- Location
- East Sussex
Hmmmmm curious customer Clive?
that would be a hell of a topicClive , next lockdown learn butchering or just watch porn like everyone else. .
Why is this SO hard ?
One of the positives of this awful lockdown year for me so far is that I have had time to do something I have wanted for a long time ............. learn to cook
I spent some money saved from a canceled ski holiday on a fancy smoker BBQ (Big Green Egg) back in March and have cooked almost daily on it ever since, surprising myself with what I am actually capable of cooking and as a bonus, no one has died yet !
So as you get into these things, join Facebook groups, forums, watch youtube etc you start to get more ambitious and want to try more unusual things, it becomes more than just food, its a new hobby at this point and as a result what you become prepared to spend raises accordingly.
I'm not alone, there is a big scene of other middle-aged twits like me all into this, mostly with money to spend - I can't help but feel the UK livestock industry is missing out here
YET (and here is the point of this thread) Top quality meat, particularly the unusual (expensive) cuts are very hard to get? why is this? I read constantly on here that British grass fed beef is "better" but where is it when I come to try to buy it ?
The first stop was the village butcher in a village a few miles away (my village has no shops anymore sadly) It's all very traditional looking and surely worth a premium over the supermarkets ? ............. but no, I've come to learn the meat is nothing special, no real provenance and pre-cut from wholesalers just being retailed. Ther first time I asked for a Picanha for example they hadn't got a clue what I was on about, I had to google it for them and what I got, in the end, wasn't really done properly.
I tried another local butcher (a bit further away but of BIG local reputation, I ordered Brisket and it turned up rolled ! I asked for "packer cut" they had no idea what I was on about despite the internet and a million youtube video's about cooking such cuts
Jacobs ladder, beef short rib, 4 rib, Tomahawks etc all command premium prices but are really hard to get until you discover the gems that do butcher their own carcasses like Tori nad Bens Fram shop etc Grass-fed Longhorn with quality and provenance worth paying for proving that these places do exist and do know how to provide what customers like me want and reap the premium price rewards to match, why are they so "hidden" though? why not the normal rather than the exception ?
Tori & Bens Farm Shop – Derbyshire Farm Shop & Deli
toriandbensfarm.co.uk
One place I have found you can get the unusual and better cuts is Costco ..................... but it's more often than not USDA and imported! I don't want to buy that but have done as it's so much easier
My question is why is this rare? what are not more livestock farms not butchering retailing direct? surely the internet has made it easier than ever before to cut out the middlemen who from what I see are doing a very poor job of butchering and retailing your products?
I live in a place called Gunnedah - a town of about 10,000 people in north west NSW, about 400 km inland, away from the main population centres which are all based on the east coast.
Immediately I can think of 3 beef, 1 lamb & one pork producer locally who’s main business are mail order / direct sales of there product - largely into the Sydney market to discerning buyers . . .
Surely without the tyranny of distance, it should be so easy in the UK
Reading TFF, it appears as if the UK has the best standards & the best produce in the world ( ), but it’s all the public’s fault because they don’t want to spend money . . .
Dunno - seems like plenty of people here want to spend money.
Oh yeah - butchers shops are still quite a “thing” here
Home
theconsciousfarmer.com.au
As ever,it comes down to time, and money.
It takes a lot of time & effort to market produce to the retail market, and maintain momentum.
If the average farm business lacks the necessary skills or capacity to do this effectively (maybe because they are spending their time rearing livestock to a high standard) then it's generally more beneficial to stick to what one is good at and prefers, and partner up with a butcher as 'preferred supplier'
Do what you do best and do it better. Delegate the rest.
Personally, I'm far more comfortable as farmer than ever I would be as retailer, not my thing at all.
fair enough - I am the same
as I said, I can think of those few locally, that means there are a hell of a lot who are just producing a commodity because that is what they are comfortable with.
but if even 1% had the drive, skills & acumen to market direct - that’s still a lot of farms . . .
