So which one do you prefer, the butcher or the supermarket? I’ve heard that the butcher sells much better meat at custom cuts than the supermarket, is this generally true?
What about other specialty stores, such as the bakery? I’ve bought ‘fresh’ bread from both supermarket’s on-board bakeries and standalone bakeries before and couldn’t tell a difference from normal non-fresh, factory-produced bread. Is it just a marketing trick? I’ve had cakes and things from bakeries as well, but they don’t seem much different from supermarket ones, just loaded with sugar and with more accessory such as flower petals, edible glue, golden flakes, etc etc.
Oh, and what about farm eggs? You know, the ones on the side of the road with a sign saying “FRESH EGGS” or “FARM EGGS”? They usually have a coin jar where you can make a decision as to either put money in there or just take the eggs (don’t worry I’ve never stolen from them) and are usually coated with dirt and feathers and filth. What do you think of these types of eggs? Do you prefer them over the supermarket eggs? Sometimes, these egg stands also have lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli and other things as well.
Yes they do, well at least they do over here in the smaller country towns of Western Australia. The eggs are usually sitting old shop egg cartons in a weathered wooden stand near the road with a coin jar inside. Some of the fancier ones are tucked away in a driveway area with a security camera setup and a wooden and tin shack with the vegetables and eggs inside and a metal moneybox for the coins.
I can’t comment on the meat, as I’ve never gotten anything from a butcher and don’t even know if there’s a butcher shop anywhere around.
As to bakery vs supermarket, it depends on the individual bakery and the individual supermarket. I’ve had baked goods (cakes, cupcakes, etc.) from a “real” bakery that were…less than ideal, and baked goods from a supermarket bakery that were awesome. Bread, on the other hand, unless it’s still warm from the oven and you’re eating right then and there, there’s not a huge difference between getting it from a bakery or a supermarket.
I’ve never bought eggs from a stand, but I have had farm fresh eggs (as a kid-teenager when visiting my grandparents’ farm) and did not notice a difference in taste. That was quite a while ago, though.
Vegetarian here so I don’t buy meat but I get my eggs from one of 3 people in the neighbourhood who have chickens. The difference in the eggs (compared to store-bought) is very obvious with the farm eggs being all different sizes and colours and the yolks are dark orange. The shells are much harder and you have to give it a bit of a wack to crack it.
I also feel better about the chickens as they’re always wandering around, all chubby and fluffy, pecking at things and scratching the ground.
Once a year we buy a side of beef form a rancher my mom knows. We have from time to time also purchased half a hog and whole butchered lambs direct from the farmer. Nothing compares to that. I have friends with chickens and try to get my eggs from them when I can. That being said, if we need to buy stuff in the meantime, we generally just buy it from the supermarket or natural foods co-op where we shop.
For bread, it’s supermarket brands or I make it myself.
Both of the grocery stores in my town have in-house butchers. They also sell farm-fresh eggs. I know this because the farms are also in my town. The stink and the flies were a major problem before the EPA made them change their ways.
Lots of people around here have chickens, but they don’t sell the eggs. Likewise, stand-alone butchers are perishingly rare and horrendously expensive. Also, time is money. So we buy both at the supermarket (when we aren’t mooching off neighbors or shooting it ourselves).
The Butcher Shop is no more, when they still existed i liked them.
I could simply call up and tell him what i wanted for the month, and go by later and it would all be cut up, packaged and taped and ready to take home.
And it was all freshly cut.
If i wanted something not normally carried, no worries, give him a day and he would have it.
Now days, grocery stores do not seem interested in getting anything in that isnt on the shelves.
Eggs, i never buy, my girls make them fresh for me every day.
To me they taste much different, and at least i know that my girls have run around free all day long, not lived in a battery.
I’m in Queensland (on the other side of Australia) and I’ve never seen one of those stands either. Might be a WA thing.
Eggs are readily obtainable from supermarkets, fruit shops and farmer’s markets - they’re all pretty much of a muchness IME, although I refuse to buy any eggs that aren’t free range.
As for the butcher - there’s still quite a few good butchers about and some of the supermarkets have good butchers too. Even though Aldi doesn’t have an in-house butcher, their pre-packaged meats are always very good IME.
If I’m near a butcher I’ll get meat from them (especially if it’s cheap) but otherwise the supermarket is just as good and a lot more convenient usually.
