Butcher Shop or Big Box Store for Meat

[ICTBBQ]

The local butcher shop in Jefferson, MD has been in business for about 150 years and will show you the beef hanging in the walk-in, and cut whatever you want.

wallace

That's the kind of butcher I'm looking for.

 

[boogiesnap]

I had a long talk with my local butcher about meat. Here is what he said.

A pig is a pig is a pig. If your buying pork it's all the same stuff. Unless it's berkshire stuff.

Beef on the other hand is much different. He sources his locally and is of much higher quality.

i can tell you for a fact his thoughts on pork are inaccurate.

 

[Grafixgibbs]

Both of those places are higher than he**.

Try the Stock Yard on Hwy 29 in Concord.
Better yet is a little country butcher that does 100% on premises butchering with a small attached retail shop called Cruse's Meat in rural Cabarrus county. Cheap!
About 35 min out of downtown Charlotte up 49.

I'll have to check those out. THANKS!

 

[ICTBBQ]

i can tell you for a fact his thoughts on pork are inaccurate.

Sounds like he has a GREAT butcher too. :twisted:

 

[ToddM]

i can tell you for a fact his thoughts on pork are inaccurate.

Couldn't agree more. I used to raise pigs and I can tell you there's a huge difference from one source to another. Just sayin'...

 

[ToddM]

Oh, and forgot to add, local butcher is the way to go. I've got an old school one that I go to here in Fullerton - Gem's. They carry Boar's Head deli meats, Mannings beef, seafood and wild game. You can get anything you want, custom cut and prepped to order. Awesome.

I can't eat a store bought steak any more.

 

[LMAJ]

Depends on what I'm buying and what I'm doing with it...
If I am going to cook Q, then I buy my meat @ BJ's wholesale or the local Giant.
If I am cooking a steak for my inlaws, I buy choice beef, again from BJ's wholesale or the local Giant.
If I am looking for beef for a special occasion - or a packer brisket, I go to my local butcher. All the meat is fresh, Prime, and local.
I have only been disappointed once, then one of this lackys trimmed my brisket to within an inch of it's life... then I wanted to trim him to within an inch of his...

Used to buy all my meat from the butcher, but we had a change in incomes and the prices went up significantly. Hope he didn't have to lay anyone off on my account....

 

[Boshizzle]

My local butcher has far superior meat compared to the big name retailers especially Costco. Overall, Costco has the worst pork in town, IMO. Walmart sells an ok brisket but it isn't choice. The other places in my town only sell brisket flats.

 

[mallorjc]

I get most of my meets at Costco's they had briskets today for 2.29 lb choice(brisket, ribs, chicken) and Sam's for butts, I did try to use a butcher I heard great things about a few weeks ago to get a prime brisket and I called him up and asked if he had any prime he said no I said can you order it for me he said no I said yes he said no I said no he said no I said have a nice farkn day. I know of one other butcher shop here in Austin that will get you whatever you want prime briskets for 4.25 lb not that bad to me I didn't ask about wagyu but I'm sure it's not that much more. Lee's Meat Market

I was in your town decades ago on business & paying homage to SRV and had some mediocre bbq in the tourist area and cannot believe you cannot buy real meat! Suks

 

[mallorjc]

I had a long talk with my local butcher about meat. Here is what he said.

A pig is a pig is a pig. If your buying pork it's all the same stuff. Unless it's berkshire stuff.

Beef on the other hand is much different. He sources his locally and is of much higher quality.

Did he say why? pastured & grain finished? Hormone free? Not loaded with antibiotics due to being finished in a feedlot? Fed happy in a hempfield?

 

[mallorjc]

Just for $hits & giggles, I went in again. Asked the kid behind the counter if they had any packers. Got a blank look. Explained I wanted a packers cut brisket. He said, I think we have some in the back. A few minutes later he comes back out with a frozen solid brisket. I asked to see the USDA stamp on it. It was not even choice. Just the plain old Excel packer that they sell in all the grocery stores around here. You'd think a butcher in the same town as the headquarters and 2 hours away from the slaughterhouse plant would have better chit.

