The Meat Crusade

John Penny & Sons have launched a new national campaign, The Meat Crusade. The aim is to put quality butchers meat back onto every dinner table in Britain by raising awareness in quality and taste and offering a greater understanding of how ethical meat operations work.

As a farmers and mat wholesalers, we know that butchers offer a fantastic product and they are also the friendly face on the British high street who can offer a wealth of advice on how best to cook your meat.
We’ve created a brand new range of recipes using cost-effective cuts of meat and easily sourced ingredients in our Meat Crusade cookbook which you can order here.

Welcome to The Meat Crusade blog where you will find out all the latest news from the campaign as well as profiles on some top quality butchers some of whom John Penny & Sons supply and some that we don't but we know that they are fantastic.

S J Bebbington Butchers, Chester

S J Bebbington Butchers of Chester has been established since 1993 and for 19 years was based in Chester Market before moving to modern new premises in Westminster Park 18 months ago. Run by Stuart Bebbington, who comes from a family of farmers, the shop prides itself on the quality of the produce they sell and the friendly customer service.

Stuart believes that a good butcher needs to constantly evolve. He explains; “Over the last 18 months the business has gone from strength to strength and we are making four times the turnover than our previous premises. I feel positive about the future of butchery but believe that butchers need to be prepared to change. In the face of supermarket competition, we cannot afford to stand still but move with the times and embrace new products and unusual flavours and cater for those looking for quick, convenient meal options.”

The improved facility has provided Stuart with the capacity to expand his product range and produce his very own award winning sausages and dry cured bacon made with meat from trusted suppliers. Stuart creates his own sausage rolls and range of pies, selling over 700 pies every week. He also offers an excellent range of ready to cook meals and marinated meats from apple and mustard pork steaks to minted lamb stir fry.

The shop has recently introduced some South African products, such as Biltong, in response to customer demand, as well as a number of vegetarian dishes to encourage customers to shop for the whole family in one trip.

S J Bebbington was awarded a finalist in Britain’s Best Butchers Shop 2012 and has received multiple gold awards for a variety of products over the last decade.

S J Bebbington
53 Five Ashes Road,
Westminster Park,
Chester,
Cheshire,
CH4 7QS
Tel: 01244 682424
Ample free parking available
Website: www.sjbebbingtonbutchers.co.uk (coming soon with local click & collect service)

Tom Parker Bowles

Tom is a food writer and broadcaster with a weekly column in The Mail on Sunday and is Food Editor at Esquire magazine.
His books include E Is For Eating – An Alphabet of Greed, The Year of Eating Dangerously and Full English; A Journey Through the British and Their Food. He also co-presented Market Kitchen on Good Food Channel and presented LBC Radio's Food and Drink Programme.

The steady loss of our local butchers is cause for serious alarm. Just 2 months back my favourite butcher, Kingsland and Son, fell victim to a fierce rent hike and was forced to move out. The whole area is still reeling from the loss. Because butchery is both art and science. Not just in the physical act of separating different cuts from a carcass, but the wealth of knowledge any serious butcher has; where the meat comes from, how long the beef was hung, what cuts are better suited to braising than roasting. Support your local butchers. For the sake of the community, and your taste buds too.

Jay Rayner

The award winning Observer Food Critic and One show journalist.

Jay currently chairs the new Radio 4 food panel show, The Kitchen Cabinet, having recently appeared as judge on Masterchef and The Great British Waste Menu, and hosted Channel 4's magazine show Food: What Goes in your Basket?

Now, more than ever, we need to know where our meat is coming from, and your local butcher is best placed to give you that vital information. There is no substitute for buying your meat from the people who sourced it. They are the ones who know how it was raised, how it was slaughtered and how best to cook it. If we lose our local butchers we lose an irreplaceable part of the food chain.

Joanna Blythman

Joanna Blythman is Britain’s leading investigative food journalist and an influential commentator on the British food chain. She has won four Glenfiddich awards for her writing, including a Glenfiddich Special Award for her first book, The Food We Eat, a Caroline Walker Media Award for Improving the Nation’s Health by Means of Good Food, and a Guild of Food Writers Award for The Food We Eat.

We need to cherish the excellent traditional butchers who have kept going valiantly in the teeth of the supermarket takeover of our food chain. As the Meat Crusade puts it, if one in 10 of us returned to our local butcher that would be make a real difference. And if one in five of us did so, even once a week, it could start a revolution.

Rosemary Shrager

Rosemary Shrager, talented TV chef and cookery school teacher, is renowned for her role on reality TV show, Ladette to Lady. Rosemary has worked for Pierre Koffman at the famous Tante Claire restaurant in London and also for super chef Jean-Christophe Novelli.

Rosemary’s TV career began with series Rosemary – Castle Cook, followed by Rosemary on the Road, both for Channel 5. She is now a familiar face on ITV, following up her Rosemary Shrager's School For Cooks series with regular appearances on The Alan Titchmarsh Show.