Butchers to look out for

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Quest for the best: The Meat Crusade Blog

 

 

  • Blog Post: The Meat Crusade Heads to Malton Food Festival on the 18th -19th May

    Food traceability has never been higher on the agenda of shoppers.
    Disillusioned supermarket customers who have lost confidence in the origins of what they are being sold over the counter are returning to local butchers in their droves.

    May 07 2013, 11:28 AM

  • Blog Post: Comment on meat traceability issues being discussed in the news

    John Penny & Sons are an 8th Generation family run abattoir who supply quality butchers shops across the county.

    John Penny & Sons do not have any involvement with horse meat. We run an ethical and principled operation processing beef, lamb and pork from our site in Leeds, West Yorkshire. All of the meat sold from John Penny & Sons is traceable.
     

    Jan 16 2013, 12:11 PM

  • Blog Post: The Sunday lunch that keeps on giving

    Traditional roast beef and Yorkshire puddings might seem like an indulgence in January but what if you could make that meal last all week? Well we have done just that, we know from looking at the statistics that visitors to our website can’t get enough of beef topside recipes. So with this in mind we’ve created a menu that mixes traditional winter warmers with new modern takes on how to use up your leftover roast beef. Go to your local butcher for your beef to ensure you are getting the finest quality meat, to find your local butcher click here.

    Jan 09 2013, 3:46 PM

  • Blog Post: A butcher is for life not just for Christmas

    As the season of feasts approaches, The Meat Crusade is asking shoppers to support their butchers for life and not just for Christmas.

    Going to the butcher is a part of preparing for Christmas that we all enjoy. There’s something satisfying about buying a turkey, ham or rib roast that feels special and gives you confidence that your family is getting something of exceptional quality for their Christmas dinner.
     

    Dec 10 2012, 3:30 PM

  • Butchers to look out for: B & T Kitson Ltd, Northallerton, Stockton-On-Tees and Hutton Rudby

    The Kitson family has been running B&T Kitson butchers since 1693 and took over the shop they currently trade from in Stockton-On-Tees in 1903. B&T Kitson Ltd is a family run business through and through and Anthony’s mother, sister, two sons and even his 3 year old daughter all get stuck in.

    Dec 10 2012, 10:05 AM

  • Butchers to look out for: JB Meays and Sons, Yeadon

    lA warm welcome always awaits any customer to this shop which is currently run by 3 generations of the Meays family. Brian Meays has 60 years experience in the butchery trade and began working at their shop in Yeadon at the age of 13. His son, Stuart, joined straight from school and has been working with his father for 34 years. Stuart’s three sons also help out part time in the shop.

    Nov 08 2012, 10:03 AM

  • Blog Post: Guest blog by Gerry Danby

    Our guest blogger, Gerry Danby, is a barrister with a strong commitment to supporting artisan and small scale independent food producers and retailers. He writes two blogs: www.pauseforfood.com and artisanfoodlaw.wordpress.com. The former aims to stimulate thinking around current legal and policy issues which impact on artisan and small scale producers, occasionally highlighting a great producer, while the latter provides more straightforward information about food law and related matters. He's written a post about why we should all go back to our local butcher.

    For everything you need to know about meat, simply ask your local butcher!

    On a day when I read that 1 in 5 adults think parsnips grow on trees and hear that 76% of our local butchers, some 19,000, have closed over the last 30 years my level of despair plummets. I am neither a butcher nor grower of parsnips, but I almost wondered whether it’s not time to give up and simply hand over the shop keys to Tesco accepting, as the Financial Times put it earlier this year, that it was time to let the British high street die. That took a mere second because I don’t give up on the things I cherish, especially where food is concerned, not ever!

    Nov 05 2012, 1:29 PM

  • Blog Post: Rock Salt reviews rose veal

    We sent a sample of rose veal to food blogger Rock Salt for her to try, you can read about her cooking experience here:

    "Just so that you know, this is a review of a product of which I was sent a free sample. The opinions in the post are, as ever, mine, and the review is honest. Please note my Patrick Stewart-worthy sentence arrangement in the first line there.

    Veal is a meat subject to a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding. It’s understandable, too – the cruelty of the veal trade has been well publicised, with consumers hearing the story of calves being kept held in constrictive crates that don’t allow them to move, in order to produce a white coloured meat. What many people don’t know is that these crates were outlawed in the UK and Europe in 2006, and in fact the welfare standards for veal calves in the UK has been considerably higher than that of the EU since the 1990s. In the UK, veal calves must have sufficient space to move around, a proper diet including roughage, iron and fibre and proper bedding to rest on. The results of this better welfare is a pink meat, rather than white, which is known as rose veal. The Freedom Food website has an excellent document, giving more information on this, and you can find it here.

