Where can I get decent meat from?

[TheSkiingGardener]

Absolutely fed up with supermarkets and tasteless, water injected meat. And that includes Waitrose and M&S!

Where can I get some properly hung, good quality meat from nowadays?

Butchers.

But you need to find a decent one, preferably recommended by someone you know.

Hmmm. There's the trouble you see. I live in Southampton. There is 1 butcher with any kind of reputation and I didn't think they were that good.

Southampton is food hell, There is very little I wouldn't do for a decent baguette and some nice cheese and patisserie.

I am not really a meat eater but friends like the butcher near hill lane near the commons. Is that the one that's not so good that you have tried?

You could try online. Former racing driver Jody Scheckter sells organic meat from his Laverstoke Park Farm business online, for example.

Local butcher ? I know they are few and far between, we are lucky to have a brilliant one in our village. It might be worth travelling a bit?

I buy two big chicken breasts from our butcher and that makes curry or stir fry for 4! I use about 5 or 6 if I've bought supermarket chicken

Isn't Donald Russell (sp?) meat supposed to be good. Haven't had it myself but Delia and Nigella speak highly of it.

riverford do organic meat boxes - they arn't cheap though, so it depends how much you were thinking of paying

We go to Winchester Farmer's market and fill the freezer with decent meat. Well worth a trip & most of it is reasonably priced - loads of sausages, bacon, pies, beef, pork, lamb as well as venison, rabbit, pheasant, wild boar etc. I never buy meat in supermarkets and DS knows it is a treat.

Our local butcher is good too but that is my back-up when we run out of farmers market meat.

lots of farms and rural butchers will do mail order: you can buy half a lamb/pig or boxes of various cuts and it all comes in an insulated box. Have a rummage on the internet

That's the butcher I've tried babygirl. Maybe I should give him another try, but I wasn't overly enamoured last time.

I used to go to the farmers market a lot too, but I think I always balked at the prices of meat. I think that would be a good place to try again, pay what needs to be paid and then see how much further the meat goes/ how nice it tastes.

And if I go to Winchester the Blanc patisserie place might be open too.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll follow them up.

Ooo yes, Maison Blanc is good too!

We don't eat much meat - I buy what I can afford (& stock up at christmas) and eat veggie in between, but I used to be vegetarian so it doesn't bother me or DS going for days/ weeks without meat. I'd rather buy good meat and eat less of it than buy cheap tasteless unethical meat from a supermarket. Good luck on your meat hunt!

Rose Prince's book "The New English Kitchen" is very good on finding quality sources and has a useful index of places that sell online or by mail order.

She also stresses the virtues of going for high quality but then making stuff go further (e.g. roast followed by curry followed by stock made with the carass/bones) so that you can still eat without unreasonable expense.

Www.pfo-shop.co.uk
Great farm shop just north of Basingstoke. Used to live nearby but moved away 3 years ago so bought a chest freezer and place an order for delivery every 3 months or so. ( looks like their website is having a bit of a wobble at moment but would check in a couple of days)