I bet you've never been to TEN butcher shops in a day. And if by some stroke of crazy you have, I bet you were really pissed that you couldn't find whatever obscure ingredient you were looking for!
Andy and leave for Seattle tomorrow morning to go to the funeral of my absolutely amazing grandma Hilda. (As an aside - check out this blog that my cousin made that shares her story. What an inspiration she was to all of us!) Since we're getting into town a day early, we thought we could maximize the trip by scoping out the Seattle meat scene. Hopefully we'll pick up some ideas that we like and can incorporate into our store!
We're going to head straight up from the airport to:
1. Bob's Quality Meats
2. The Swinery
3. Salumi (this is our planned lunch break - the sandwiches and the charcuterie plate sound out of control!!)
4. Don & Joe's Meats
5. BB Ranch Butcher (4,5 are in Pike's Place Market I think)
6. Rain Shadow Meats
7. A&J Meats and Seafood
8. Bill the Butcher (Magnolia)
9. Cascioppo Brothers Italian
10. Better Meat Inc.
11. Bill the Butcher (Wallingford)
Seattle folks - are there any gems that I missed?
I did a similar tour of San Francisco a few weeks ago, and to be honest it gets pretty monotonous by the end - just another butcher shop, you know. But, I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. Some of the key things I noticed was that a bunch of shops had display cases that were completely foggy - you couldn't even see the product! I couldn't believe it. And, almost none of the shops I went to told the story about the meat - where it was from, how it was raised, etc. Exceptions to that complaint in SF were Olivier's Butchery and Marina Meats, but most the rest made you ask, and even then many didn't know.
When we get our shop up and running we want to really tell a story - as a new customer walks in we want them to leave from their first visit with a pretty good idea of what we're all about. Funny that's the biggest lesson learned. Totally Business School 101; Have a vision/mission and build your business incorporating that purpose into all aspects of what you do.
So, what's your favorite butcher shop and why do you like it? Or, if you don't have a favorite, is there a horror story? Leave it in a comment here on the blog - I can't wait to take your recommendations and put together our next market survey!
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
New York, New York!
Just when I thought I had used up my last juicy tidbit of news, Andy and I went and made more.
No, we're not having twins....
Andy is going to New York!! He has been accepted as an apprentice at Fleisher's Grass Fed and Organic Meats in Brooklyn. It's a three month program and he'll be starting in September. Over the three months he'll graduate from lamb to pork to beef. Throughout the apprenticeship he'll also be learning about sausage-making and other products Fleisher's makes (they're adamant about using the whole animal so they even sell homemade stocks, soap, and liver treats for dogs). From ASU MBA Finance Student of the Year to butcher apprentice in just two years. It's amazing how life pulls and tugs us in different directions!
Can you hear how jealous I am? I'm so bummed I don't get to apprentice, too! But, I'm working on some more local options for my hands on experience. Since I'll be pretty far along in my pregnancy by the fall, I need to stay closer to home (and to the doctor). But, I'll be coming out for at least one and maybe a second visit depending on whether or not I get so huge by then that my belly and I will need to pay for two seats. So - East Coast friends plan on making time for a visit sometime in September/October!!
So, here's where the call for help comes in. Do any of you know someone in NY (preferably Brooklyn, and doubly preferably in walking distance to Fleisher's in Park Slope) that has an extra room and would be interested in taking on a tenant for a few months?! Estimated timeline September 1- December 1.
Some pros/cons about renting a room to Andy:
Pros:
Ridiculously Clean
Friendly & Funny
Quiet
Will bring home meat from the shop to share with roommates (unless they're vegetarians)
Cons:
I'll probably visit once or twice, so there will be an occasional overnight visitor, and I'm way less clean than Andy is
Your room won't be empty any more
If you think you know someone who may be able to help, please let Andy or I know. Or, if you have any better ideas for where we should be searching other than craigslist and airbnb we'd love the advice!