Okay, I'm way down the rabbit hole to have even found this forum, but here I am and you people seem to know your stuff, so I'm going to try to look past the flame wars and seek some advice. For the avoidance of doubt and to hopefully head off any short-tempered replies, I'm not a farmer and I'm fully aware I don't belong here.
I'm what would definitely be described as a "niche" retail customer, but not in the same way as the OP. I'm a keen cook feeding a family of four, and since March I've been working from home and cooking at least two meals a day, every day. Cooking is a necessity but also a hobby, and I'm happy to spend a significant premium over "commodity" prices for high quality meat. I like to eat delicious things, I like to know if I'm eating an animal that it has been reared to a high standard of welfare, and I strongly dislike the idea of waste, particularly when a living thing has been killed to feed me. Within those parameters, I'll buy and cook any edible part of any animal, regardless of difficulty of cooking, current trends, or any form of squeamishness.
The question that led me to this forum was, why is it so hard to buy the unpopular cuts of meat and where do they go? I'm not talking about picanha and the inherent wastage that entails for an already easy-to-sell part of the animal, but rather the shin, flank, heart, etc. I'm willing to cook whatever is going spare and I'm happy with a three-week (or more!) lead time if a farmer or butcher is looking to sell as much of a beast as possible before slaughter, but it is genuinely difficult as a retail customer to get hold of some of what is being described in this thread as very difficult to sell. Someone a few pages back made an excellent point about the destruction of infrastructure, and I accept that, but I'm willing to put in some effort to work around that if anyone can help guide me.
I live in Woodford Green in Very-East-London or Very-West-Essex, depending on your viewpoint. I have two butchers' shops nearby that I know of, both of which buy from wholesalers and sell only the "popular" cuts (and who could blame them?). If I want to buy meat, it's these butchers, the supermarkets, or online as far as I can tell. I've tried a few different online butchers and generally been very pleased with the quality of what I get, but minimum orders are quite high for a retail customer and it's fairly standard to find that not everything in my £80 order is in stock at the same time.
So, enough waffle. Some concrete questions:
1) Does anyone know of a good butcher near me that they would recommend?
2) What do you do with the hard-to-sell parts of the animal after your sirloin steaks, pork chops, etc. are snapped up?
3) I take the point about livestock farming and retail selling being very different pursuits, but most retail shoppers are buying something today to use immediately. Would it help your business to have customers available who say "whatever you haven't sold from that carcass in four weeks' time, I'll buy"? Or would it still be more hassle than it's worth for the relatively small quantities a customer like me would buy?
4) I asked one online meat seller, which offers a limited selection of cuts on their online shop, what happened to the rest of the animal and whether they could sell me some off-menu offal. I got this reply:
"I am afraid that the food standards compliance regime prevents us from offering items that are not included within our range and which form part of of the governance and reporting processes that we have in place."
Are regulations a big barrier to selling the parts of the animal that we don't see on supermarket shelves or was I just being fobbed off?
Many thanks in advance for your replies, and pardon my ignorance, but as an end consumer it's all very opaque. To look in a supermarket you would think pigs are made of chops and sausages and not much else, and I simply don't understand where the rest of the animal goes.
I'd go see the butchers at The Ginger Pig 165a High Road Loughton to start. They'd be premium price but I'm hoping they'd be very honest and open about the lower priced cuts and offal - it is after all very important especially as you are an A-grade potential customerOkay, I'm way down the rabbit hole to have even found this forum, but here I am and you people seem to know your stuff, so I'm going to try to look past the flame wars and seek some advice. For the avoidance of doubt and to hopefully head off any short-tempered replies, I'm not a farmer and I'm fully aware I don't belong here.
I'm what would definitely be described as a "niche" retail customer, but not in the same way as the OP. I'm a keen cook feeding a family of four, and since March I've been working from home and cooking at least two meals a day, every day. Cooking is a necessity but also a hobby, and I'm happy to spend a significant premium over "commodity" prices for high quality meat. I like to eat delicious things, I like to know if I'm eating an animal that it has been reared to a high standard of welfare, and I strongly dislike the idea of waste, particularly when a living thing has been killed to feed me. Within those parameters, I'll buy and cook any edible part of any animal, regardless of difficulty of cooking, current trends, or any form of squeamishness.
