Buying Meat Products from Your Local Butcher Shop

We live in a world where one can buy everything they need. This includes cleaning products to all types of meat, from our local grocery store. With this convenience, we sometimes, unfortunately, lose quality. For this reason, it is important to have a great local butcher shop to buy your meat products from. With this said, how do you find a great local butcher shop that supplies the best types of meat?

Find a local butcher shop you can trust that supplies the best types of meat.

How To Find A Good Local Butcher Shop

To find a good local butcher, ask people in your area for referrals! A good place to start is with your neighbours and community groups. Use online platforms such as Facebook or Google Reviews to check out the referrals. Ask specifically for local butcher shops who sell the types of meat products you’re looking for. This way, you can get the most accurate referral!

Be aware of the reviews people are giving – if the primary selling point is the low price of the meat, be careful. The price of meat can sometimes be an indicator of poor quality meat products. Eg, the type of meat you’re looking at is typically quite expensive. But, this local butcher shop’s price seems too good to be true. In truth, it probably is!

Try Your Local Butcher Shop’s Meat Products

Assemble a list of local butcher shop referrals for the types of meat products you want to buy. Then, go around and try them out! When you first visit, have a chat with the butcher themselves. Be sure to hint that you’re looking to become a long-term customer. Explain what types of meat products you are looking for and allow them to guide you.

It is important to let your local butcher shop know if the quality of their meat product has let you down. If you have made your expectations clear and they do not live up to them, tell the butcher so! A good businessperson will want to know the areas they can improve in. If they respond negatively, move on to the next local butcher shop and begin the process again.

Ask Your Local Butcher Shops Questions About Their Meat Products

Any local butcher shop worth frequently can answer any and every question about the types of meat products they sell. Ask questions such as:

· Is this meat farmed locally?

· Is this meat organic?

· Is this meat free-range?

· Do they make their own sausages?

· Do they smoke their own bacon?

· Do they offer unsmoked options?

· Can I buy in bulk?

Asking these types of questions will give your local butcher shop insight. They can figure out the types of meat products you are looking for, and how they can best serve you.

Sometimes, they cannot answer reasonable questions like where the meat comes from. If so, this butcher shop probably doesn’t know enough about their meat products, and it may be time to move on!

Allow your local butcher to teach and guide you in fields you are not an expert in. For example, bright red beef is not as tasty as a darker red, matured beef. Tell your butcher what you are looking for and let them guide you to the types of meat products you should buy.

Tip Top Meat Products – Your Preferred Supplier

Tip Top Meat is an online meat supplier that offers high quality meat products and delivery! As a leading meat supplier in South Africa, Tip Top Meat guarantees the quality of their meat products. They also provide top quality customer service to match!

Have a question or query? Contact Us Today!

Tips to Consider Before You Buy Chicken

Chicken cuts are a highly popular meat nowadays. This holds especially true in South Africa, where it is widely considered to be the staple meat. But, before you buy a chicken cut or any kind of poultry meat, it pays to be careful!

You need to take the right precautions if you want to make sure you buy chicken of good quality. Once bought, that quality chicken also needs both adequate storage and cooking. Here, we’ll examine the best ways to do all these things before eating your next meal.Chicken cuts are a highly popular meat nowadays. This holds especially true in South Africa, where it is widely considered to be the staple meat. But, before you buy a chicken cut or any kind of poultry meat, it pays to be careful!

Ensure You Buy Quality Chicken Cuts

When buying chicken cuts, or the whole chicken, there are a few precautions to be aware of. These will be a long way towards ensuring that you get the best chicken cut for your money.

When buying poultry meat, be sure to smell it. You can typically smell if it’s “off” or not, as good quality chicken will have very little or no smell at all.

Before you buy the chicken, also be sure to check the skin, flesh, and bones. Ideally, they should have no damage. Damaged chicken or chicken cuts may be a sign of mishandling.

