Where do you buy your meat?
I am very picky when it comes to meat so I was wondering what everyone else does. Do you always go to a butcher or just for some things? How about meat at a grocery store? Is talking to the butcher a good idea or will they just tell you what you want to hear?
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
12 Comments:
Grocery store. Yeah, I know...but it's for my sanity. Trust me.
We live near a farmer's market (~5 min drive) with oodles of different butchers selling all sorts of meat, seafood, and poultry, but as I've said in previous posts, I hate going there. If we need lamb, I grudgingly tag along with my husband. He tries to cheer me up by buying something interesting that I can eat and walk at the same time.
The place even has a kiosk of hot sauces from all over the world, a place to buy prepared pasties and shephards pie, Lebanese food with 10-15 hot and cold items, Greek and Arabic grocers, fresh dairy products, fresh pasta, a baker with pies and cakes...and more. I @#$@# hate dealing with crowds of people pushing, shoving, bumping, wandering...
As for ground beef, something about solid, square packed ground beef bothers me. Where I grew up, I always saw them displayed as cylindrical shells. I end up getting ground beef from behind the case so I can see what the meat looks like inside and out.
Cassaendra at 1:01PM on 05/22/08
FROM the FARMER, at the farm. Not always available or not always room in the freezer, but anything else makes me nervous, always has.
islandexile at 1:06PM on 05/22/08
I buy it off shady looking characters on street corners. I've actually never set food inside a grocery store. Don't trust em.
unarata at 1:35PM on 05/22/08
Most meat, I get from the grocery. Special cuts I get from the butcher, but I couldn't afford to get all of my meat there. I wish I could, but it's just not possible.
At the grocery, I generally by the least-processed units, so I often get whole chickens or larger cuts of meat and I break them down myself, if possible. I can't easily saw through bone, so I'm not cutting my own chops and steaks, but I will buy roasts and cut them up for stews or for grinding. Boneless roasts or those that can be divided without sawing, I might buy and cut up when they're available at a good price.
I also buy a whole lamb every year from a local woman. And I buy buffalo from a local source once in a while. Not a whole buff -- mostly some stewing meat.
On the other hand, when there's a good sale on chicken thighs (my favorite part) or when there's a sale on some other cut that I particularly like, I'll buy it from the grocery without a second thought.
In a perfect world, I'd be buying all my meat direct from the source, which would be local, organic farms, but in practice, it's a little hard to do. I bought an extra freezer for the yearly lamb (among other things) but I don't have space for a side of beef, much less a whole cow, and buying it in smaller increments is just too expensive.
dbcurrie at 1:44PM on 05/22/08
man, some of you guys are really lucky. i do what the rest of us pleebs do, i go to the grocery store.
french tart at 3:10PM on 05/22/08
There is a few farms in the area that offer free ranged meat a few times a year. You usually get 50lbs of various cuts and ground beef (plus this year - a tongue!) that lasts us for months. Outside of that - one of the dozen grocery stores with a few miles from my house or occasionally the butcher if I'm looking for something a little bit hard to find.
bravian at 4:19PM on 05/22/08
i but ALL my meat at the grocery store for 2 reasons.....there simply isnt any butcher shops or farms nowhere near me and secondly....i AM the butcher at the grocery store....lmao.....in my honest opinion butchers are just like everyone else.....there's some that really care about making sure you're happy with your purchase an there's just some that are there for a paycheck. Try and talk to your butcher at the local grocery store about how to prepare some meat and when you find one that likes talkin about food or you find one that's friendly,ask for him or her whenever you're shopping. I've found for the most part that there's a lot of us out there that are honest and friendly,just wanting to take care of our customers and make sure that they want to come back an shop with us.
onepercent99 at 6:35PM on 05/22/08
I buy it from various sources- I usually buy a whole lamb from a farm every year and split it with my parents. I get some meat at the grocery store, more from the butcher counter, though. (I don't know of any butcher who doesn't work in a grocery store...) I get some at a farmer's market I often go to in the summer.
cmtigger at 10:09PM on 05/22/08
I tried to stay away but I kept tripping over the soapbox. If I were to get meat again I'd source straight from the farmer (perhaps at the farmers market). The last meats I did buy were from my local store which sources locally and they visit the farms, even sending their employees there, and they bring the growers to the stores to talk to the customers (and usually do samples). It wasn't that much more expensive and a little of the good stuff goes much farther. The difference in the taste along with feeling a lot safer about working with and consuming it was immense.
I just know way too much now about how modern meat is raised, fed, tortured, slaughtered, processed and more. There's a reason it's so cheap and only part of it is the externalization of a lot of the costs onto the tax payers and environment.
Matt (the Butcher), have you considered opening your own shop? That would give your community a place to access more humane and ethical meat.
For anyone who is interested, Eat Wild is one way to find alternatives by zip code or general area.
Sieseye at 5:47AM on 05/23/08
I purchase meat at my grocery store. They have an excellent selection, including a range of "variety meats" if I'm feeling so inclined. Recently they've also started carrying D'Artagnan products. I've tried the rabbit and a couple varieties of chicken and have been very impressed. However, there is a halal butcher down the street from me that I do want to check out at some point.
Amandarama at 8:55AM on 05/23/08
I have a great meat market within walking distance. On occasion, I buy meat from there. It's a treat. It's priced like a treat.
Usually, I buy meat where I buy groceries. At this point, I don't buy that much meat. I try to get organic meat, but sometimes the selection of organic foods is poor at my grocery. They consistently carry organic, but they don't consistently have the variety or turnover to make it worth the extra money.
blackolive at 9:28AM on 05/23/08
From the farmer, usually through co-ops or farmer's markets. Occasionally from a normal grocery store, but that's only in a pinch.
jenilowrance at 4:38PM on 05/23/08