Looking For A New Butcher

[stormie]

This guy can get you turkey necks even though they're not on the website, he gets them for another DOL member: http://www.justfood4dogs.com.au/

Hope you're not talking about me, sas, cause I don't get my turkey necks from him. I tried but he said he couldn't get them??

Ohhh poo!!! What were you getting form him?

He gets me my turkey mince. Necks I get from (well, I get them when they get my order right) Myella.

[Cordelia]

Go to Quigley's Quality Meats at Pemulway (Greystanes).. Not only are they lovely guys.. my son is an apprentice there.

No idea if they stock turkey necks, but Pete will get them in for you if he can.

Otherwise.. go to Biada or Redlea in Girraween.. both stock turkey necks as far as I know... I can check on Tues if you like.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I have had a few arguments with butchers handling money and food with the same hands, and mixing raw chicken juice with bacon, ham or steak. I definitely switch butchers when I see that happen.

I get the dog meat from our local foodland, which sells human grade meat for about half the price of safeway/woolies. I get meat for me from the butcher, though I am thinking of finding the organic meat butcher, because my current favourite has started selling "grain fed" beef which I like about as much as battery farm chicken.

I can't fed my dog bones unsupervised because she insists on swallowing spikey pieces and then vomiting them in the middle of the night. BLECH. Or having trouble passing the bits the next morning. And that goes for the blessed beef marrow bones, as well as anything more delicate. When I do buy dog bones (for other dogs or if I have time to supervise the eating and remove before splinters happen) if the butcher asks - I say it's for soup or stock, cos dog bones must have GST added and the human food doesn't.

My fave butcher sells dog treats like pigs ears and roo jerkey. So I think he's pretty happy to keep his customers in dog bones too.

All our supermarkets sell "soup bones" too. Including chicken necks and the like.

And I'm not too happy when I can't get a forequarter of lamb to roast with the lamb shank still attached. That's my favourite bit, and all the shanks get sold to restaurants today for "braised lamb shanks" which used to be something cheap and yummy for them to make a profit on, but now it's all expensive. I do like a butcher who can bring out an uncut side of lamb and listen and do exactly cut how I want. Sometimes I have to order ahead of time to get it.

[Erny]

I have had a few arguments with butchers handling money and food with the same hands ...

I remember quite some time ago I asked/commented about meat being handled without gloves, which was what was occurring when I was being served at that time. I was informed (rightly/wrongly?) that retailers/butchers don't have to wear gloves because the meat is going to be cooked anyhow .

[Lady Flying Furball]

What a pity! Sounds like the wife is very customer friendly and helpful...no doubt she is smoothing over things with customers a lot. No business brains in that fella, a bit temperamental, and maybe you can be thankful that you are not in that marriage

[ness]

Our local IGA/Foodland has Turkey necks and recently they seem to have more turkey necks then chicken necks when I have gone into purchase meat for the dogs.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Meat is going to be cooked anyway.

Sort of.

But what I objected to was my steak and my ham and my money being handled all with the same hands and no washing between. Wasn't planning to cook the ham or the money so was a fantastic way to contaminate everything.

It's better to stop the meat from getting contaminated in the first place.

The other dumb trick some butchers / deli servers have is to fill a bag with chicken, carefully folding the bag inside out to pick up the chicken like we pick up dog poo and keep it off our hands, then taking bag of chicken and dumping it on the scales then returning the bag to the chicken then dumping it in the chicken or tray of whatever is nearby to pick up more chicken. And then putting it back on the scales. HELLO????

Maybe if the outside of the bag was covered in bright blue chalk they'd notice what they were doing.

I've never seen the scales cleaned either.

[percyk]

yeah it s abit of a toughie here

a bit of pride on both sides hey

what would i do?

let me think and try to be honest..cos it is hard if youre not in the situation

the right thing woulld be just to forget it and get onwith it

but thats a hard thing to do lol

not when someone has been rude to you

so id probably do the wrong thing and go look for another butcher...cutting my nose to spite my face

but OH would steer me back.....hes a blessed relationship textbook on legs and is always counselling me as to how to do it right

lol

OH Has learned his lessons on this planet and wont be coming back

i on the otherhand am a slow learner and will be back to this planet to start over

bugger

look

go back and keep buying the bones

and make sure the old hairyeyed one sees you buying a family roast occasionally

be the bigger person

go on lol

you go first

[Skruffy n Flea]

thanks for the replies :cool:

for the few that said i should go back i appreciate the reasoning but srsly, i'd be too unhappy to hand over my hard-earned cash to his establishment

and with gary as the chief cook in our house, i'd make a fool of myself trying to fool them that i knew a thing or two about 'cuts'

thanks to those too that provided links and other avenues of supply; i will certainly be looking into using them :D

ness, there's an IGA just up from this butcher!!!

[scrappy power]

We use an online butcher www.melbournebutcher.com.au , they deliver to your door and their pet mince is fantastic 2$ for a kilo , and their bones are really good value as well , i have had similar problems with butchers in the past for some reason they think that buying for your pet is below them.

any way hope this helps.

[Ravyk]

Meat is going to be cooked anyway.

Sort of.

But what I objected to was my steak and my ham and my money being handled all with the same hands and no washing between. Wasn't planning to cook the ham or the money so was a fantastic way to contaminate everything.

It's better to stop the meat from getting contaminated in the first place.

The other dumb trick some butchers / deli servers have is to fill a bag with chicken, carefully folding the bag inside out to pick up the chicken like we pick up dog poo and keep it off our hands, then taking bag of chicken and dumping it on the scales then returning the bag to the chicken then dumping it in the chicken or tray of whatever is nearby to pick up more chicken. And then putting it back on the scales. HELLO????

Maybe if the outside of the bag was covered in bright blue chalk they'd notice what they were doing.

I've never seen the scales cleaned either.

I work as a Deli Assistant at a supermarket.

If done correctly there should not be any cross contamination. Hence why we use the inverted bag technique, we NEVER touch the meat with bare hands. IF you go to a place that doesn't use that, complain! It's against food safety regulations [at least in supermarkets] for people to serve meat with bare hands.

The scales do get cleaned regularly. I know, because I do them every day, multiple times an hour. The reason you don't see them cleaned is because if you are there, we [the deli assistants] MUST be serving. They get cleaned, like everything else does when there are no customers around.

Hands do get washed on a regular basis, with commercial grade sanitiser when NO customers are around.

Now the reason why people tend to put the bag down on or next to the chicken when filling more is for a few reasons. Ever had a look at the bags? They are thin as and if you hold it suspended with a decent amount [more than 500g] the bag WILL break very quickly. Generally with chicken people are asking for at least a kilo or more. It is also hard to hold a bag with slippery chicken in it, in the air and still manage to get more in the bag without touching meat with bare hands, hence why it tends to be rested on other products.

Our safety standards also dictate we are not allowed to serve customers wearing gloves.

If it bothers you so much, ASK for the bag to be double bagged. I tend to double bag products which I have accidentally got marinade, or chicken juice on the outside.

We are not dumb, we are trying to do our jobs to the satisfaction of our customers. If you have a problem, bring it up with the manager of the store that does the practices you don't like, we cannot fix mistakes we do not know about.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Ravyk