No, we're not having twins....
Andy is going to New York!! He has been accepted as an apprentice at Fleisher's Grass Fed and Organic Meats in Brooklyn. It's a three month program and he'll be starting in September. Over the three months he'll graduate from lamb to pork to beef. Throughout the apprenticeship he'll also be learning about sausage-making and other products Fleisher's makes (they're adamant about using the whole animal so they even sell homemade stocks, soap, and liver treats for dogs). From ASU MBA Finance Student of the Year to butcher apprentice in just two years. It's amazing how life pulls and tugs us in different directions!
Can you hear how jealous I am? I'm so bummed I don't get to apprentice, too! But, I'm working on some more local options for my hands on experience. Since I'll be pretty far along in my pregnancy by the fall, I need to stay closer to home (and to the doctor). But, I'll be coming out for at least one and maybe a second visit depending on whether or not I get so huge by then that my belly and I will need to pay for two seats. So - East Coast friends plan on making time for a visit sometime in September/October!!
So, here's where the call for help comes in. Do any of you know someone in NY (preferably Brooklyn, and doubly preferably in walking distance to Fleisher's in Park Slope) that has an extra room and would be interested in taking on a tenant for a few months?! Estimated timeline September 1- December 1.
Some pros/cons about renting a room to Andy:
 |
| The Andyman cutting meat! |
Pros:
Ridiculously Clean
Friendly & Funny
Quiet
Will bring home meat from the shop to share with roommates (unless they're vegetarians)
Cons:
I'll probably visit once or twice, so there will be an occasional overnight visitor, and I'm way less clean than Andy is
Your room won't be empty any more
If you think you know someone who may be able to help, please let Andy or I know. Or, if you have any better ideas for where we should be searching other than craigslist and airbnb we'd love the advice!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Woman, Pig, Knife.
WARNING: this post has graphic description and pictures of butchering a pig carcass. Faint of heart - read no further!
I took my second butchery class this weekend. And, it was awesome. Somehow I had convinced my seven months pregnant sister that she should join me - and we spent the day carving up a few pigs. The class, taught by Bailie at The Fatted Calf in Napa was called "Woman, Pig, Knife." I got a kick out of finding out that Bailie had created her exclusive women's butchery class as a nod to the Women's Studies degree that she had never used in her culinary career. Perhaps some day I can write the history of American butchering and finally put that American History degree to work!
What I love about these classes is that they just usher you back into their working kitchen, hand you a knife and put you to work! As we stepped into the kitchen this Saturday, this is what we were welcomed with:
So what did we learn? Well, the first step is to cut off the trotters (feet) and the hocks (the piece that will be smoked and put in pea soup). I cut off one trotter - still haven't tried eating one though. Does anyone know any recipes? I heard it is a real delicacy in some cultures.
Step two is to cut the pig into it's primal cuts - shoulder, loin, belly and ham.
With one of our pigs, we didn't cut the belly off, but made a porchetta roast. Once again, I haven't tried porchetta yet, but I'm thinking this may become a family holiday tradition. Basically you keep the belly (which would become bacon if cured and smoked) attached to the pork loin and tenderloin, debone the whole thing, season it, then then roll it up skin side out and roast it. The outer layers of the roast are fattier than the inside layers so they keep it all moist, and the skin (supposedly) gets crunchy like cracklings. My, oh my. Google it.
Third step is to cut these primals into subprimals or gourmet cuts, depending how you're planning to use the meat. A butcher shop would probably be looking for mostly pork chops, pork loins, hams, and sausage. At our class we saved one ham to be cured into prosciutto (yum!), but we deboned the the others to chop into 2 inch cubes that we seasoned and skewered to make brochettes.
We also deboned the shoulders from our pig and ground it to make crepinettes (a word my husband LOVES to say with a French accent...) A crepinette looks a lot like a hamburger patty, but then it's wrapped in caul fat (which comes from around the pig's kidneys, but basically looks like a spider web of fat. We seasoned the sausage with some Vietnamese spices and herbs, and I'm telling you, if you've never had a crepinette before, as Tommy Boy said, "Get ready to Live!"