The question that led me to this forum was, why is it so hard to buy the unpopular cuts of meat and where do they go? I'm not talking about picanha and the inherent wastage that entails for an already easy-to-sell part of the animal, but rather the shin, flank, heart, etc. I'm willing to cook whatever is going spare and I'm happy with a three-week (or more!) lead time if a farmer or butcher is looking to sell as much of a beast as possible before slaughter, but it is genuinely difficult as a retail customer to get hold of some of what is being described in this thread as very difficult to sell. Someone a few pages back made an excellent point about the destruction of infrastructure, and I accept that, but I'm willing to put in some effort to work around that if anyone can help guide me.
I live in Woodford Green in Very-East-London or Very-West-Essex, depending on your viewpoint. I have two butchers' shops nearby that I know of, both of which buy from wholesalers and sell only the "popular" cuts (and who could blame them?). If I want to buy meat, it's these butchers, the supermarkets, or online as far as I can tell. I've tried a few different online butchers and generally been very pleased with the quality of what I get, but minimum orders are quite high for a retail customer and it's fairly standard to find that not everything in my £80 order is in stock at the same time.
So, enough waffle. Some concrete questions:
1) Does anyone know of a good butcher near me that they would recommend?
2) What do you do with the hard-to-sell parts of the animal after your sirloin steaks, pork chops, etc. are snapped up?
3) I take the point about livestock farming and retail selling being very different pursuits, but most retail shoppers are buying something today to use immediately. Would it help your business to have customers available who say "whatever you haven't sold from that carcass in four weeks' time, I'll buy"? Or would it still be more hassle than it's worth for the relatively small quantities a customer like me would buy?
4) I asked one online meat seller, which offers a limited selection of cuts on their online shop, what happened to the rest of the animal and whether they could sell me some off-menu offal. I got this reply:
"I am afraid that the food standards compliance regime prevents us from offering items that are not included within our range and which form part of of the governance and reporting processes that we have in place."
Are regulations a big barrier to selling the parts of the animal that we don't see on supermarket shelves or was I just being fobbed off?
Many thanks in advance for your replies, and pardon my ignorance, but as an end consumer it's all very opaque. To look in a supermarket you would think pigs are made of chops and sausages and not much else, and I simply don't understand where the rest of the animal goes.
Fair enough. By "good butcher" I really mean a carcass butcher as opposed to one that buys from a wholesaler, uncertain provenance, etc. It was a distinction made by others on the thread. I understand the sound economic reasons why the local butchers I was aware of don't want to take on perishable stock they're unsure of shifting, and I didn't mean to imply they're not "good". I can tell you that Google is useless in this sense as no one holds themselves out as a carcass butcher.I think the way to find a 'good butcher' is google
I tried. The local butchers don't have offal that comes back because they don't buy whole carcasses. One online butcher told me no when I asked (see question 4 in my first post) and another that does stock offal etc is apparently so inundated with requests that I have to subscribe to an email list and they'll notify me when particular organs are in stock. That's fine but I have to order £75 worth of meat at a time, and it's practically impossible to get, say, a heart and a cheek in the same order. So I'd have to buy £75 worth when the cheeks are in stock, and then another £75 a week later when they have heart. It can be done, but it's pushing me well beyond the realm of a typical retail customer. And the fact that the place that sells the stuff is overwhelmed with orders makes me wonder why other websites already catering to this niche market won't sell offal. Are the regulations really that difficult to navigate? Are they more stringent for offal?just ask them if you can buy the offal that comes back, and ask for the cheeks etc
Agreed. But it's not so much that I'm looking specifically for shin and can't get hold of it. It's more that I'm willing to buy and cook anything, and to pay a premium above commodity prices. I've been reading about how carcass balance is a problem, particularly during lockdown, and it got me thinking about how people like me don't have any means of buying the parts of the animal that are apparently creating a headache for the industry as a whole. I get the point about going into value-add products, but surely these attract commodity prices? If you have, say, a small herd of well-finished Dexter, and the fillet and sirloin have sold themselves at a significant mark-up over supermarket prices, do you then sell what's left to someone making burgers? If so, do they pay any more for your "better" beef or is there a standard market price? Would having a pool of retail customers who would pay more be a good thing for you, or would the hassle of dealing with multiple small orders be more trouble than it's worth? Are you better off having a single ready buyer for everything, but at a lower price?Any carcass butcher would have shin and flank you mentioned and if not I'm sure could get for you. Same with offal such as hearts you mentioned.
