The size, of lamb chops.

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WeavingGryphon

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The size, of lamb chops.
« on: December 20, 2019, 23:07 »
Tonight I was looking for lamb chops and I was up and down the shop looking for an actual lamb chop like I remember from the 90s and they don't exist! All I could find was these little fiddly things that you'd need 2/3 of to make up a '90s chop. The ones that look like a pork chop; big things with the oval of meat and the strip of meat/fat along one side, darker than pork and a picture of a sheep on the label. These things have a T shaped bone in the middle and fat wings hanging off it. Like a tiny pathetic Barnsley chop. Did a supermarket search and it seems like this is how pork chops are now.

Anyone else notice this?
Otherwise anyone care to share any complaints of how they've perverted our expectations of food?

I'm going to complain about pork chops as well. I got some (reduced or I'd have complained) and the butchery was a horror, it was through the bone so there was dribbly bits of marrow everywhere and bone fragments everywhere. Including attached to the meat away from the ribs . They were funny shapes and the ones on the bottom, looked like off the end cut as it didn't have the oval and strip formation.

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mrs bouquet

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Re: The size, of lamb chops.
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2019, 10:41 »
I have just given up buying both lamb and pork chops now for the reasons you say.    I suppose the butchery is done by machines.    Some of the bones are really sharp little splinters, and very fine bone seems to be coated on the meat.    >:(  Mrs Bouquet
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mumofstig

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Re: The size, of lamb chops.
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2019, 12:18 »
There's not much choice in the supermarket, is there?
Not all countries butcher their lamb at such a small size as we do in the UK... I don't know why our farmers choose to. If you've got farm shops nearby perhaps you can buy hogget (year old lamb) or my favourite mutton chops. Both have more flavour and larger size carcass.
I can still get decent sized pork chops here, but have to explain to the butcher what I want.... Nowadays they sell the thickest part of the loin, where the big chops come from, as a roasting joint after they've removed the bones.


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WeavingGryphon

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Re: The size, of lamb chops.
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2019, 13:45 »
There's not much choice in the supermarket, is there?
Not all countries butcher their lamb at such a small size as we do in the UK... I don't know why our farmers choose to. If you've got farm shops nearby perhaps you can buy hogget (year old lamb) or my favourite mutton chops. Both have more flavour and larger size carcass.
I can still get decent sized pork chops here, but have to explain to the butcher what I want.... Nowadays they sell the thickest part of the loin, where the big chops come from, as a roasting joint after they've removed the bones.

I haven't been to the butcher in 4 years for good reason.

The time before last I was in a butcher we'd been long term customers of that was shut down and the family banned from keeping animals for life on welfare and chemicals that shouldn't be in the meat issues. That was the £5 for pork cheeks place.

The last time was the butchers along. I got a mad meat mumbling Butcher and screamed at by a woman called Sadie and while the meat was apparently good, I never went back. Also it was pre cut up by the abattoir which I didn't expect.

I was getting beef skirt/pork roasts, sausages and the butcher had to be told multiple times I wanted 4 of beef skirts and I wanted them trimmed of skin. They were in the bag, out of the bag, then I reminded him I wanted them trimmed of the skin. Yes I was sure. So they all came out of the bag. He had his face down next to the beef and was smoothing it out with both hands and mumbling to it continuously before trimming it (badly) and starting to mumble and trim the next ones. it was the best part of 10 minutes as the clock was behind him to get 3 skirts trimmed. the 4th went AWOL, probably scared of all the fondling and mumbling.

They were then in and out of the bags again, sometimes all in one bag, then in separate bags. I was losing the will to live and telling him the bus was coming and I needed to get the baby home for a feed. I could porting them at home no problem. He flapped more.

It got worse, he stated to panic and the bag jumping continued but with the bags going into my bag for life, the shop bag, out of both, in my bag, then out. I was wondering why he had a job and could I get someone else. the man right beside him. Then I asked how much something was because it had no sign and he put them all in a bag and I had to tell him to stop. I asked for something in a bag not a foil tray as it was going to be cooked in a slow cooker and I may as well not have spoken as and into a foil tray it went anyway.