The search for a decent butcher here continues...

Thanks for the follow KS! Somebody please! How can we be so close to the stockyard & still sukk? Has Ruth's Bloody Cris and Mickky D's co-opted even the heartland... well, of course they have...google Joel Salatin.

 

[El Ropo]

The honest truth is most folks who work in meat markets have never BBQ'd a single piece of meat. Their prime objective is to push whatever the manager ordered.

The manager tries to maximize profit by purchasing the least expensive cuts of meat and selling them for the most they think the suckers walking in the door will pay.

It's ugly, but that's the way it is.

When you ask for a beef clod, and get that "deer in the headlight" look, step back quickly, and never return.

I started quoting cut numbers to the local grocer, and he did NOT HAVE A CLUE. I've given up, till someone understands what I'm talking about.

Tri tips are another good example, cutters will cut a sirloin roast in the shape of a triangle and try to pass it off as tri tip, then price it @ $8.00/lb for an ungraded hunk of sirloin roast. WTF?

 

[VoodoChild]

I was in your town decades ago on business & paying homage to SRV and had some mediocre bbq in the tourist area and cannot believe you cannot buy real meat! Suks

SRV FTW !!! Stevie Ray !!! Vaughan !!!!

 

[VoodoChild]

Here In Phoenix, .... There Is a Businees Costco That A Fellow Brethran Told me about you can get whole Packer Briskits ... all the others just seem to have trimmed flats and at our local Wally world and Super Wally ...No Briskit at all... same with the Local SAMS ...
aLSO rEST. dEPOT hAS wHOLE pACKERS.:blabla::arrow::mrgreen: jUST gLAD TO bE ABLE TO FIND IT.

 

[Happy Hapgood]

SRV FTW !!! Stevie Ray !!! Vaughan !!!!

SRV was THE MASTER. Godspeed.

 

[El Ropo]

SRV was THE MASTER. Godspeed.

SRV RIP, a good replacement for your blues guitar fix is JB

Joe Bonamassa. Google him.

 

[ICTBBQ]

The honest truth is most folks who work in meat markets have never BBQ'd a single piece of meat. Their prime objective is to push whatever the manager ordered.

The manager tries to maximize profit by purchasing the least expensive cuts of meat and selling them for the most they think the suckers walking in the door will pay.

It's ugly, but that's the way it is.

When you ask for a beef clod, and get that "deer in the headlight" look, step back quickly, and never return.

I started quoting cut numbers to the local grocer, and he did NOT HAVE A CLUE. I've given up, till someone understands what I'm talking about.

Tri tips are another good example, cutters will cut a sirloin roast in the shape of a triangle and try to pass it off as tri tip, then price it @ $8.00/lb for an ungraded hunk of sirloin roast. WTF?

Sounds like the shop I went to. Trying another tomorrow. We'll see how it goes...

 

[Churrasqueiro Bob]

I've got a butcher near me who only sells CAB and not all cuts, just the more popular ones. The ribeye and NY strip are always outstanding with excellent marbling. He sells a lot of tenderloin too and I try to grab a few tenderloin tails now and then. All meat is cut in front of you and vacuum packed. He makes the best ground beef I've ever had. He said it is a blend of 3 different cuts of beef and naturally he won't give his secret away. He sells a few varieties of marinated sirloin tips but I usually buy the tip meat and prepare it as a steak, tips, etc.

His prices are close to the local supermarket but the quality is better. I like to get a nice thick cut too, 1 1/2"-2" on the NY strips and ribeyes. He also carries frozen garlic and spinach tortellini and a few varieties of ravioli that are homemade from the Boston area. I go there every Saturday and I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

 

[Kriss]

I buy at my local butcher as much as possible

Or Costco if Im already there and theres a good deal or if I feel like grilling while Im in there which is almost every time! Lol

 

[kadQ]

Where I live there are two butchers close to me but there not live kill houses, Meat is excellent quality they only problem I have around here is finding a good place to buy full packers (brisket) greater then 12 pounds, Even online when I get wagyu's it's still hard to find a full packer greater then 15 pounds.