Good quality meat?

DMAXMAN

i have to agree about good butchers.just to reply to post re lidl steaks:i have checked their prices on a per kilo basis and my butcher is generallycheaper by 10% .also supermarkets want their meat to look RED on their shelves(implies freshness). the nicest beef you will get is hung for at least 3 weeks and this is not done by supermarkets in general

loveisdivine

The problem I have with butchers here in Ireland is that most of them seem to focus on ready made meals/dinners. Theres always cajun this or peppered that. Things stuffed with cheese or wrapped in pastry. Ready made lasagne, dauphinoise potatoes and various other pre made things.
The focus should be on fresh cuts of meat, not gimmicky ready made stuff.

I once went into a very popular north side Dublin butchers and asked if they had pork mince, they said no and when I asked if they could possibly mince me some pork, they looked at me gone out!
What kind of butcher cant provide pork mince?

Whenever I go into a butcher and see all those above mentioned pre prepared dinners, I walk straight out. If I wanted a ready meal I would go to a supermarket.

EDIT - oh and theres also far too many of them. In the small town I grew up in, in England, we had 1 butcher and he sold just meats. Any cut you needed he had or could order for you. He made a killing, there was always a queue out the door!

Askim

rubadub wrote: »

You could similarly say you need to change supermarkets!

I have tried all the ones here, can you suggest any i may have missed ????

I have done work in supermarkets & i have friends who work in the meat factories.

My butcher kills his own & local animals, hangs them, in a fridge for at least 21 days, not maturing in a vac pack.

if he hasn't got a cut on display, he goes to the fridge comes back with a side , takes a cut off.

my choice cut is a 1 1/4" T-Bone steak, weights about 21 oz, cooked rare - med

its all about the taste

A

TBoneMan

Askim wrote: »

my choice cut is a 1 1/4" T-Bone steak, weights about 21 oz, cooked rare - med

its all about the taste

A

I'm Loving that Askim....the king of steaks

Remember this...if it doesn't say Irish or Ireland on the product label its not.
At a bbq over the weekend and the host had chicken on a stick with sweet chilli sauce on them. He went to put them on the bbq and one of the guys said why is he cooking them again, they were already cooked !!!

It turns out a chain butchers in Cork is selling precooked defrosted THAI chicken sticks as fresh product...until FSAI sorts them that is...

tSubh Dearg

From talking with some of the people in Bord Bia, I understand that they are in the process of creating a quality mark for butchers who use Irish products.

No idea what the timeline on it is though, just an idea that was mentioned in passing during a different conversation, but something that I would personally like to see.

Sergeant

tSubh Dearg wrote: »

From talking with some of the people in Bord Bia, I understand that they are in the process of creating a quality mark for butchers who use Irish products.

No idea what the timeline on it is though, just an idea that was mentioned in passing during a different conversation, but something that I would personally like to see.

The meat can be Irish, and still be rubbish though. I'm under no illusion that an Irish broiler chicken brought up in a cage he can't even turn around, is somehow superior to a broiler chicken brought up in the same conditions in Thailand.

While I'd like my meat to come from Ireland if at all possible, I'd rather they focus more on the quality of the meat, and the way the animal lived and died so we could enjoy the pleasure of eating him/her.

loveisdivine

^^Exactly!

I would also like to support Irish farmers, but for me, welfare and quality of life/death come before anything else.

I'd rather have no meat at all, than meat that hasnt been raised to a certain standard. Which is why I only buy organic and/or free range meats, and why I buy the St Fever chickens in superquinn that come from France. Might cost me a tenner, but you can be certain its had a much better life than the superquinn €3 chicken!

tSubh Dearg

Sorry, I didn't explain myself better, there would also be quality standards attached to this mark, as far as I understand it.

For my own part I only buy meat I know has come from a reliable source. For example, I only get my pork from a farm in Tipperary, who I know raise the pigs in an ethical way and who make sure their deaths are clean.

However, as everybody is not as conscientious about these matters, I'm glad that some sort of system will be brought in that might make people think about where their meat is coming from.

Cedrus

Sergeant wrote: »

.................................... I'm under no illusion that an Irish broiler chicken brought up in a cage he can't even turn around, is somehow superior to a broiler chicken brought up in the same conditions in Thailand. ...........................................

I think you're confusing egg producing chickens with meat producing chickens to be honest.
The case for ethical animal husbandry will not be advanced by emotional nonfacts.

Askim

loveisdivine wrote: »

^^Exactly!

I would also like to support Irish farmers, but for me, welfare and quality of life/death come before anything else.

I'd rather have no meat at all, than meat that hasnt been raised to a certain standard. Which is why I only buy organic and/or free range meats, and why I buy the St Fever chickens in superquinn that come from France. Might cost me a tenner, but you can be certain its had a much better life than the superquinn €3 chicken!

http://www.carlowfoods.com/

try these guys, when i have none of my own left these are the the ones i get, a good big 5 person bird for €10.

My pork is my own, going to see 2 Tamworths tonight

A

Cardinal Richelieu

tSubh Dearg wrote: »

Sorry, I didn't explain myself better, there would also be quality standards attached to this mark, as far as I understand it.

For my own part I only buy meat I know has come from a reliable source. For example, I only get my pork from a farm in Tipperary, who I know raise the pigs in an ethical way and who make sure their deaths are clean.

However, as everybody is not as conscientious about these matters, I'm glad that some sort of system will be brought in that might make people think about where their meat is coming from.

Bord Bia quality scheme is just a marketing gimmick rather than a true quality system. Remember you have to pay for the standard so not in Bord Bia interest to have have a really strong secure standard until another major food scare happens this time linked to a Bord Bia scheme member. The last time I heard they were under pressure to weaken an already weak standard further to reduce farmer costs and increase membership.

BroomBurner

Cedrus wrote: »

I think you're confusing egg producing chickens with meat producing chickens to be honest.
The case for ethical animal husbandry will not be advanced by emotional nonfacts.

While maybe not in cages, broiler chickens don't exactly have a lovely time of it - http://www.ciwf.ie/farminfo/farmfacts_broiler.html

They still have barely any room to move around, and by no means get to experience life as a chicken would if living free-range.

The usual argument from the farming side always seems to take the "emotional nonfacts" approach, instead of maybe considering the longer-term benefits of proper animal husbandry.

Cedrus

BroomBurner wrote: »

The usual argument from the farming side always seems to take the "emotional nonfacts" approach, instead of maybe considering the longer-term benefits of proper animal husbandry.

I'm not a farmer, never been near a 'modern' poultry farm but I have a fair understanding of the conditions that they are reared in and some of the problems that it causes. My point was that non relevant facts muddled with relevant facts with an emotive slant thrown in are easily dismissed by the industry as crank statements.
"broiler chicken brought up in a cage" sounds factual but it is misinformative, and statements like this do not advance ethical farming because they are easily dismissed.
Your Compassion in World Farming link is factual and I believe does educate and advance the cause for ethical farming, thank you.