A specific chicken cut will have different visual characteristics from another one. Keep an eye out for these on the poultry meat you’re considering. Chicken breasts, for example, should be plump with pale-pink flesh and very little fat. Chicken thighs, though, have darker meat. They also have dark pink flesh, and a small amount of white fat.

Whole Chicken and Chicken Cut Storage

After you buy chicken, it’s usually best to store it in its original packaging or container. Otherwise, you can store it in a shallow container, but be sure to keep it completely covered. This allows your quality chicken to remain such while refridgerating or freezing it.

If refridgerating, store the chicken or chicken cuts in the coldest part of your fridge for 2 days at the most. If freezing, be sure to keep the chicken or chicken cut in its original packaging, for up to 2 months at the most.

Precautions for Cooking Poultry Meat

Before you cook poultry meat, there are several precautions that you should follow. Quality chicken only remains that way if following the due diligence required.

After you buy chicken, store it, and prepare to cook it, thaw it completely before cooking. To defrost frozen chicken cuts, place them on a large plate in their packaging. Put the plate in the fridge to defrost, this will take anywhere from 10-12 hours.

Be sure not to refreeze the chicken after it has thawed. A whole chicken or chicken cut can degrade in quality due to lost moisture this way. You can tell if a chicken is completely thawed by ensuring that it contains no ice crystals. The legs and thighs of your poultry meat should also be flexible.

Wait for your chicken to be completely defrosted. Then, be sure to cook it according to your chosen recipe as soon as possible.

Have a question or query? Contact Us Today!

Choosing High Quality Meat Cuts

Nowadays, you can get meat cuts from just about anywhere. Additionally, there are a lot of regulations and laws in place for them. But, you can’t always count on the cuts of meat you buy coming from a quality source of fresh meat. There’s a lot that goes into finding high quality meat. Here, we’ll focus on the best ways to find the right meat cut for you.

Look at the Fat in Your Cuts of Meat

One of the best indicators of high-quality meat cuts is “marbling”. These are the areas of meat that tend to have strands of fat in them. They tend and make for a richer, better tasting experience in the meat cut as a whole. This element tends to helps the meat keep keep its flavour when cooking.

Before buying cuts of meat that have marbling, make sure that the fat is cold and firm. You’ll also find that a meat cut from an older animal will tend to have yellowed far. This makes the meat less tender, but also gives it more mature characteristics. Depending on your personal tastes, either one make for excellent meals.

Look for Tenderised Fresh Meat

You can usually eat fresh meat direct from the source, though this isn’t the case for meat such as beef. In the case of beef, meat cuts need to tenderise over a few weeks before you buy it. Beef that’s handled this way will have a much improved taste.

Cuts of meat handled this way will lose much of their liquid weight after those few weeks. You can generally tell high quality meat apart from other meat if they have little or no water. But, due to this, they also tend to be more expensive. Regardless, this is still good value, since the water would boil away in lower quality meat in any case.

A Good Quality Meat Cut Must be Well-Fed

While more expensive, a grass fed meat cut tends to be much tastier, with a better amount of fat. “Grass fed” meat cuts refer to meat sourced from grazing animals.

You should always make an effort to find a supplier that stocks fresh meat from grazing animals. Any reputable supplier will be able to tell you exactly where they source their cuts of meat. You should also ask them for any relevant certification if you aren’t confident.

You Get What You Pay for with High Quality Meat

When it comes to high quality meat, you get what you pay for most of the time. It may be pricier, but definitely worth the cost, and not just for the taste! High quality fresh meat often offers the same amount of meat per Rand as that of lower quality. What’s more, quality meat is a lot less likely to spoil!

Buying cheap doesn’t necessarily entail good value for you! As a matter of fact, a cheaper meat cut will usually have much higher water content. This means that even if different quality meat cuts weigh the same at the store, you’ll have less meat after cooking the lower quality cut.

Tip Top Meat offers meat of excellent quality meat at reasonable prices. Check out our products here.