I'm willing to do it, but I'm obsessive to the point of discovering and joining farming forums in the middle of the night. It's certainly not a solution for a typical retail customer.what about a trip down Smith field market
Excellent suggestion. Will do.I'd go see the butchers at The Ginger Pig 165a High Road Loughton to start.
My wife would leave me.just have a go yourself at home at home butchery
Get yourself along to Barnes farmers market and speak to the guys at gilcombe farm. Might be a bit of a trek but they'll get you what you want.Thanks all for your well-considered responses so far.
Fair enough. By "good butcher" I really mean a carcass butcher as opposed to one that buys from a wholesaler, uncertain provenance, etc. It was a distinction made by others on the thread. I understand the sound economic reasons why the local butchers I was aware of don't want to take on perishable stock they're unsure of shifting, and I didn't mean to imply they're not "good". I can tell you that Google is useless in this sense as no one holds themselves out as a carcass butcher.
I tried. The local butchers don't have offal that comes back because they don't buy whole carcasses. One online butcher told me no when I asked (see question 4 in my first post) and another that does stock offal etc is apparently so inundated with requests that I have to subscribe to an email list and they'll notify me when particular organs are in stock. That's fine but I have to order £75 worth of meat at a time, and it's practically impossible to get, say, a heart and a cheek in the same order. So I'd have to buy £75 worth when the cheeks are in stock, and then another £75 a week later when they have heart. It can be done, but it's pushing me well beyond the realm of a typical retail customer. And the fact that the place that sells the stuff is overwhelmed with orders makes me wonder why other websites already catering to this niche market won't sell offal. Are the regulations really that difficult to navigate? Are they more stringent for offal?
Agreed. But it's not so much that I'm looking specifically for shin and can't get hold of it. It's more that I'm willing to buy and cook anything, and to pay a premium above commodity prices. I've been reading about how carcass balance is a problem, particularly during lockdown, and it got me thinking about how people like me don't have any means of buying the parts of the animal that are apparently creating a headache for the industry as a whole. I get the point about going into value-add products, but surely these attract commodity prices? If you have, say, a small herd of well-finished Dexter, and the fillet and sirloin have sold themselves at a significant mark-up over supermarket prices, do you then sell what's left to someone making burgers? If so, do they pay any more for your "better" beef or is there a standard market price? Would having a pool of retail customers who would pay more be a good thing for you, or would the hassle of dealing with multiple small orders be more trouble than it's worth? Are you better off having a single ready buyer for everything, but at a lower price?
I'm willing to do it, but I'm obsessive to the point of discovering and joining farming forums in the middle of the night. It's certainly not a solution for a typical retail customer.
Excellent suggestion. Will do.
My wife would leave me.
Don't shed any tears for me - I eat very well indeed, and I'm never really in a situation where I want something specific and can't get hold of it with a bit of notice. I'm not looking for the farming community to provide a bespoke solution for me, I was just interested in what happens on the supply side that leads to some of the sourcing challenges I see as a retail customer. As the OP said, why is it so hard? And I guess ultimately the answer is that I'm in a very small niche and the premium received for catering to me is too small to be worth it.
Thanks all for your well-considered responses so far.
Fair enough. By "good butcher" I really mean a carcass butcher as opposed to one that buys from a wholesaler, uncertain provenance, etc. It was a distinction made by others on the thread. I understand the sound economic reasons why the local butchers I was aware of don't want to take on perishable stock they're unsure of shifting, and I didn't mean to imply they're not "good". I can tell you that Google is useless in this sense as no one holds themselves out as a carcass butcher.
