Butchepedia!! - Your No.1 Resource For Meat!

Beef

Veal

Chicken Breakdown + Excellent Tuition for Jointing Poultry

Lamb and Mutton

Pork

Biology Lesson Over!!

But theres no substitute to getting up close n personal with your meat! Get into that Butchers Shop and start looking and talking!!

Its the 1 thing i CANT do for you here! Provide you with Real Meat! But i can send you into that Butchers armed to the teeth with Knowledge and Information!! So when you start pointing and asking "How long has it been Hung for?" or "Is that from a Pure Breed?" He will most definately stand to attention for before him is a Customer who KNOWS good meat and KNOWS what they want!! These Customers are to be Feared, Loved and Respected :-)

Meat

Meat, in its broadest definition, is food. In modern English usage, most often it refers to animal tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to organs, including lungs, livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood.
The word meat is also used by the meat packing and butchering industry in a more restrictive sense - the flesh of mammalian species (pigs, cattle, etc.) raised and butchered for human consumption, to the exclusion of fish, poultry, and eggs. Eggs and seafood are rarely referred to as meat even though they consist of animal tissue. Animals that consume only, or mostly animals are called carnivores.

Through most of human history, individual families of humans hunted, raised, and slaughtered animals for their meat, and later, as civilizations developed, priests and temple assistants performed the functions of slaughering and butchering animals for food in animal sacrifice.
Today, in most industrialized nations, a meat packing industry slaughters, processes, and distributes meat for human consumption.
See Wiki for more details

Bad Meat

Attention People!..Most of the Meat in our shops is of terrible quality! The reason for this: As a nation we APPEAR to be happy buying this Cheap Awful Meat, So thats what they give us! If its Cheap..We dont complain!? Its been so long since we've tried a Perfectly aged, happily and humanely reared piece of Meat we've forgotten what it tastes like! This is a Tradgedy of Epic Proportions!

Before i rant all my Text away..Please ponder these questions the next time you see Meat in a Supermarket!..Where it came from, what it whas fed on, how it lived and how it died, how it was stored, cut and packed, what was added, and how far it travelled!? Not only can Supermarkets rarely account for any of this Information, they wouldnt even if they could!!

We as a Civilization need to turn round and Say NO!! Until we stop buying their Vacuum-Packed Meat, illuminated under brighter lighting giving it extra redness (coz thats apparently a sign of GOOD Meat!?) they will continue to stock their shelves with it!!

Lets Unite, Say No, Support your Local Butcher and increase knowledge and Awareness!

Good Meat

What to look for in Good Meat? I would look for..
*Extensively Farmed
*Slow-Grown Animals
*Slaughtered Locally
*Only after reaching adequate age and weight so nicely fatted and healthy
*Properly Hung- Should be around 21 days by the time it hits the Butchers Counter! I enjoy mine around 30-40 days hung giving extra depth and flavour!
*Carefully Butchered
*And Sensibly packaged (or Unpackaged!!)

Compared to Supermarket Meat:
*Intensively Reared
*Rapidly Grown to Slaughter Weight on distorted diet
*Driven long distances to Slaughter
*Barely Hung
*Lean and Bloody
*Cut and Packaged within few days of slaughter

Because the CEO's dont want their produce hanging around getting lighter, they want it on the shelves Stat!!
(Did You Know?..The Proper Hanging process removes around 10-20% body weight!)

Good Beef

Good Beef!-Colour should be pleasing Deep Red, almost Purplish, not bright Crimson! Appear Dry but Shiny,rather than Wet or Sweating, and be pleasantly tacky to touch, and contain Fat!! Marbling and Fat in all its Greatness is a Good Thing!

