The local Butcher shop

I've been riding past one on my work commute for a year and a half. Finally stopped by to check it out. I needed marrow bones for my new dog.

Wow! Super clean. Very modern. (Some would call it hipster). He had cuts you typically don't find. I grabbed two hanger steaks. He makes his own bacon. It was shockingly excellent. I'll never try to make bacon if shops like this are around. Ever.

He turned an entire wall into a knife magnet grid and filled it with vintage knives from all types.

I'm gonna go back and see about other odd bits. Like goatmeat and animal hearts.

I love the butcher shop. I always have. I would watch my parents grocery store butcher for hours has a kid.

I made BLTA's for breakfast today. Fresh garden tomato and a great local bread hot from the oven. Blew my hair back.

I love a good butcher's shop. But they are getting harder and harder to find in Aus these days

malexthekid said:

I love a good butcher's shop. But they are getting harder and harder to find in Aus these days

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Agreed. They all seem to fall into "categories" these days.

The cheap Sh!t butcher selling high volumes of low quality meat to battlers.
The high end butcher selling only high quality cuts to the more affluent.
The shopping centre butcher selling a bit of everything but way over priced, presumably due to exorbitant shopping centre rents.
I'm not even going to include the rubbish that Woolies and Coles peddle.

The suburban, neighbourhood butcher is definitely a dying breed in Aus.

I feel you

No more decent local butcher shops in my area anymore (not to mention extortion prices)

I drive 1.5 hrs every other week to a farm that naturally raises their own pastured pigs, cows, chickens and turkeys, plus home made products like blood pudding, bacon, jerkies.etc in a small family-run operation.

Befriend a meat farmer, live happily ever after lol f the supermarket crap

I'd say all but extinct in NZ. You've got the dreck they sell in the supermarkets and very few and very average independents. Really sad. Though I've found a small place that has taken a bit of initiative and sells Argentinian cuts and South African charcuterie and does a good trade as a result because those are two nations you can't ******** when it comes to meat.

But what about that stunning lamb you should have over there?


Really irks me that we produce all this glorious meat but we can't get any of it, much the same as NZ it seems

malexthekid said:

But what about that stunning lamb you should have over there?


Really irks me that we produce all this glorious meat but we can't get any of it, much the same as NZ it seems

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right..what about the lamb?

the butcher shop had a big greaseboard. on it was written the farm the animals came from. right down to the fresh rabbit. (in really tidy handwritting)

I have butcher shop envy now..

Lars

Butcher near me that used to be lowest common denominator is now being run by a farmers son that wanted to cut out the middle man. Have had some great stuff from them, and as they're processing whole animals can order the cuts that supermarkets won't. Have flank steaks in the fridge, and a few pots of beef jelly left over from slow cooking some bone in slices of shin over the weekend.

They're going to start rearing a few pigs for the shop, so will be bacon available soon, hoping it's as good as the beef

Tough business to be in. We had relatively new, upscale butcher/charcuterie shop just recently reconcept and I definitely can see why. Some of their stuff was good to decent but the prices turned a lot of people off and I don't think there was enough volume to keep them financially viable.

NC is almost like Mecca for pork & poultry so we're pretty spoiled with quality & affordable meats. And luckily there are still a few old school butcher shops around... but definitely a dying breed.

I live in the far north Chicago burbs. We do a fair amount of smoking/grilling and kinda know our way around certain kinds of meat. I have now had two different butcher shops in the area try to sell me pork as Berkshire, when it clearly was not Berkshire pork. When I'm taking the time to do something special (Porchetta, anyone?) I want to start with the best.

Thank goodness we finally have a small co-op that is selling small amounts of heritage pork outside of a CSA pack. And yesss...Berkshire. Pork the way it's supposed to taste!

TheCaptain said:

I live in the far north Chicago burbs. We do a fair amount of smoking/grilling and kinda know our way around certain kinds of meat. I have now had two different butcher shops in the area try to sell me pork as Berkshire, when it clearly was not Berkshire pork. When I'm taking the time to do something special (Porchetta, anyone?) I want to start with the best.

