TelBoy

Sorry, Chip, but unless you're telling me i can't trust my tastebuds, if you buy meat from the fresh meat counter at Waitrose, you'll end up with better meat than most local butchers. Not heresay, not conjecture - fact.

ChrisB

What am I trying to do?

I was intrigued to find out why it might be better and to compare your thoughts against my experience of eating in Europe.

Senior_AP

Sorry, got you confused with ChrisL. Baaarp!! Sorry.

I find the meat in France, regardless of where I am is so much better. Food on the whole is considerably of a higher standard.

gsm1

When I was growing up our we used to buy our cheese and meat from the butcher shop up the road. They were closed down many years later because of poor meat storage and not having adequate bathroom facilities. Oh well, I'm sure the extra bacteria probably made us more resistant to illness.

We buy all our meat from the Supermarket now - mainly Waitrose and normally organic.

ProperCharlie

Depends which butcher you are comparing to Waitrose. Butchers vary hugely, Waitrose does not. I agree that Waitrose is better than many butchers - I buy most of my meat from there. However, I have had better meat, mainly from small producers who do mail order. It can be very expensive, though.

TelBoy

I use Eismann too sometimes - they're excellent also, if you're prepared to sacrifice some of the taste for the convenience of frozen products.

ajm

Yeah, its a complete sham. They fill the packages with nitrogen to stop the blood oxidising and going brown.

As an aside I went round a meat processing plant with Bristol uni once because they were doing research into using robots to perform master butcher cuts. They had very highly paid butchers who's skill was to maximise meat on the prime cuts. The difference was enough to justify paying them up to 60 grand a year! Obviously the factory wanted to replace them with robots and algorithms!

Amazingly the meat goes in the door alive, and comes out in the final packaging/logo's etc of the supermarket its going to, it even has the price on!

Account deleted by request

I enjoy a few beers with my local butcher, certainly wouldn't eat anything from his shop after hearing the tricks of the trade.........

Chip

Tel,
I should have excluded Waitrose from my generaliastion of supermarkets as I agree that it is streets ahead of the others. But there is also a major difference with Waitrose and that is that it is not owned by shareholders or institutions but by the staff.

It also sells goods of a much higher quality but at a price. You used to only find Waitrose in affluent areas as well from my experience but think that will change with expansion.

I would also disagree with what you say about butchers. As I said, I travel far and wide and know good butchers where the old traditional curing, hanging etc is still carried out. Supermarkets inc Waitrose do not have meat to these standards and will not as they dont have the facilities to store produce it.

A good example is cured bacon.Put a piece of supermarket bacon in a pan and what comes out? White salty gunk(MSG) which is injected into the pork to cure it quickly , retain the water and weigh more sometimes losing 65% of its weihjt during cooking..Tastes of not a lot as well. Try buying proper cured bacon if you can find it. After cooking youll be left with just a little fat and a wonderful tasting piece of bacon.

Supermarket beef is the same, most has hardly been hung at all let alone for 28-40 days as it should be. It is also sealed in those little packs under nice shiny bright lights to make it look attractive which unfortunatley does it no good at all.

So next time you venture out of the city to Wales, Devon, Shropshire etc try some good old fashioned meat from a good old fashioned butchers. You never know you may even like it.

Chip.

Flatcapdriver

I agree that the consumer is as much to blame for poor quality meat due to laziness and with the current climate of healthier eating perhaps that will provide the impetus for change.

Chris provided a good link for sausages earlier in the thread but the only mail order meat company that I can find that looks decent is http://www.griffithsbutchers.co.uk/

If anyone has some favourable online suppliers maybe they can post them here.

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

I get it from the supermarket, always, because I have to work and don't have time to go to ten different places to get my groceries

ProperCharlie

Ham and beef from Heal Farm is sensational. We had a whole fillet of beef from them for our wedding buffet.

ChrisB

http://www.myonlinebutcher.co.uk/ looks good - not that far away so I might visit them in person first.

http://www.guildofqbutchers.co.uk/ has a list of butchers that:

ChrisB

Oh, another good place to look might be to find your local Farmers Market. http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/ can help with that.

Chip

Oh yes they do. I was recently on a strict diet due to kidney problems. E mailed supermarkets to find out what they do to their meat.Well they mailed me back to tell me.

From my earlier thread in March:

Water
Water is added to improve tenderness and succulence. The water is lost during
cooking so that the natural moisture in the pork is retained.

Salt
Salt is added in very low levels to improve moisture retention and flavor.

Phosphates
Phosphates are added to hold moisture in the meat, and they also have a natural tenderising affect



Chip

prodriva

Another website to discuss all things food is http://forum.rivercottage.net/index....0f2a2f8b2848e1

VaTaNeN

I think an important part here which has not been touched on much is the way in which the animal is slaughtered. The care taken with the animal in the immediate hours before slaughter has a *dramatic* effect on the eventual quality of the meat. Basically, stressed animals don’t react well and the meat suffers from a condition known as PSE, where it does not set properly during hanging; a condition which effects pork in particular.

Animals slaughtered on mass (i.e. at big places for the supermarkets) can be waiting around in pens for hours (even days) as there is that much stock coming in – all of which stresses the animal pre-slaughter, whereas, much of a local butchers stock is from local sources, slaughtered in small abattoirs a few at a time. The result is a much tastier meat.

Aside from that, as has been said already, the main difference between supermarket and local butcher meat is hanging. The simple reason that supermarkets don’t hang meat is that a side of beef can lose between 15 – 20% of its carcase weight in around ten days (a good hanging time). That’s 15% - 20% less profit for the supermarket. Simple as.

jods

Where's that butcher SB ?

I recently went up to the butchers in Braughing High Street for some of their famous sausages and a few steaks. Cost about twice that of local Supermarket (plus 40 odd mile round trip)

Worth it though

ajm

Nice one.... I hate cooking but the River Cottage series, I feel, has been excellent and a very true representation about what true subsistance/sustainable living is all about. There are probably a few people on here who would benefit from watching this series, not least because it may give them an real appreciation of where their dinner comes from. Kind of puts things into perspective next time they spray ammonia in horses' faces!

richieh

get my beef from the mo in law who breeds these

slaughtered hung (3 weeks i think) and butchered local to her then sent 500 miles to me by courier works out at close to seven quid a kilo
mucho tasty and worth every penny
richie

Chip

Seven quid a kilo is not expensive anyway going by supermarket prices.

Chip