I tried. The local butchers don't have offal that comes back because they don't buy whole carcasses. One online butcher told me no when I asked (see question 4 in my first post) and another that does stock offal etc is apparently so inundated with requests that I have to subscribe to an email list and they'll notify me when particular organs are in stock. That's fine but I have to order £75 worth of meat at a time, and it's practically impossible to get, say, a heart and a cheek in the same order. So I'd have to buy £75 worth when the cheeks are in stock, and then another £75 a week later when they have heart. It can be done, but it's pushing me well beyond the realm of a typical retail customer. And the fact that the place that sells the stuff is overwhelmed with orders makes me wonder why other websites already catering to this niche market won't sell offal. Are the regulations really that difficult to navigate? Are they more stringent for offal?
Agreed. But it's not so much that I'm looking specifically for shin and can't get hold of it. It's more that I'm willing to buy and cook anything, and to pay a premium above commodity prices. I've been reading about how carcass balance is a problem, particularly during lockdown, and it got me thinking about how people like me don't have any means of buying the parts of the animal that are apparently creating a headache for the industry as a whole. I get the point about going into value-add products, but surely these attract commodity prices? If you have, say, a small herd of well-finished Dexter, and the fillet and sirloin have sold themselves at a significant mark-up over supermarket prices, do you then sell what's left to someone making burgers? If so, do they pay any more for your "better" beef or is there a standard market price? Would having a pool of retail customers who would pay more be a good thing for you, or would the hassle of dealing with multiple small orders be more trouble than it's worth? Are you better off having a single ready buyer for everything, but at a lower price?
I'm willing to do it, but I'm obsessive to the point of discovering and joining farming forums in the middle of the night. It's certainly not a solution for a typical retail customer.
Excellent suggestion. Will do.
My wife would leave me.
Don't shed any tears for me - I eat very well indeed, and I'm never really in a situation where I want something specific and can't get hold of it with a bit of notice. I'm not looking for the farming community to provide a bespoke solution for me, I was just interested in what happens on the supply side that leads to some of the sourcing challenges I see as a retail customer. As the OP said, why is it so hard? And I guess ultimately the answer is that I'm in a very small niche and the premium received for catering to me is too small to be worth it.
Okay, I'm way down the rabbit hole to have even found this forum, but here I am and you people seem to know your stuff, so I'm going to try to look past the flame wars and seek some advice. For the avoidance of doubt and to hopefully head off any short-tempered replies, I'm not a farmer and I'm fully aware I don't belong here.
I'm what would definitely be described as a "niche" retail customer, but not in the same way as the OP. I'm a keen cook feeding a family of four, and since March I've been working from home and cooking at least two meals a day, every day. Cooking is a necessity but also a hobby, and I'm happy to spend a significant premium over "commodity" prices for high quality meat. I like to eat delicious things, I like to know if I'm eating an animal that it has been reared to a high standard of welfare, and I strongly dislike the idea of waste, particularly when a living thing has been killed to feed me. Within those parameters, I'll buy and cook any edible part of any animal, regardless of difficulty of cooking, current trends, or any form of squeamishness.
The question that led me to this forum was, why is it so hard to buy the unpopular cuts of meat and where do they go? I'm not talking about picanha and the inherent wastage that entails for an already easy-to-sell part of the animal, but rather the shin, flank, heart, etc. I'm willing to cook whatever is going spare and I'm happy with a three-week (or more!) lead time if a farmer or butcher is looking to sell as much of a beast as possible before slaughter, but it is genuinely difficult as a retail customer to get hold of some of what is being described in this thread as very difficult to sell. Someone a few pages back made an excellent point about the destruction of infrastructure, and I accept that, but I'm willing to put in some effort to work around that if anyone can help guide me.