Good Lamb

Good Lamb!Spotting Poor Lamb isnt easy! Blood spots and Wet Looking Meat are signs of Immaturity or Under Hanging! Good Lamb should be available All Year round without being sourced from afar so experiment and maintain a good dialogue with your Butcher! Remember!..New Zealand lamb is probably the best lamb in the world(next to Welsh/British Lamb), but only IN New Zealand!!..if its Deep Frozen in Carcass and Air Shipped to New York..Its NOT the best New Zealand Lamb anymore! Get it ;-)

Good Pork

Good Pork!Watch Out and Learn your Pork! Its the most abused of all our farm animals!! Look for Butchers who know their Breeds and Source Locally! In the Raw..it should not be White or Grey but pleasingly Pink and Firm, with fine threads of Marbling! Gloucster Old Spot is of course the Grandmaster of the Pork World! If you can get it..GET IT!

Good Poultry

Good ChickenIts Welfare needs no Introduction! Look for Organic or Free Range Chicken free from blemishes with a Firm/Fresh appearance! Sourced Locally

Useful Resources

Wiki-
Beef
Lamb
Pork
Poultry
Sausages
Breeds Of Beef-The Breed of Beef IS of great importance, but dont be fooled! Id rather have a mixed breed of relative obscurity that has been happily and humanely reared, sourced locally!..than a Premium Aberdeen Angus joint from a Supermarket!!

The Livestock that supplies Supermarkets has to travel great distances to their Slaughterhouse,under cramped conditions!The Beef is then slaughtered, rushed through the hanging process before being Vacuum packed, and driven hundreds of miles to get to your shelves!

If your meat is happily reared and slaughtered locally then that beautiful cow that supplied that wonderful looking Steak was literally mid Tea Break and Afternoon Scones on his 7 acre lawn when he was gently rounded up by his loyal master who has fed and looked after him since birth and humanely killed!
There is nothing wrong with this!

We are Carnivores! For thousands of years we hunted animals for their tasty, nutritous meat! And for ten thousand years we have been 'practiced the art of Animal Husbandry, Farming and Agriculture so we as a race can enjoy their meat! This in its purest form is not only Right, but essential! In case you hadnt realised there are alot of people in this world..and their number is growing!

But we have lost touch with our roots, and so in this Cappucino/Mobile world we havn't the time to shop locally for our Fruit and Vegetables, Meat and Fish! Supermarkets have taken over by providing us with a clean, fast, efficient service free from any link to its original source! Rant Over!

Get to know your local Butcher, Get to know your Beef!

Cooking Times For Meat

Excellent Guide To Feathered and Furred Game! Choosing, Hanging, Cooking

Excellent Offal Guide

Support Your Local Butcher

River Cottage-Where Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall continues his Superb
Work!! :-)

Directory of Excellent Butchers/Meat Suppliers! (UK Only..I dont know any US/etc Butchers..Sorry Folks!)

Alan Jackson Butchers- The Best Butchers in the World! Where i worked for 2 Years as Butchers Apprentice and Pastry Chef! No-One makes a Game Pie or Pork Pie like me! ;-) Cheers to Al, Chris, Paul and Si for all your knowledge and kindness! Who loves ya baby!

Brown Cow Organics-Winner of Soil Association's Best Beef award! Beef sourced, unusually from Guernseys!?! Excellent, Well Hung, Recommended

The Ark Chicken Company:
39, Ellerhays, Hele, Devon EX5 4PU
Tel-01392 860430
Traditional Free-range Poultry from slow growing breeds, Chicken, Geese, Turkey, Quail and Corn Fed Guinea Fowl

The Real Meat Company-They have a strict code of welfare standards which result in an excellent product! Particularly their slow grown Poultry and Beef!

All the Links provided on this page are either websites full of excellent information, or companies that i KNOW provide Superb Quality Meat! I shall endeavour to add more as i find them! If i've missed you out and are a Reputable, Professional Butcher and all-round excellent bloke (most Butchers are!) and agree/support my Manifesto and would like to join my Directory of Excellent Butchers then drop me a Msg! :-)

Please Favourtie this Lens and drop by regularly!..I plan to update often with splendid New Recipes!