Disagree, apart from superquinn i find my local butchers sauages to be a lot nicer then the supermarkets. This i am sure depends on the butcher you go to. Sell by dates dont enter into it cause i normally freeze most of my meet and take out what i want the night before. I am sure however the butcher can inform you about most of your concerns re sell by date, % of pork etc.I often hear from people that they prefer shopping in their local butcher than a supermarket and I dont get it. I have tried it a few times for sausages, everyday meat like pork chops or chicken fillets and for larger items like meat for a sunday roast and I cant see the advantage.
My main problems are these:
1. Sausages are typically small and packaged in some celophane, the same sort of sausages you see in alot of butchers. There is no indication of sell by date so you have no idea how long they have been sitting there and there is no ingredients indicating % pork.
Dunnes (simply better brand) and tescos (finest brand) sausages in my opinion are far superior than any sausages I have bought in a butchers and you get more in the packet for roughly the same price and you know when you have to eat them by.
2. Chicken fillets and pork chops are the same price as tescos and dunnes as in the butchers give or take 10c here or there but again no sell by date in the butchers and you dont know how long they have been sitting there in the open all day. The same ones are put back in the open the next day. At least in supermarkets they are packaged and covered. I have tried meat from both places and cant tell the difference, especially with chicken fillets which are generally pretty tasteless. For all I know they come from the same factory.
3. For joints butchers put the price per kilo not per joint, but I dont know unless I ask what a particular joint weighs and I would feel embarassed to ask and then walk away if I thought it was too expensive.
In general I end up spending far more in the butchers than the supermarket and I feel I am in control in the supermarket whereas I feel I am dependant on the butcher to feed me information while other people are waiting to be served.
If anyone has some tips that would be much appreciated.
...Downey's in terenure and got some really nice venison but they are too expensive for weekly shopping.
BTW if anyone can recommend a good butcher in Dublin city centre or anywhere south or west dublin can you let me know. I have been to Downey's in terenure and got some really nice venison but they are too expensive for weekly shopping.
Our local butcher is a master butcher (does this mean anything btw - is there a butchery association that awards this title?) and his beef. pork, lamb is superb (from his own farm) but the chickens he sells are not free range.
Is this common for other butchers or do people care? Would they be happier to buy non free range from local butcher than free range from supermarket.
Tesco for example have corn fed free range birds for about €6. This must be impossible to beat for a local butcher.
Truthseeker, do you mind me asking which butcher you use?
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