The Meat

I have a general question. Is there any of you guys here in the UK that use a supermarket for your cuts of meat especially pork shoulder or brisket or do you mainly seek a good butcher ? Basically can you get good meat from a supermarket as foodies dont look on them too favourably.

My butcher is just ten yards from my front door and the Co-op is 30 yards in the other direction. I get most of my cuts from the butcher and chicken from the Coop but saying that I went to Sainsburys and they had some nice looking meat.

As for the 'foodies' I take anything they say with three grains of salt as a large number of them believe boiling meat is a good thing and are usually dead set on trying to 'out-do' each other on the Internet with story's of grander and exotic elements as a every day meal. You will find that even though they can come up with some serious top rated meals very few post pictures of the process, equipment and the finished product. I tend to wonder how it is they can afford and make the time ( not to mention all the trips to France, Spain,Germany etc) to do all this yet do not own a digital camera.

Where I can I use the butcher (& avoid supermarkets), but I've had some odd looks trying to explain the pork butt cut, they say they will have to order ribs & shoulder butts in, (with a few day's notice). I tend not to plan that far ahead, I decide what/if I'm cooking depending on the weather & my social life, so I want the cuts of meat there & then.

As well as the quality it's the availability of what I want, I posted a thread (in the smoking low & slow section) titled 'can I use this for pulled pork?', it was a boneless shoulder joint from sainsbury's (I think it was a picnic rather than butt cut) but it worked out great. The best cook I've done so far. There are some pic's I took, if your interested it may be worth you having a look, I was very pleased with the results.
When I can, I also go to Birmingham market for ribs, this is a very large indoor meat & fish market where they have most cuts ready, if they don't (like a butt) they will cut them for you there & then. The quality is great & the price is much better than the butchers or supermarket. This is where I'll get my next pork butt. I'm sure you have a large meat market in Kent that will offer the same service.

Although I do use supermarkets when necessary, I use a butcher (or market) instead whenever possible. I do think the quality is better than the supermarket, but I also like the thought of supporting the independent trader, I don't like the idea of supermarkets having so much dominance.

Having said that, the way I've destroyed some of the meat I've smoked (ribs), you could use road kill & you wouldn't tell the difference

For a pork butt just tell them you want the top half of the shoulder cut at the joint. If they cant figure it out from that they need to go back to butchers school. You could always just ask for a whole shoulder and cook that up. Nothing wrong with the picnic portion of the shoulder IMO.