Getting Meat From A Butcher

[sabrinah]

Since I live in farm country you would think it's easy to find a place to get good, inexpensive meat (besides Safeway sales) for making cat food, but no. All the fruit/lumber/meat is exported out My first choice was straight from the farm, but the places that offer that are insanely expensive. I'm trying to find a butcher but I don't know what to look for. I don't eat meat so I can't tell what stuff may be a little old but still perfectly good, what's too old, what to look for in a good butcher, etc. Also, is it safe to get the meat ground there? Will their grinder have too much bacteria on it?

 

[yeva2292]

There's a couple things to keep in mind when buying meat. Smell, appearance, and texture are all important for determining how fresh the meat is. Some stores add color to their meat to give it a nice red color (they do this to salmon as well). Extremely bright red color isn't always a determinant if the meat is fresh or not.

First and foremost, the meat should not smell off in any way - it should either have a meaty smell or very little to no smell. If it has a bad smell, don't accept it or return it.

Second is color. Red meats should have a red color to them. They may be grey in areas that have not been exposed to the air (contact sites between that piece and the other), but the entire cut shouldn't be grey. Chicken/turkey should be pinkish in appearance, as should pork. Prepackaged chicken breasts might be less pinkish or a bit more orange/yellow - that doesn't necessarily mean they are bad. Its usually the freeze/thawing or packaging that brings this color. It should not, however, look grey. Also, in the case of pork, if you see that the pork is looking a little shiny if you move it under the light, its going bad.

Texture is also a good judge of freshness. Meat should not feel slimy or flaky. Both are signs that the meat is probably close to or past its expiration date. Slightly flaky chicken breast might be ok to feed a cat (I personally wouldn't risk it), but slimy meat definitely shouldn't be fed to anyone.

When shopping for meat in the grocery store, I look for "date packaged" and "date best by". If you are not buying meat over in the counter, but are picking it up from the prepackaged section, look for meat that has a "date packaged" closest to that day or has the latest "best by" date. Be wary of "manager's specials" as those are price reductions on meat that is closely approaching its "best by" date. You can still use this meat, but the bacterial load will be higher and you have to use it up sooner than if you got meat with a later "best by" date. Also, ask your butcher what days they receive meat! Meat received on those days will be the freshest!

I'm not sure about the grinding question. If you are going to go that route, I would recommend going to the store early in the morning, when the equipment is the cleanest (if they wash it every day).

 

[sabrinah]

I've gotten lucky with Safeway having local chicken for cheap since it's not a name brand and being able to get it the day or two after it's put out, but that's not going to last much longer. They never have any other kind of local meat which sucks. I also need a new meat grinder, so it would be nice if a butcher could grind it instead of me having to buy a new one.

So pretty much no grey, shiny, stinky, slimy stuff?

 

[Tobermory]

The butcher shops I’ve used in the past both look and smell extremely clean. The butcher should be very knowledgeable about each kind of meat: its source and how long from farm to shop. How often do they get their meat delivered? The people at the place I use now really know their stuff and they know why I’m buying it. I’d get into a conversation with them. I think you can tell when a place is reputable.

You could also look for reviews online.

I don’t let them grind what I buy. No matter how clean their grinders are, they don’t clean the whole thing, blade and all, after each grind so raw meat is going to sit in it longer than I’d be comfortable with.

 

[sabrinah]

Where I live is just a bunch of small towns and most places don't have websites, let alone reviews online. The few that do have reviews only have reviews about their sandwiches, which isn't particularly helpful. The closest butcher is....disgusting. The entire store is disgusting, dirty, and filled with expired things. Since I'm dealing with raw meat I don't want to go to a place an hour away, so I need to look at closer places, which is why I was wondering about what to look for.

That's a good point about grinders not being completely clean. Looks like I'll have to order a new grinder. Darn.

 

[sabrinah]

Shoot if these fires spread to my area finding a butcher isn't going to be a concern! She'll be eating dry food while we live in an evacuation area. This stuff is stressful!

 

[yeva2292]

So pretty much no grey, shiny, stinky, slimy stuff?

Pretty much! If you have a food processor, you could use that instead of a grinder, so long as you don't put bones in there.

Sorry to hear about the fire - stay safe!

 

[Tobermory]

Yes! I hope it doesn’t come close. My brother and his wife had to evacuate with their three dogs in So Cal last year, and they were so stressed. I keep thinking about people’s pets, and it’s always in the back of my mind how I might gather my tribe and get out. Thinking of you and all of our western TCS friends.

 

[sabrinah]

The food processor (very cheap) and blender (I broke it...a lot of smoke was involved) can't handle it. It doesn't help that I have to add extra fat since the cheap chicken I could get was all breasts with zero fat. The fat is what killed the blender. Oops.

Since she has about a month of raw I think I'm going to hold off on looking for a butcher and new grinder because of the fires. CalFire helicopters and airplanes are constantly circling the county, which is comforting. We're just a bunch of towns and 2 small cities surrounded by forest and ocean. We would burn so fast. My town is surrounded by forest on all sides so we wouldn't stand a chance. My dog and cat would be safe, but all my fish would likely die. It would really suck for all the people who evacuated into this county to have to move again if it all spreads over here.