I live in Woodford Green in Very-East-London or Very-West-Essex, depending on your viewpoint. I have two butchers' shops nearby that I know of, both of which buy from wholesalers and sell only the "popular" cuts (and who could blame them?). If I want to buy meat, it's these butchers, the supermarkets, or online as far as I can tell. I've tried a few different online butchers and generally been very pleased with the quality of what I get, but minimum orders are quite high for a retail customer and it's fairly standard to find that not everything in my £80 order is in stock at the same time.
So, enough waffle. Some concrete questions:
1) Does anyone know of a good butcher near me that they would recommend?
2) What do you do with the hard-to-sell parts of the animal after your sirloin steaks, pork chops, etc. are snapped up?
3) I take the point about livestock farming and retail selling being very different pursuits, but most retail shoppers are buying something today to use immediately. Would it help your business to have customers available who say "whatever you haven't sold from that carcass in four weeks' time, I'll buy"? Or would it still be more hassle than it's worth for the relatively small quantities a customer like me would buy?
4) I asked one online meat seller, which offers a limited selection of cuts on their online shop, what happened to the rest of the animal and whether they could sell me some off-menu offal. I got this reply:
"I am afraid that the food standards compliance regime prevents us from offering items that are not included within our range and which form part of of the governance and reporting processes that we have in place."
Are regulations a big barrier to selling the parts of the animal that we don't see on supermarket shelves or was I just being fobbed off?
Many thanks in advance for your replies, and pardon my ignorance, but as an end consumer it's all very opaque. To look in a supermarket you would think pigs are made of chops and sausages and not much else, and I simply don't understand where the rest of the animal goes.
know when used to cattle away to be killed did not get the offal back or the head etc not sure whyOkay, I'm way down the rabbit hole to have even found this forum, but here I am and you people seem to know your stuff, so I'm going to try to look past the flame wars and seek some advice. For the avoidance of doubt and to hopefully head off any short-tempered replies, I'm not a farmer and I'm fully aware I don't belong here.
I'm what would definitely be described as a "niche" retail customer, but not in the same way as the OP. I'm a keen cook feeding a family of four, and since March I've been working from home and cooking at least two meals a day, every day. Cooking is a necessity but also a hobby, and I'm happy to spend a significant premium over "commodity" prices for high quality meat. I like to eat delicious things, I like to know if I'm eating an animal that it has been reared to a high standard of welfare, and I strongly dislike the idea of waste, particularly when a living thing has been killed to feed me. Within those parameters, I'll buy and cook any edible part of any animal, regardless of difficulty of cooking, current trends, or any form of squeamishness.
The question that led me to this forum was, why is it so hard to buy the unpopular cuts of meat and where do they go? I'm not talking about picanha and the inherent wastage that entails for an already easy-to-sell part of the animal, but rather the shin, flank, heart, etc. I'm willing to cook whatever is going spare and I'm happy with a three-week (or more!) lead time if a farmer or butcher is looking to sell as much of a beast as possible before slaughter, but it is genuinely difficult as a retail customer to get hold of some of what is being described in this thread as very difficult to sell. Someone a few pages back made an excellent point about the destruction of infrastructure, and I accept that, but I'm willing to put in some effort to work around that if anyone can help guide me.
I live in Woodford Green in Very-East-London or Very-West-Essex, depending on your viewpoint. I have two butchers' shops nearby that I know of, both of which buy from wholesalers and sell only the "popular" cuts (and who could blame them?). If I want to buy meat, it's these butchers, the supermarkets, or online as far as I can tell. I've tried a few different online butchers and generally been very pleased with the quality of what I get, but minimum orders are quite high for a retail customer and it's fairly standard to find that not everything in my £80 order is in stock at the same time.
So, enough waffle. Some concrete questions:
1) Does anyone know of a good butcher near me that they would recommend?
2) What do you do with the hard-to-sell parts of the animal after your sirloin steaks, pork chops, etc. are snapped up?
3) I take the point about livestock farming and retail selling being very different pursuits, but most retail shoppers are buying something today to use immediately. Would it help your business to have customers available who say "whatever you haven't sold from that carcass in four weeks' time, I'll buy"? Or would it still be more hassle than it's worth for the relatively small quantities a customer like me would buy?
