for .

Our butcher closed down and I miss him. I agree about the taste and I really like the idea of buying what I needed. Our farm shops don't seem to be well advertised; you've made me think I should do another search so thanks for the reminder!!

All my meat, except chicken, is bought direct from local farms. I buy my chicken, we do not eat a lot, from Waitrose as it is the only supplier of organic chicken I trust.

I try as far as possible to buy only organic or close to organic meat for animal welfare reasons. It is expensive but I make it go further. We prefer casseroles and stews to large chunks of meat, which means cheaper cuts and I add lots of vegetables or beans and lentils so that 1lb of meat will feed eight people.

Buy mine from local butcher,really good quality and if I spend over £20 I get a fiver off. I find their chicken miles better than any supermarket and all their meat and poultry is free rang

I once bought meat from a supermarket when on holiday. Never again. Always buy from a good quality butcher, who sells local produce. Can't go wrong.

I sometimes buy meat from the supermarket but prefer to buy from the butcher. We go to a wholesale butchers. He supplies many of the local shops, and is really good.

I always buy meat from a butcher, although my local one closed down years ago,
We have a local supermarket whose meat is bred and slaughtered locally too,so do sometimes buy from there
I wont buy from supermarkets,like Sainsburys etc, also, because these days a lot is Halal, most supermarkets buy in Halal now
I dont eat a lot of meat anyway, and wish i could give it up due to animal welfare concerns

When we lived in S Wales we had a great local butcher who could tell you exactly where the meat came from etc - beef bred on the local mountains and pork from West Wales - much of the lamb he bred himself. After he retired it was very difficult to get good meat.
In France there is a great butcher in our nearest village and again all the meat is local and a list is up in the shop. I have overcome my fear of making a fool of myself and will now even ask for cuts of meat not on display. His chickens are expensive -€18 but so much better than supermarket ones. I do not often roast a whole one but buy cuts I want to use.
I am lucky too that we have a branch of a slightly different supermarket near us called Grand Frais - they mainly sell the most wonderful and fresh fruit and veg and have a local butcher with a counter there. There is also a cheese counter but there it is all cut and packed so I often still go to one of the larger supermarkets with good cheese counters.

I used a butcher in our local town fir ywears until his shop was pi uncoated as part of a road widening scheme and he retired. He used to go to local farms and pick the animals and slaughter them himself.

I now use one in the next village who is very good and makes lovely gf sausages.

When I was a girl, the village butcher was also the farm where they bred, butchered and sold their own animals. It was run by two brothers - one called Farmer John and one called Butcher Dave.

I forgot to mention the Halal point. That too is a huge incentive not to buy supermarket meat.

We have a wholesale butcher nearby as well as an excellent local butcher among our village shops. Both are better for flavour and value than supermarkets.

I always buy meat from my local butcher because I know what I'm getting. The year before last I left it too late to order my turkey from my butcher and ended up buying a so called fresh turkey from a high end supermarket.....I emailed the supermarket on Christmas Day! to let them know how awful and tasteless it was. They responded on boxing day with a full apology and refunded my money. So NO, I never use supermarkets if I don't have to for meat or vegetables. Haven't found a decent tomato yet, unless from an independent grocer.

I saw a report a few months ago of the practice in certain US supermarkets whereby out of date mince is removed from the shelves and daubed in blood to make it look fresh then repackaged and put back out with a new, future date on it. The laboratory that analysed the meat found 12 different bacteria in it. This is just the tip of the iceberg with supermarket meat. Not only is it bad for you, but the animals from which the meat comes are often reared in dreadful conditions. If anyone can't find a good local farm shop, there are several online but a really good alternative is Riverford Farm - all organic veg and meat. Well worth a try. By the way, I'm not an employee - just a customer.

Oh how I envy people who have a butcher to go to.

I don't have a butcher in my local high street but the good quality ones within a reasonable distance are incredibly expensive. I know the meat can taste different but it's just too much money. I mostly buy meat from the counter at Sainsburys which tastes better than the prepacked meat (and usually costs more but nowhere near as much as butchers).

We used to have an award winning- all provenance declared- butcher who retired.

I now buy my meat on line from an organic grass fed free range farm. Animals slaughtered on site I know I know!! I am trying. Eating meat only every third day. Fish as well is purchased line caught and only from sustainable species.

Most French supermarkets also have a butchers counter too where you can get dearer cuts of steak etc - it is the same price as the independent butcher but not so good.

One day I did select a piece of beef from one of the chiller cabinets and asked the butcher to mince it for me. He asked me twice was I sure I wanted it minced and then gave it his assistant to do for me and did say with great incredulity - she wants it minced !

If you ask at a butchers for mince they just take beef from the display or cut you some fresh and put it through the mincer - in clear view in the shop.
If I want pork mince I need to sort it with our local pig farmer and he will do it for me and send an email when it is ready - with him it depends on the breed of pig he is sending to the local abbatoir as he rears free range old English breeds.

We dont have a local butcher where we live now.

We use an online butcher. The difference in quality, look, taste etc is massive. It is no more expensive. Infact in quite alot or the purchases it is cheaper.

They also do fish and other products.
Much better quality. If you haven't got a local butcher consider an online one. I use muscle food

My first part time job as a 14 year old was in my grandfather's butcher's shop and, over the next few years, I absorbed quite a reasonable knowledge of meat - how it should be treated, how to cook it and how it should taste. After I married, I always shopped at our local, excellent butcher (Grandad had retired by then). However, over the years, all the local butcher shops were sold to halal butchers which I objected to on principle so I started buying from supermarkets. Some were dire but Waitrose were okay, just okay, nothing wonderful.
Last year, I moved house and my nearest shop is the butcher's. It's wonderful - locally produced meat, beautifully matured beef, the best house made 'proper' Lincolnshire sausages I've had since Grandad hung up his stripy apron, and a butcher who knows his stuff and will happily talk about his products, methods of cooking as well as myriad other, unrelated topics . Yes, some things cost a little more but many actually cost less. If I'd known about him, I'd have moved years ago!

Always use a local butchers plus farm shop - so much better quality.

Our local butcher in France, local restaurants boast about serving his sausages, always has a notice on his wall telling you which local farm and the name of the farmer who supplied the animal he is now selling.

That's what our butcher used to do here in Sussex before he retired monica

All the cattle etc are labelled and both my local butcher - who has a list of the farmers who provided the current meat on his wall - and the independent butcher who has a counter in Grand Frais show you where the animals came from. They both also display the identity labels from the animals - I think they have them on their ears