HLD DMR
LE
Are you speaking of supermarket prices or direct farm sales?
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The farming and smallholding thread
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LE
Tyk
LE
I buy all my meat, especially bacon, proper sausages and decent cuts at the butchers, I had to find an alternative to the one I used as they closed down, the new one is adequate, but less choice especially in sausage.
@Cavuman Topside/Sirloin roasting beef is at least double the price you pay there, maybe a bit less in a supermarket, but not much and of course not the quality of a real butchers.
@Cavuman Topside/Sirloin roasting beef is at least double the price you pay there, maybe a bit less in a supermarket, but not much and of course not the quality of a real butchers.
HLD DMR
LE
There is a bison producer in my county who l stop in and purchase steak and bison burgers from when the weather turns warm, very tender and rich flavoured.
Tyk
LE
Butchers are increasingly rare here, not easy to find a good one, by a good one I mean somewhere that can say where their meat actually comes from rather than some wholesale supplier.
Incidentally when I said a bit cheaper I meant marginally less than at least double US prices so typically double.
Chatting to my butcher yesterday, to find he's also the farmer who raises the beef, about halfway between where I live and where the shop is. All the meat from there is grown in the West Country, no further than Taunton or Exeter and it's lovely.
Between us, we taught a younger customer how to cook rack of lamb. He was fascinated by it, and ordered one for next week.
You don't get that from your supermarket!
I am in complete agreement with both yourself and @Tyk . The mince and sausages sell because they are staples, easy to cook, versatile and in terms of protein/£ good value.
That the joints don't sell so well is entirely my own fault.
Thus, when we first sent animals to slaughter it was for our own consumption, being a family of six this meant joints of 6lb for two reasons. Firstly, we are tight enough to think that a piece of meat cooked on Sunday should feed the family until Tuesday, and secondly, that with the breeds we have (Sussex cattle, Wessex Saddleback pigs this year, other pigs tbc, hopefully Oxford Sandy and Black) there is quite a bit more fat, both as marbling and on the outside, so given that the fat will render out, you need a bigger joint to feed a given number of people.
In retrospect,, the joints are far too big, and by extension too expensive, especially so given the Covid situation, for many people at the moment.
The thing is, we are not a supermarket, nor even a farm shop really. What we have , is what we have. But things will improve, and hopefully people will come to know us as a place to buy something for Sunday Lunch, as well as the makings of Toad in the Hole and Cottage Pie.
One of the main drivers for us is that the connection between 'picturesque ' animals in the field, and the food on the plate is made. And if that food comes from the same country/county/parish as the consumer then so much the better.
As @Tyk and @Grownup_Rafbrat have alluded to, going to a good butcher shop is, for me at any rate, one of life's greatest pleasures. Their rarity saddens me.
I remember attending a Meat and Livestock Commission 'do' in the early '90's on meat eating habits and projections.
Even then well over 50% of fresh beef sales were of mince, and the average 'cook' time an average housewife ( it was the 90's) was expected spend on the evening meal was 21minutes, and expected to hit 11 by the turn of the Millennium.
Vegans hadn't even been invented!
Even then well over 50% of fresh beef sales were of mince, and the average 'cook' time an average housewife ( it was the 90's) was expected spend on the evening meal was 21minutes, and expected to hit 11 by the turn of the Millennium.
Vegans hadn't even been invented!
On the subject of butchers raising their own beef, our butcher does this as well his beef is finished “just over the hill” within a couple of miles of his shop.
Details here Traditional Wiltshire butcher - Robert Douse & Son
However I will continue to avail myself of the good @Humble Tiller ’s products when possible.
Details here Traditional Wiltshire butcher - Robert Douse & Son
However I will continue to avail myself of the good @Humble Tiller ’s products when possible.
Crazy logic. We're having venison casserole today. Ten minutes to chuck cubes in a pan with wine, stock, celery, carrots and seasoning. Into the oven on slow all day long. Swede, cauli and roasties to cook this evening. If it takes half an hour's effort it will be a miracle.
The rack of lamb discussed yesterday- 40 minutes tops from start to finish. What is wrong with people???
olafthered
LE
People just don't know how to do it - hence the conversation you had in the butchers.
I haven't cooked meat in ages - her indoors is very veggie, not militant, but the smell of cooking meat makes her feel ill. I daresay I could still knock up a mean spag bol or Sunday roast, but I learned as a boy....
wilfred
LE
I regularly give dinner advice to young couples shopping at work (Tesco). I blame the lack of home economics teaching at school. If you have a little time on your hands you can cook very cheap, healthy meals.
I did get one couple come back to say that making the beef wellington as as easy as I had promised.
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A while ago @Oops and I had a brief discussion about what used to be called Home Economics. He made the very good point that HE has been taught in school since time immemorial, so the lack of cooking skills and nutritional knowledge can't be blamed on schools. It is society's fault (including agriculture here), for not instilling a sense of respect for food in the generations below.
People consider themselves much too busy and "ready" meals are far too available at supermarkets.
HE dropped off the timetable in the 80`s here so it`s not that far fetched to think that you now have grandparents who don`t know how to boil a spud, kids now would starve if they banned microwave ovens.
It became 'Food Technology ' - design a pizza for manufacture, rather than ,'feed a family '. Hopeless.
Evidently sourcing calories is not the issue. According to an NHS Digital report, in 2020 26% of men, 29% of women, and 20% of year six children were classified as obese, "The prevalence was over twice as high in the most deprived areas than the least deprived areas." Yet in 2019/20 the number of food bank users rose from 1.6 to 1.9 million (Statista.com).
Is this a Pan-european situation, is it mirrored in North America, or the Antipodes ?
It has to be acknowledged that there at least three generations of people in society who have, for whatever reasons, no knowledge, understanding or desire of how to prepare any type of meal from basic ingredients.
Equally as sadly this group is the economically, academically and aspirationally "challenged". As well as being morbidly obese.
Me, personally, I'd add a mahoosive punitive tax on all types of "Ready Meals", everything from Pot Noodles, Chilled meals, Frozen meals as well. Tinned soup can stay I suppose.
Similarly I'd impose the same level of taxation on pre-prepared "Fast Food" for the same reasons.
Oh, and re-introduce compulsory Home Economics for all as a start.
And, possibly corporal punishment and public flogging as well.
Equally as sadly this group is the economically, academically and aspirationally "challenged". As well as being morbidly obese.
Me, personally, I'd add a mahoosive punitive tax on all types of "Ready Meals", everything from Pot Noodles, Chilled meals, Frozen meals as well. Tinned soup can stay I suppose.
Similarly I'd impose the same level of taxation on pre-prepared "Fast Food" for the same reasons.
Oh, and re-introduce compulsory Home Economics for all as a start.
And, possibly corporal punishment and public flogging as well.
RCT(V)
LE
I won't argue that Home Economics (Cooking) is, has always been, on the curriculum . . . but, if schools today are like mine 55 years ago, the Home Economics subject will be optional, and vying for attention with more "trendy", on-message, subjects
.@Ortholith , is GED (Geometrical and Engineering Drawing) still tought ?! ( . . . I got Grade2 in my GEC
).Is metal-work, and wood-work, still taught ?!
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