4) I asked one online meat seller, which offers a limited selection of cuts on their online shop, what happened to the rest of the animal and whether they could sell me some off-menu offal. I got this reply:
"I am afraid that the food standards compliance regime prevents us from offering items that are not included within our range and which form part of of the governance and reporting processes that we have in place."
Are regulations a big barrier to selling the parts of the animal that we don't see on supermarket shelves or was I just being fobbed off?
Many thanks in advance for your replies, and pardon my ignorance, but as an end consumer it's all very opaque. To look in a supermarket you would think pigs are made of chops and sausages and not much else, and I simply don't understand where the rest of the animal goes.
I’m not a butcher, but the vast majority of the shin, skirt etc will be available both to buy (probably in the back as they put most popular cuts on display) or in the ready meal lasagnes, pies and stews that will be sold in the shop.Okay, I'm way down the rabbit hole to have even found this forum, but here I am and you people seem to know your stuff, so I'm going to try to look past the flame wars and seek some advice. For the avoidance of doubt and to hopefully head off any short-tempered replies, I'm not a farmer and I'm fully aware I don't belong here.
I'm what would definitely be described as a "niche" retail customer, but not in the same way as the OP. I'm a keen cook feeding a family of four, and since March I've been working from home and cooking at least two meals a day, every day. Cooking is a necessity but also a hobby, and I'm happy to spend a significant premium over "commodity" prices for high quality meat. I like to eat delicious things, I like to know if I'm eating an animal that it has been reared to a high standard of welfare, and I strongly dislike the idea of waste, particularly when a living thing has been killed to feed me. Within those parameters, I'll buy and cook any edible part of any animal, regardless of difficulty of cooking, current trends, or any form of squeamishness.
The question that led me to this forum was, why is it so hard to buy the unpopular cuts of meat and where do they go? I'm not talking about picanha and the inherent wastage that entails for an already easy-to-sell part of the animal, but rather the shin, flank, heart, etc. I'm willing to cook whatever is going spare and I'm happy with a three-week (or more!) lead time if a farmer or butcher is looking to sell as much of a beast as possible before slaughter, but it is genuinely difficult as a retail customer to get hold of some of what is being described in this thread as very difficult to sell. Someone a few pages back made an excellent point about the destruction of infrastructure, and I accept that, but I'm willing to put in some effort to work around that if anyone can help guide me.
I live in Woodford Green in Very-East-London or Very-West-Essex, depending on your viewpoint. I have two butchers' shops nearby that I know of, both of which buy from wholesalers and sell only the "popular" cuts (and who could blame them?). If I want to buy meat, it's these butchers, the supermarkets, or online as far as I can tell. I've tried a few different online butchers and generally been very pleased with the quality of what I get, but minimum orders are quite high for a retail customer and it's fairly standard to find that not everything in my £80 order is in stock at the same time.
So, enough waffle. Some concrete questions:
1) Does anyone know of a good butcher near me that they would recommend?
2) What do you do with the hard-to-sell parts of the animal after your sirloin steaks, pork chops, etc. are snapped up?
3) I take the point about livestock farming and retail selling being very different pursuits, but most retail shoppers are buying something today to use immediately. Would it help your business to have customers available who say "whatever you haven't sold from that carcass in four weeks' time, I'll buy"? Or would it still be more hassle than it's worth for the relatively small quantities a customer like me would buy?
4) I asked one online meat seller, which offers a limited selection of cuts on their online shop, what happened to the rest of the animal and whether they could sell me some off-menu offal. I got this reply:
"I am afraid that the food standards compliance regime prevents us from offering items that are not included within our range and which form part of of the governance and reporting processes that we have in place."
Are regulations a big barrier to selling the parts of the animal that we don't see on supermarket shelves or was I just being fobbed off?
Many thanks in advance for your replies, and pardon my ignorance, but as an end consumer it's all very opaque. To look in a supermarket you would think pigs are made of chops and sausages and not much else, and I simply don't understand where the rest of the animal goes.