Butcher Shop

11Longhorns11

I have a question for y’all.  What do you look for in a butcher shop and what are some of the best qualities in your local butcher?

northGAcock

Knowledge of all cuts of meat, and willingness to sell custom cuts for you. I think quality is important along with solid customer service. Many provide weekly packages that for an affordable cost, can provide you with an assortment of meats / cuts to provide you with protein options that you want get bored with. Just my two cents worth.

fishlessman

pretty big variety here from blue collar to high end so it depends what i want to cook, some are even competitive selling english meat pies and scotch eggs hot for breakfast or will hand  out a free ones from time to time. we had one with 45 day dry aged steaks for 19.99 a pound that had free hot food placed all over the store.  theres one that imports their own balsamic from italy and refills your bottle.  one has venison and elk. several corn their own beef in dry rubs.  one place has a charcuterie counter. one place is a tiny hole in the wall selling halal meats, buys whole lamb from a guy in a white van i go to the english one the most, i can give him a list on monday and he will make sure everything is ready for thursday night for a weeks trip or whatnot and he will freeze the stuff i wont get to rightaway and the stuff im eating the first few days will be fresh, he will even pack my coolers.  theres also a few farms that sell direct and an old milk place with the bottles that delivers milk and meat

dbCooper

For me, the most important question is "Where do you source your meat?".  If they do not have some knowledge of the provenance of their products I generally will not shop there.

fishlessman

Hook_emHornsfan_74

I am lucky enough to have one that I drive past daily on my way home from work.  Such a difference from the grocery stores.  Except HEB sells pretty darn good steaks as well.  https://midlandmeatco.com/

fishlessman

i wouldnt discount some supermarkets, one here butchers, corns, marinates tips, makes their own sausages, only place i can find lamb riblets, and even has cabots make specialty cheese for them

fishlessman

pbucket...still finding ways to piss me off after all these years

Theophan

Be grateful that you apparently have multiple butchers to choose from.  There are NO butchers I'm aware of in my area.  All I have is grocery stores with meat that mostly comes pre-packaged, and no real butchers.

littlerascal56

I agree that it’s where they source their meat.  I’m lucky, as all the local butchers use local raised black angus beef!

milesvdustin

Theophan said:

Be grateful that you apparently have multiple butchers to choose from.  There are NO butchers I'm aware of in my area.  All I have is grocery stores with meat that mostly comes pre-packaged, and no real butchers.

#metoo

20stone

I've got four answers to this, which will make me appear to be just the dirty hippy meat snob that I am.

1) Pasture raised animals - You can get this at Whole Foods and others, but, having been to both sorts of ranches, I prefer my meat to be of the "one bad day" variety if I can manage it

2) Locally raised animals - My go to place in Austin is Salt & Time.  Some farmers markets are also great for this (up to and including shady parking lot connections like @The Cen-Tex Smoker has).

3) They cut their own meat and make their own sausage

4) They know you by name - The gold standard for this for me was Al's Market in Wilmette (N of Chicago).  It is owned by Joe (Al was his dad) and back in the day it was possible to place bets as well as buy meat.  Al's had a couple of excellent features:

• He didn't take credit cards - You either paid cash or, if you were a regular, he ran a tab
• He bought whole prime rib loins and dry aged them in his walk in.  Trim for the loins made up a big chunk of his outrageously great burgers
• Best of all, he kept a keg of Spaten in his walk in, and regulars had their own glasses (new folks got a glass from him).  On a Saturday, it was always a hoot to see new folks walk in the front of the shop when there were 8 guys in the back drinking beer and yucking it up.  Late in the day, however, I was always concerned when he fired up the band saw to cut ribs.... but he still has all his fingers

He didn't have local organic anything except for eggs and chickens, but if you have a place like that, you should go there.

Writing this up, I came across an article about the place - https://jwcdaily.com/2017/02/06/a-rare-breed-in-butcher-shops/