Has anyone else never used a real butcher?

[Twiglett]

We have a great new butcher that has just opened (and they seem truly wonderful)

Anyway it got me thinking. Up to this point (and I am now late 30s) I have never bought meat from a butcher .. just supermarkets

How strange and slightly sad is that

(I am slightly daunted by all the cuts of meat without labels .. tell me what I should ask for )

My parents always got meat from butcher but I am not fully knowledgeable with the various cuts etc.

Am sure that you could ask and they will know what you want for whatever etc.

tell them what you are cooking and they will suggest

or buy Hugh f-w's meat book - it shows all the cuts and makes good suggestions

The smell of a butchers shop has been known to make me physically sick so don't think I'll be going in one!!

But I am a veggie

feel proud I got lamb shanks today
( see post requesting recipe )

and a chicken which was easy to recognise

DS was in enthralled by game bird with feathers still on it (pheasant??)

still don't want to sound like tosser mctoss in there

f-w??

My father was a butcher and I always buy meat from our local independant butchers shop.
DH and I are both veggie but DS's eat meat.

hugh fearnly whittingstall
the meat book

Twiglett,difference in the taste of the meat is a revelation.
Laern as you go along. The Hugh Fotheringale-Monacle book is good.
(I remember asking for lamb shanks about 13 years agop,before they were trendy and all the blokes in the butcher's shop coming out to discuss them and stare at the nutter woman asking for them!)

yes, we have a fantastic butchers near our house, but being full of middle class folk who are a bit scared of pig's heads hanging in the window, it's called the Charcuterie and meat is nicely displayed with no remants of bone or body. (I do say this with hint of irony BTW). ANd it doesn't have that blood and disinfectant smell.

They are brilliant, will offer advice, suggestions, cut meat for you if you need it in a particular way for a recipe. I refuse point blank to buy sausages or chicken (all free range) from anywhere else.

Twiglet, we've just moved to a new area and have a fab butchers...at first I was embarrassed asking lots of questions and saying things like "it's for 4, so how much diced lamb do I need???" but they are really good and are probably used to it. The meat is soo much fresher and nicer than supermarkets (it's all free range and mainly organic) and I think it actually works out cheaper.......

Be warned though Twig, when you read the book, you may have to go hunting for one of the butchers/farm shops on list of 'recommended for their practices'. Fortunately I have one a few miles away from where I live.

Haha katie.I'd love to see what they make of the butcher's shop near me in Turkey. Empty except for recognizable viscera in the window (trachea,lungs et al)dripping blood and attracting flies.

I'm not squeamish but when I go out to eat,I have to close my eyes to the sight of chain smoking blokes hacking at huge carcasses in the open kitchen,which is invariably uncomfortably near to the loos.

they are helpful twiglett. i was most impressed with the one i ordered out christmas joint froma swell. He boxed with all fresh herbs wrapped seperate in crepe paper

i am so shallow

I know, it is funny moondog, I am the first to put my hand up and say that I coudl never go in a 'normal' butchers, this one is a proper butchers but they take away the 'scary' part of meat!

They are so friendly and so knowledgeable.

LOL fio - sounds just the ticket.

Twiglett - it'l be Grouse (Glorious 12th and all that) - don't think the pheasnat season starts until next month.

I do try and shop at a butcher's when I can - but am still learinginthe cuts (only started going when I was about 30). Dh knows more than me - but then, he did work at a buthcers' when he was young.

already had chicken quarters and sausages from there .. the taste of each was truly different from supermarket

am eager to see if lamb tastes better than the ones we got from Waitrose

Grouse? really .. how would you cook that then? like a chicken? and what does it taste like, is it very gamey?

Don't know - never had grouse, but have had pheasant.

If it islikley pheasant, then get the butvher to skin it for you 9easier than trying to pluck it yourslef and then it is best pot roasting it, as game tends to be fairly muscly - plus you'll have lost the layer of fat beneath the skin by skinning rather than plucking.

if they do supply ready plucked ones, then probably some butter smeared all over, some bacon tied over the breast (taken off for the last but to allow the skin to brown) and roasting it is one way. But I'd check out some recipe books, to see the alternatives!

Oh - and it's a bit stronger than chicken - especially if it is well hung.

it's brown meet rather than white (at least, pheasant it): and red wine goes very nicely with it!

Nope never, Dh swears there's one in this village but I've never seen it!

They're a bit intimdating if you don't know what you want TBH.

Snort Prettybird @ well hung. Im sorry, Im bored today.

i ahem went for the first time and took my mum - felt like such a child but she taught me what to ask for etc.. and I still go to the same butcher the v first bloke who served me with mum normally serves me and gives me a bit extra now as I go in a lot. DH def prefers butcher meat to shop bought. a lot tastier and also far less water.

ask for meats under rather than over and in £ not lb, (as lb I don't understand) but I do if I say to him can I have £3 of mince (he normally does £4 for £3 iycwim) mum swears blind if u're a regular they give u the best cuts etc..

Nope. Mainly because as a very self-conscious teenager my Mum used to send me to the local butcher's and I would die a thousand deaths in there as they 'bantered' with me..."ello darlin'cheeruplovemightneverappenwhat'sanicegirldoinginaplacelikethischickenbreastseh?lovelybigbreaststhat'swhatwelikegotaboyfriendthendarlin'?" I feel safer in Tesco

ROFL moo

can understand the total embarrassment, but trust me those days are well past