Butcher V Supermarket

The only meat I eat is chicken and it's been like that my whole life and I'm a farmer's daughter!
However I love the smell of meat cooking, except bacon and used to enjoy dripping on toast. This morning I had a sudden craving to have this forbidden unhealthy snack and set off the two local supermarkets to get some. No luck and was about to try M&S food hall but passed a butchers shop so went in and there were pots of dripping, both beef and pork. I bought a tub of pork complete with the brown jelly and it was sublime on thick hot toast sprinkled with salt.
Next time I cook meat for a family dinner I shall go back to that butcher and quiz him about his meat and then give it a try.

On the Halal point - our local Sainsbury's has designated Halal meat. Does that mean the rest of it is or isn't Halal? Any one know?

We have 2 excellent butchers in the town and we don't buy meat from the supermarket at all. In the paper today there was an article saying that in the best season for local lamb, Tesco and Asda are still selling mostly imported lamb, although other supermarkets are not so bad.

Good idea, keffie. If our butchers retire (horrible thought) we could try online from another proper butcher.

We have a fabulous butcher out in the sticks which luckily is not far where I live. Amongst other things, they sell my absolute favourite meat for the best and most comforting winter casserole ever in my mind:
Shin of beef.
Nothing beats the succulence of some slow cooked shin of beef as it melts in your mouth with the most wonderful flavour.
Much better than 'casserole steak' from a Supermarket.

My butcher closed a few years ago. We eat very little meat so usually it was only the Sunday joint I bought but sometimes his home-made sausages during the week. In the shop was a notice about where the meat was from the the carcass number. He knew exactly how I liked my meat (lean) and also what quantity I needed. The customers chatted to each other and to him and his mother when she worked there. no hurry, ideal shopping.
It was also very reasonably priced.

I would prefer to use my local butcher but I never know how much it's going to cost. At the supermarket I can pore over the prices on the packaging and pick what I can afford.

We still have three independent butchers in the small town where I live. Find some things actually cheaper than supermarket but flavour always better. If you don't use them, you will lose them. We have only one greengrocers left and his produce is excellent.
People are wasting their money buying tasteless supermarket rubbish. Eat good meat, less often if you can't afford it.

I haven't bought supermarket meat for a couple of years or more. There is a well-frequented traditional butcher nearby and the meat always looks good, but the shop is situated on a very busy road and I don't like to think of all the dirt and pollution being added to what I'm about to eat. Instead I buy online from a supplier of free-range, grass-fed or sustainably fished products. Excellent taste and quality, and the meat doesn't shrink when cooked. Can be cheaper too - for example 2 chicken breasts give me at least 3 meals, sometimes 4 depending on what I'm doing with them. I don't have to commit to a weekly delivery contract either, although there is a minimum spend. As it is all delivered fresh I can re-pack if necessary and freeze in me-sized portions!

I used to be very worried about the cost of meat when going into the butcher but decided I just had to get over that - here in France it is not actually weighed and priced till I have finished purchasing and go to the till - the butcher serves the meat but his wife does some of the deli side and takes the money. So far I have not been shocked and if I think it was a bit expensive I just do smaller portions.