Butcher V Supermarket

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.

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!

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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 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.

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).

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.