We’re lucky in that we live in a rural but seaside area so we normally cycle here, to get our meat, or in the other direction to an independent fishmongers for our seafood and we also get a weekly box of local seasonal fruit, veg and eggs delivered. We live in “the garden of England” (Kent) so there’s always something tasty and cheap in there. And yes, we would buy “farm eggs” in preference to supermarkets. It is always good to support your local businesses.
I find the quality of food far superior from good butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers, and I prefer to support small local businesses when I have the time. Just this Saturday, I bought all my fruit and veg (and eggs) from a local greengrocers, which all came packaging free and was much cheaper than the supermarket. Less food miles as well, with much of the produce being fairly local.
I then visited the fishmonger (supermarket fish is generally pretty awful, as it hangs around far too long in distribution). And opposite there was my local butcher, who most years wins the award for best butcher in my region. It is not cheap, however, so I would tend to go here when I want a cracking joint of beef, rather than some run of the mill chicken breasts. They also carry specialist cuts and rare meats.
Roadside eggs do exist around here, but I don’t tend to buy them. The greengrocer and butcher both sell farm fresh eggs, and all the eggs available in our large supermarket chain are free range as standard.
Lived in central London until fairly recently, so roadside eggs were non-existent, but I did have a very good butcher nearby (M Moen & Sons on Clapham Common for any Londoners who might be interested) who also had a good deli and sold artisan bread.
As San Vito, I did find the quality and variety better than supermarket meat, and they were happy to provide me with whatever size I needed, prepared just how I wanted it. They’d always throw in a nice marrow bone for the dog too; can’t see a supermarket doing any of that.
Live in the countryside now, and although I haven’t visited any of the local butchers yet, I have had six beautiful freshly shot pheasant this autumn from my neighbour who, as luck would have it, is also the local gamekeeper. Neighbour also provides us with fresh eggs from his free-ranging chooks. I can’t honestly say I notice a difference in taste, but I certainly can in consistency; a poached egg from an egg straight out of the chicken’s bum is a very different thing to one from an x-day-old supermarket egg. And yes, the eggs can occasionally be covered in a bit of muck and feathers, but as I’m not eating that, I don’t much care.
If it’s an allright butcher I prefer that. Supermarket meat here lasts only a couple of days and is of poor quality. Unless I want pork, then I have to buy at the supermarket.
Bread here isn’t all that good, baker or supermarket, so it doesn’t matter much. No roadside egg-stands.
Thought to add… I find most of the in-supermarket butchers I’ve ever used to be a pale imitation of a “proper” butcher. The meat looks to be pretty much what’s out on the shelves anyway; it’s just laid out on trays and then bagged up and served to you by someone who I feel certain in saying hasn’t the knowledge and understanding of someone whose family has been in the butchery trade for generations.
Agree, The supermarket meat is fine as far as it goes but my first job out of school at 16 was with an independent butchers and bakers in my home town. so I tend to judge my butchery and animal husbandry by that yardstick.
They bred their own animals or bought them at the local market and they were fresh from the moors or local pasture. they were walked the few hundred yards up the road to the back yard of the butchers where they had their own abattoir. No massive, stressful journeys to multiplex slaughterhouses. That morning they were in the field and that afternoon they were dead.
And the rest of that day (Wednesday…always Wednesday) was hectic as I helped out with such lovely tasks as washing tripes, cleaning casings, shaving pigs, carrying cow heads and prepping the blood for black pudding. Tongues and hams were sealed in bags and basically “sous vide’d” overnight (this is 30 years ago before such things were popular) and the incredible jellied stock produced was recycled into the base of potted meats and pease pudding etc.
All rather gruesome in the abstract but it taught me the value and ethics in not wasting a single part of the animal and what proper hanging and preparation actually means. That’s the sort of butchers that I like to frequent.
I prefer to go to the butcher though I’m happy enough with our local grocer’s meat section. One item I hit the butcher up for is their hot dogs and brats which are made in shop and much better than the grocery brands.
I’ll buy farm eggs when the stars align that they’re available, I need eggs and I have cash in my pocket. Otherwise, I’m not picky. When it’s in season, I buy a lot of fresh sweet corn from the farms (often again on a coin-box basis) but that’s in much greater supply than stopping to see if there’s any eggs left in the cooler.