    Nov 02 2012, 2:17 PM

  • Blog Post: From hunter wellies to high heels - a case for rose veal

    I wasn’t born wearing a shift dress and heels, most people have never even seen me wear a pair of jeans. I have a shady past, if that’s not something of a contradiction in terms for a girl from Minnesota.

    Oct 31 2012, 10:02 AM

  • Butchers to look out for: Cedar Barn Farm Shop

    Karl and Mandy Avison opened Cedar Barn Farm Shop in 2007 with the vision of providing customers with access to home-grown and locally sourced products. It quickly became a popular hot spot for local foodies and has won the Best On-Farm Café / Restaurant in the National FARMA Awards for 2011.

    Oct 12 2012, 3:10 PM

  • Blog Post: The Case for Veal: The Meat Crusade Champions Ethical Rose Veal

    As far as reputation goes, it's right up there with foie gras. Few things raise the hackles of thoughtful eaters quite like veal. But it’s time to dispel a few myths about veal, and consider the case for British rose veal.

    Oct 10 2012, 9:00 AM

  • Butchers to look out for: Danny’s Family Butchers

    Danny’s Family Butchers, owned by butcher, Danny McCluskey, has been in business for seven years. He make all the sausages and burgers himself and offers a range of freshly marinated meats, including chicken, chops and belly pork, marinated in sauces such as Chinese, garlic and hot and spicy.

    Oct 09 2012, 4:30 PM

  • Butchers to look out for: Partridge Farm, Tiverton, Devon

    Hannah and Duncan Nobbs breed and butcher rare breeds of animals on Partridge Farm in Devon, using natural methods to produce meat with the finest flavour. Duncan’s family have been farmers and butchers for generations and he and Hannah are both passionate about the traditional way of farming.

    Sep 28 2012, 2:48 PM

  • Butchers to look out for: Turnbull’s of Alnwick

    This award winning family butchers and greengrocers in Northumberland, established for over 100 years, is owned by Master Butcher and Chairman of the North East Q Guild of Butchers, Mark Turnbull. Mark’s father, John, still works part-time in the business, and his son, Daniel, has just joined the company having completed a Physics degree.

     

    Sep 28 2012, 2:39 PM

  • Butchers to look out for: Blacker Hall Farm Shop, West Yorkshire

    Since being established in 1999, Blacker Hall Farm Shop has built an outstanding reputation for selling locally sourced, superior quality produce. The shop is owned by the Garthwaite family who run a local farming enterprise which supplies the majority of the beef, lamb and pork for the farm shop.

    Sep 28 2012, 2:31 PM

  • Butchers to look out for: J Brindon Addy, West Yorkshire

    Known locally as Addy’s butchers, this shop in Hade Edge was established in1993 by Brindon Addy and David Cannon. Brindon is the elected regional Chairman of the Q Guild of Butchers and the shop is widely recognised for its experienced butchers who buy the very best local meat.

    Sep 28 2012, 2:18 PM

  • Blog Post: Food blogger visits John Penny & Sons

    We invited food blogger Lucy to our farm and abattoir to read about her experience click here to visit her blog.

    Sep 03 2012, 9:32 AM

  • Blog Post: We’ve joined the campaign to save our bacon!

    You may have seen recently in the news that due to the rising costs of feed combined with the supermarkets pushing down prices means that many pig farmers are now struggling to make a living and many small to medium sized producers will not be able to survive.

    Aug 14 2012, 10:42 AM

  • Butchers to look out for: Aubrey Allen, Warwickshire

    At Aubrey Allen, in Warwickshire, three generations of Allens have been serving customers since 1933. The company prides itself on carefully selecting its suppliers and can trace its meat back to the farm it came from. It is renowned for its superior meat, including grass-fed Cornish lamb and free-range pork produced by Farmer’s Weekly Pig Farmer of the Year 2005, Jimmy Butler. Aubrey Allen has built a reputation based on the quality of its beef, sourcing only the finest beef cattle, and its traditional dry aging for up to 28 days, which results in tasty and tender beef.

    Aug 10 2012, 1:32 PM

  • Butchers to look out for: Bennetts Quality Meats Ltd, Bury

    Bennett's Quality Meats, established since 1919, is a third generation family butchers now run by Martyn, Jeremy and Tim Bennett.

    Aug 10 2012, 1:09 PM

Articles 1-20 of 45 Next Page >>

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Brian Turner

A popular face on our TV screens, Yorkshire-born Brian’s career started in less glamorous circumstances - cooking breakfasts at his dad's transport café.

Your local butcher really cares about the meat he sells and the people he sells to. He deserves your support- let’s not lose him now.

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.

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.

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.

It is so important to support butchers, if we do not then they will go and then we really will miss them. These people know where all their food has come from, generally sourcing everything from the local area’s farmers. Support for your butcher is support for the wider farming community.