THE DAY OF THE PERFECT BUTCHER

One of the benchmarks of any B&B has got to be it's breakfast, which essentially means any ingredient needs to be of an excellent quality. However, in running a business this has to be sought at an affordable price and so, I am pleased to say, this involves a 'little research'.
       The most expensive part of the breakfast is the meat and it is clear that a good butcher is required. Now it has to be said that Norfolk appears to take great pride in supplying locally produced foods and there are actually many very good butchers around the area. I would say that this is substantially better than it was in the area we came from in Sussex. Every other Farm appears to sell their own meat and most of the Butchers buy directly from the local farms. The other noticeable thing about these butchers is the freshness and pure size of the range of products that they offer.
    Sadly for many years the high street butcher has been crushed by the Supermarkets, causing them to have so little turnover that they could barely sell a whole Primal (initial cut of the carcass) before its code life expired. As a result I have seen shop displays that are so minimal in range that they have resembled those of the era of war time rationing. The Supermarkets did such a great job that there is now a generation that is not aware that there were butchers in every high street and every village.The only way they have survived is to keep their customer base and very often this was done via price but at the cost of quality. Hence both Supermarkets and Butchers settled for selling items like chicken breast,which have been battery farmed and injected & engorged with water. The desire for quality at affordable prices has now really gained momentum and this crazy habit of sending the animal to slaughter then halfway across the country to be processed, then back out to the distribution depots then out to shops has its own price tag on it - oil.
So, I am absolutely loving these busy, thriving village Butchers for all that they stand for and I am particularly impressed with an award winning one called M & M Rutland Butchers of Melton Constable, http://www.rutland-butchers.co.uk/index.php , who are just fantastic. They produce a home-made range of some 40 different sausages and you can buy FRESH Pigeon, Pheasant, Partridge, quail, Grouse, Venison, oh just about everything. AND IT IS FRESH, and the Beef is 'matured'. I had one of their hand-made chicken Kiev's today and the chicken breast was meaty and had no water steaming out of it. Go onto their site and look at the unique sausage varieties. AND what I admire more than anything else is that they close half day on Saturdays and do not open on Sundays, their customers know this and make a point of getting there when they are open. So here's to the Perfect Butchers and to their loyal customers.