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Original poster

Is anyone else afraid of their local butcher?

141 replies

Dorothyredboots · 03/12/2009 15:56

I'm a good cook and know my foodstuffs. I'm quite a sensible, well educated person on the whole, but get me in the butchers shop and I seem to go to pieces. I'm always hearing the TV chefs banging on about ask your butcher to bone stuff, get stuff for you, tell you where stuff comes from. I just can't seem to assert myself and slink off with 500g mince and a pork pie. Am I the only one who goes to the supermarket for meat, not through choice, but in desperation?

OP posts:
notagrannyyet · 08/12/2009 10:59

I used to find local butcher's quite intimidating. It wasn't the people behind the counter that bothered me because they were always very friendly and helpful. It was the other customers. I was newly married and still learning to cook. The shop was always packed and all the older women seemed to know just what to ask for. Of course this was many years ago! Now I'm one of the older ladies who smiles when a young mum points at the glass and says 'Some of that please'.
I still find fish mongers a bit scary. We don't have a local one so I do tend to buy fish from the supermarket. There is always a fish stall at the local market but produce never looks or smells nice.

jumpjockey · 08/12/2009 11:14

We're really lucky to have a great butcher about a 5 minute walk away. They sell free range chickens from local farms, rare breed pork, cows that graze on the common, sausages they make themselves etc etc. Always really friendly, even when they're busy. They're the kind of place I can go into and say "Have you got any chicken breasts?" and if there's none left they'll whop out the knife and cut one off a whole bird for you. And on Christmas eve they do sausage sarnies for the people in the queue picking up their orders

Plutothatpresentdown · 08/12/2009 11:23

Dorothyredboots I know how you feel - I used to be the same until my friend introduced me to our local guys. You know, if your butcher is worth going to he will be friendly and sympathetic - he wants your custom after all. I buy most of our meat from the butcher now and frequently ask for "enough for 4 with leftovers please" etc - and that's fine. They are used to it. However, I do agree that supermarket meat is OK too - it just depends what you want.

Chalkncheese · 10/12/2009 14:27

I love my local butcher so much he's now the daddy to our son! The baby's arrival was even announced on the blackboard outside the shop. If you live in Greenwich, he's a very nice and friendly local butcher, although I suppose I'm biased. There's a fishmongers and cheeseshop on the street and they're all lovely! They love talking to people about recipes and things... don't be shy! It brightens their day behind their counters, honestly. Anyway, without doing an advert they're on Royal Hill, Greenwich!

ilovepiccolina · 10/12/2009 15:09

Mine are always friendly, and flirt with all the old dears. And me.

I have no probs with being acting stupid and asking for their suggestions for the best cut to put in a casserole etc.

The only disconcerting thing is that one of them is missing the top of one finger!

I don't buy their home-made pies.

Kathyis12feethighandbites · 10/12/2009 15:12

Does he bring you home fillet steak Chalkncheese?
I bet he is really good at carving, as well.

duchesse · 10/12/2009 15:44

A neighbour once said "You don't need to buy the newspaper if you shop at [local butcher's]". Which is true- he is the most chatty and loquacious man and a bit of a gossip to boot. Has a pig chart on the wall (the one with the chops, ham etc marked out on the poor creature) and will happily advise with visuals on the best bits and how much to buy. Our other butcher discusses Big Issues- the state of the world today, how people don't bring up their children the way used to etc... I guess I may be lucky with my butchers.

Ponymum · 10/12/2009 15:47

I really try, and I am quite a confident person, but I think you really have to have your wits about you. The scariest thing is not knowing how much something is going to cost when I ask for it. I once asked for a precisely worked out weight of pork belly - like, say 500g. I had stared at the counter for ages and done the maths on what I could afford. Only trouble was, it was the young apprentice who then proceded to chop it up for me and he kept getting the weight wrong and chopping more bits off until their lovely pork belly was in pieces. I was so embarassed and felt like I should have just slunk away quietly with the 900g or whatever but I couldn't afford it! Does Chalkncheese have some advice for this sort of situation?

potplant · 10/12/2009 15:55

Ponymum - just say I want £X worth of that.

Our butcher is great, I'm veggie with meat eating family so I'm always asking stupid questions. There's two armchairs in there so the old dears can sit down and gossip. And he always remembers your name even though he has only seen it once on an order I gave him.

I wish we had a fishmongers

Fibilou · 10/12/2009 16:40

I like my butcher, he's very helpful and nice

FlumpetMum · 10/12/2009 17:48

Please come to Waitrose, we are happy to skin, bone, mince etc for you. Well not me, I am on the deli, but in general.

santaschristmascakeywakey · 10/12/2009 18:29

Our butcher shop is fab and all the staff are lovely. If they don't stock what you want, they can get it in for you. It is pricey but so much nicer.