Thank goodness we finally have a small co-op that is selling small amounts of heritage pork outside of a CSA pack. And yesss...Berkshire. Pork the way it's supposed to taste!

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There is a guy who raises free range Berkshire pork about half an hour away from us. It has much better flavour than than most of the intensively farmed pork that's available in Aus. Not sure if it's the breed or the fact that it's free range or maybe a bit of both.

The downside of free range is that you need to cook it a bit further for food safety (parasite elimination).

Nemo said:

There is a guy who raises free range Berkshire pork about half an hour away from us. It has much better flavour than than most of the intensively farmed pork that's available in Aus. Not sure if it's the breed or the fact that it's free range or maybe a bit of both.

The downside of free range is that you need to cook it a bit further for food safety (parasite elimination).

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Discover the benefits of sous vide Phil. 😀😀😀😀

TB_London said:

Butcher near me that used to be lowest common denominator is now being run by a farmers son that wanted to cut out the middle man. Have had some great stuff from them, and as they're processing whole animals can order the cuts that supermarkets won't. Have flank steaks in the fridge, and a few pots of beef jelly left over from slow cooking some bone in slices of shin over the weekend.

They're going to start rearing a few pigs for the shop, so will be bacon available soon, hoping it's as good as the beef

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My local butcher is a wagyu farmer who got sick of other people taking a huge cut, so he set up his own shop. He also farms his own Dorper sheep. He uses sustainable farming practices (no commercial fertilizer- he makes huge quantities of worm juice instead). I do like knowing where the meat is from (and that it's local) and especially how it is farmed.

The meat is very nice. They will provide specific cuts and they'll dry age it for you as well. Slow roasted wagyu sirloin that's been dry aged for 10 or more weeks has such an intense flavour and is so tender.

malexthekid said:

Discover the benefits of sous vide Phil. 😀😀😀😀

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I have done 24 hour sous vide pork belly (after a 24 hour brining- Heston recipee) which was spectacular, even if a lot of work.

The kids much prefer roasted loin though, which I usually do with a very brief high temp oven (functionally a bit like a sear), then slow roasted at 80 or 85C for hours, keeping a close eye on the core temp. Usually still reasonably tender. It's also a good way to dry out the crackle.

Nemo said:

I have done 24 hour sous vide pork belly (after a 24 hour brining- Heston recipee) which was spectacular, even if a lot of work.

The kids much prefer roasted loin though, which I usually do with a very brief high temp oven (functionally a bit like a sear), then slow roasted at 80 or 85C for hours, keeping a close eye on the core temp. Usually still reasonably tender. It's also a good way to dry out the crackle.

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Noting this recipe. I have had terrible luck with cooking pork. Cooked some belly the Italian way on a bed of sage with milk as the braising liquid. The fat turned to rubber and the belly was inedibly squelchy.

Badgertooth said:

Noting this recipe. I have had terrible luck with cooking pork. Cooked some belly the Italian way on a bed of sage with milk as the braising liquid. The fat turned to rubber and the belly was inedibly squelchy.

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I have had some good success with sous vide. I do the steam bun pork belly recipe from Serious Eats every few months.

Also have had reasonable experience (though inconsistent on the crackle) with a few slow roasted recipes (I think they were Jamie Oliver). Hit me up if you want me to dig them out.

Also got a great pulled pork recipe from one of our lovely members, just can't remember who. Recipe was for pork butt but I have done it with success using shoulder. Its real simple and is just brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce cover and low and slow.

Badgertooth said:

Noting this recipe. I have had terrible luck with cooking pork. Cooked some belly the Italian way on a bed of sage with milk as the braising liquid. The fat turned to rubber and the belly was inedibly squelchy.

Click to expand...

Posted an elaborated technique in a new thread.

Butcher shops = Murder

Hahahahaha