I abandoned the rest of my order and asked him to put it through. Then the dance with the bags started AGAIN and the bus went past. I should have walked out. He then took my card and disappeared in the back for 5 minutes.

Sadie came in with her son just as he disappeared (he was in his 50s) and I asked do I need to move the buggy, just let me know and I'll happily shift it. She looked through me and her son started to talk about all the colours of the meat-relevant fact.
They were at the far end of the counter so I waited until they meandered half way to the buggy and I started to take the brakes off the buggy when she started SCREAMING at me that I needed to move the buggy didn't I see her son was blind. After him spending 5 minutes talking about what he could see. It wasn't just the butcher that had lost it.
 
If the beef whisper wasn't still off looking for the yellow brick road I'd have been gone without the meat and left those insane sods to their madness. The beef whisper lunatic that was serving me reached peak something and clearly couldn't cope came back with the wireless handset and handed it to the other butcher to let Sadie pay. Who took her sweet time. After me having been waiting. When he finally got it back he broke it and disappeared for another 5 minutes out the back for a gallop about and the other butcher came to the rescue.

Then there was more dancing with the bags, he was totally losing whatever was left in there and I was telling him that another bus was due and I'd been here for almost an hour and they only come every 30 minutes.

The other butcher hoped to see me again. I barely made the bus, they are 30 minutes apart so it would have been a long wait and I had been in there for almost an hour. The card thankfully hadn't had it's details stolen so I don't know what he was doing besides galloping back and forwards past the entrance.

I was talking to people afterwards about the insane butcher I wasn't listening to their recommendations again. OOOH that's typical of him, it's what he's like, he's only part time and I "was lucky to get him". As if I didn't have a baby and life to get on with rather than "enjoying" the company that brand of crazy so & so. He's "great" a fun feature and people go there when he's on just to get served by him, to experience all that or watch him suffer maybe and secretly laugh.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2019, 15:03 by mumofstig »

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New shoot

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Re: The size, of lamb chops.
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2019, 16:56 »
Supermarket stuff is often cut on a bandsaw, so you get the bone splinters everywhere.   It looks cheap compared to a butchers shop, but the quality is pretty dodgy a lot of the time.

Our local butcher is good for decent sized chops and properly cut meat.  I let them know if I want anything special, go finish my shopping elsewhere, then pop back.  They are a friendly lot and always happy to help.

They have been burning the midnight oil working late recently as their busiest time is looming.  We give them a wave as we leave the shop and they do the same, if they get out first.  We both fell out of the doors gone midnight yesterday, commiserated on how we hate Christmas (work wise anyway), then staggered off home  :lol:

There is a shortage of qualified butchers, which may explain why abattiors are doing the butchery.  It would make sense to have the skilled workers there and then distribute to the shops  :)

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wapello

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Re: The size, of lamb chops.
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2019, 18:35 »
Here on the iow i steer clear of the big box stores meat and fish counters it all seems to be layed out
to clinical no thanks, any way i have a mate here who  is  a meat wholesaler and i get what i want at the right
price and it is top notch,,,

I agree with the lamb chop thing by the time they are cooked and shrunk they look like a 30p lolly,
Colin

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Yorkie

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Re: The size, of lamb chops.
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2019, 20:45 »
My local butchers are superb and will do you whatever you want.

At Christmas they have a day where the orders have to be collected.  They are open an hour late on Monday (7am) and there will be a massive queue.  All day, they will feed their queue customers port (or OJ) and mince pies or sweets.  It's a festive atmosphere and part of the Christmas tradition for many.

We are very lucky still to have independent shops like this one - cherish them!
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days all attack me at once...

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snowdrops

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Re: The size, of lamb chops.
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2019, 20:49 »
I buy half a lamb from a farm a few miles away, you can have it butchered how you like. Quality is excellent as is the beef
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WeavingGryphon

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Re: The size, of lamb chops.
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2019, 11:01 »
I buy half a lamb from a farm a few miles away, you can have it butchered how you like. Quality is excellent as is the beef

We are seriously considering doing this since the In Laws are half a mile from a farm that may or may not produce sheep to eat. I'd love to taste hogget. Wait I'm a vegetarian. Well that's my plans scuppered, well I'd love to try it on this lot because so far as long as it's an animal they'll eat it.

 

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