The only thing I don't like is when they put hand me my bag (and my change) without having washed their hands after handling the meat. Yuuuuuuuk! Am too cowardly to pick them up on that one.

bea · 10/12/2009 19:51

Oh I love my local butchers... i'm always in there gossiping... they're lovely and always save me bags of bones when i ask them to... chicken carcasses for chicken stock... and my mum... great chinese cook always needs pork and chicken bones to make chinese soup and i can get them by the bag full...! I'm very nice too and am always baking them cakes for swopsies!

then i nip across the road to the local deli/cafe and get the bread/veggies and grab a cup of coffee or sausage sandwich (saussies from the butchers of course!) depending how well behaved the 3yr old is...
gossip gossip gossip and then...

over the road again to the flower shop get some flowers (if there are fressias... i can't resist!) gossip gossip gossip...

and then back home..... dh always says i take an hour when it really could be done in 10 mins... sometimes i think i'm living in teh 1950's [.... but it's very nice and feels like being part of a community!!! shopping like it should be (without screaming kiddies in tow of course!

thisxgirl · 10/12/2009 20:04

I admit to being a bit intimidated by our local butcher too. Ridiculous, really. There is something about having somebody hover over you, waiting for your order, preparing it and the price being a mystery until the very end of the process, when you feel like a time-waster/miser for asking him to take a bit away. They're usually small premises with queues jostling to see what there is and everybody waiting for their turn so you feel even more under pressure to get in and get out.

I work across the road from a slightly brusque butcher. A colleague was put off when she went to order a large piece of meat for a dinner party, agreeing to come back and collect it after she finished work. He called out to her as she left, in front of a line of other customers, "you ARE going to cme back, aren't you?" She was embarrassed.

I am prepared to spend a bit of money on good quality meat so I ought to grow up and get myself to a butcher. Is it really that much more expensive anyway? You pay £10-13 for a couple of nice fillet steaks or a 'quality' roasting joint in the supermarket, £4 for 300g of 'best' mince and so on. Not exactly cheap and still supermarket meat at the end of the day.

Essie3 · 10/12/2009 20:05

I remember trips to the butchers with my Mum when I was preschool. My brother and sister wanted to play in the sand at the bottom of the slide (i.e. the sawdust at the bottom of the slope to the back ) and they used to wink at me - I learnt to wink back from the buggy!
Also, I became obsessed with tattoos and kept writing with biro on my arms and legs, and was told off several times. Then the next time we were at the butchers, I said really loudly 'I hope you're going to tell that man off because he's been WRITING on his ARMS.'

Happy days...

*I've been vegetarian since I was 15 and I have no tattoos. (Or perhaps )

thisxgirl · 10/12/2009 20:07

There are many online butchers but it seems to negate some of the purpose, really, to have cuts driven miles across the country from a source equally as mysterious as Sainsbury's.

morningpaper · 10/12/2009 20:13

I too am scared. E.g. my last trip to fishmongers (which is apparently FAMOUS for being AMAZING):

Me: I'd like something for a curry, please, for four people.
Fishman: Right, what sort of thing?
Me: Ermm I'm not really sure to be honest. What do you recommend?
Fishman: I've got this lovely salmon.
Me: Ermmmm okay, how much approximately would that cost?
Fishman: About £35 for four people.
Me:
Fishman: Or I've got this eel.

At this point I basically RAN OFF. Surely there is SOMETHING in the fishie spectrum that is suitable for currying that falls in between salmon and fecking eel?

NorkyButNice · 10/12/2009 20:17

Ooooh chalkncheese - I shop there! I used to live on Royal Hill - moved round the corner now but still wander over to pick up meat and veggies a couple of times a week.

I saw the baby announcement - belated congrats!

WilfSell · 10/12/2009 20:20

I have started using the local butcher. The meat is delicious. I just measure by volume: 'how much do you want?' 'oh, I dunno, about THAT much...'

christiana · 10/12/2009 20:23

Message withdrawn

DarrellRivers · 10/12/2009 20:27

Some are useless
DR 'Could I have 6 chicken thighs, with the skin taken off please'
Butch 'No, we only sell the leg'
DR 'Ok, then bye'

Useless, and lost a customer.
Off to another butcher who can sell me a pretty bog standard cut of meat

Stigaloid · 10/12/2009 21:31

I phone my butcher in advance, tell him what i need and then go and collect and pay. Avoids having to queue for ages - may help you with being slightly overwhelmed in the shop itself.

SarfEasticated · 10/12/2009 22:09

I go to the GInger Pig in Borough Market for my meat, and they are really lovely. Kind and helpful, and not even slightly letchy. One of the butchers cut the shin off of a beef bone diced it up for me, and sawed up the bone so I could make stock.
I don't buy much there, just the cheapest cuts, but the quality is really good. They are happy for me to say 'enough mince for bolognaise for 3 please' and they give me the exact right amount. They have introduced me to some amazing cuts of meat I would never have seen in a supermarket (onglet for one - delicious).
If I can't get there I go to Waitrose, because I love the ethics of JLP, and the quality is excellent.
I don't buy organic anymore, just decently reared is enough for me.

AitchTwoToTangOh · 10/12/2009 22:15

my butcher basically chucks his chicken wings because people only want the breast and thighs, so if you phone him a few days before you need wings he'll keep a big bag for you in the freezer and give them to you for a quid.

Vallhala · 10/12/2009 22:36

I guess it depends on whether your local butcher is an old-fashioned independent one or part of a less caring, Chinese bits of strange meat in odd looking red sauce selling type.

The old type are fabulous in the main, knowledgable and helpful. I admit to being very biased though as my late Grandad was one such. You know the type of shop, hand made sausages, venison, pheasants and hare hanging at the window, grouse, pigeon...

Funny thing is though, I'm a vegetarian on moral grounds and have been for over 30 years. Grandad always said it was a phase I'd grow out of - on this single occasion he was mistaken!