The changing butcher shop

This article appeared in my local newspaper yesterday and I found it pretty interesting. It's about the changing tastes and demands of Americans and how they've affected the local meat industry, and I'm sure these changes are happening in many other places, too.

I know it sucks around here to find some special cuts.

I have gone to Black Earth as listed in the article for stuff but they are pricey.

I miss the corner butcher shops that you could order from the cow hanging in the back

Some major urban ares are seeing a resurgence of the old butcher, but from more of an artisans perspective. In San Francisco, we are lucky enough to have 4505 Meats (http://4505meats.com/) run by Ryan Farr - who also wrote "Whole Beast Butchery" - which is a great read if you are interested.

Trollby, are you familiar at all with Underground Meats? Like SP mentioned, they have an artisan bent and I first learned about them from an episode of Wisconsin Foodie a few weeks back. I was thinking about checking it out today but I got sidetracked, so it'll have to wait for another time.

Trollby wrote:

I miss the corner butcher shops that you could order from the cow hanging in the back

I'm with you on this one. I guess we're pretty lucky with the local meat market we have out here. While there are some "boxed" cuts that come in, most of the butchering is done on the premises. You can also order anything they don't carry on a regular basis.

I live in a rural area so guess I'm really lucky. I'm close to 3 excellent butcher shops (20 minutes' drive) and I've been able to get everything from chuck-eye and hanger steaks to whole pigs and lambs at these shops. One of these shops deals in prepackaged meat and primal cuts but the other two have their own slaughterhouses so you can order anything you like including the big warehouse packs like Black Earth Meats does in the article. (Assuming, of course, that the butcher hasn't squirreled away the chuck-eyes and other treasures for himself).

Sometimes it also pays to get to know your butcher at your local supermarket, too. A couple of months ago I dropped by my local Safeway and they had "bottom sirloin steaks" sliced up and for sale at a good price, so I asked the butcher if he had any whole tri-tips as well. The guy knew his meat really well so he packaged me up a couple of whole tri-tips at an even better price (because they weren't sliced and he had to do less work). I went back last week and got a few chuck-eye roasts that I've cut into steaks. So in some cases, it's a good idea to check supermarkets as well as they can sometimes have the odd cuts too.