Second only to the fact that this is awesome hands on butchery experience, the best part of these classes is the food. Through the entire class you can take charcuterie breaks to snack on the Fatted Calf''s best, then about 2/3 through the class they bring out the wine, so by the time we headed outside for a lunch of roast pork loin, served with beans that taste like cassoulet and a wild rice and artichoke salad finished with fresh strawberries most of my classmates were a wee bit tipsy. At least they were talking louder and laughing more!! Too fun. I suppose now is as good a time as any to admit that the reason I wasn't drinking the gorgeous unfiltered Chardonnay that they were serving wasn't out of sisterly support - I just hit the twelve week mark, so now I'm allowed to tell you all, we're having a baby, too!!
And now, we'll see how long you keep reading this blog. I'm fresh out of big news! I promise I'll keep it interesting, but don't expect any more whammies like these!!!
I took my second butchery class this weekend. And, it was awesome. Somehow I had convinced my seven months pregnant sister that she should join me - and we spent the day carving up a few pigs. The class, taught by Bailie at The Fatted Calf in Napa was called "Woman, Pig, Knife." I got a kick out of finding out that Bailie had created her exclusive women's butchery class as a nod to the Women's Studies degree that she had never used in her culinary career. Perhaps some day I can write the history of American butchering and finally put that American History degree to work!
What I love about these classes is that they just usher you back into their working kitchen, hand you a knife and put you to work! As we stepped into the kitchen this Saturday, this is what we were welcomed with:
 |
| Half of a pig and a really cute little pig head!! |
So what did we learn? Well, the first step is to cut off the trotters (feet) and the hocks (the piece that will be smoked and put in pea soup). I cut off one trotter - still haven't tried eating one though. Does anyone know any recipes? I heard it is a real delicacy in some cultures.
Step two is to cut the pig into it's primal cuts - shoulder, loin, belly and ham.
 |
| That's me sawing the ham off the loin!! |
With one of our pigs, we didn't cut the belly off, but made a porchetta roast. Once again, I haven't tried porchetta yet, but I'm thinking this may become a family holiday tradition. Basically you keep the belly (which would become bacon if cured and smoked) attached to the pork loin and tenderloin, debone the whole thing, season it, then then roll it up skin side out and roast it. The outer layers of the roast are fattier than the inside layers so they keep it all moist, and the skin (supposedly) gets crunchy like cracklings. My, oh my. Google it.
 |
| Professor Bailie seasoning a soon to be porchetta. |
Third step is to cut these primals into subprimals or gourmet cuts, depending how you're planning to use the meat. A butcher shop would probably be looking for mostly pork chops, pork loins, hams, and sausage. At our class we saved one ham to be cured into prosciutto (yum!), but we deboned the the others to chop into 2 inch cubes that we seasoned and skewered to make brochettes.
 |
| How good does that look? Pork seasoned with Herbs de Provence, garlic and Onion |
Second only to the fact that this is awesome hands on butchery experience, the best part of these classes is the food. Through the entire class you can take charcuterie breaks to snack on the Fatted Calf''s best, then about 2/3 through the class they bring out the wine, so by the time we headed outside for a lunch of roast pork loin, served with beans that taste like cassoulet and a wild rice and artichoke salad finished with fresh strawberries most of my classmates were a wee bit tipsy. At least they were talking louder and laughing more!! Too fun. I suppose now is as good a time as any to admit that the reason I wasn't drinking the gorgeous unfiltered Chardonnay that they were serving wasn't out of sisterly support - I just hit the twelve week mark, so now I'm allowed to tell you all, we're having a baby, too!!
And now, we'll see how long you keep reading this blog. I'm fresh out of big news! I promise I'll keep it interesting, but don't expect any more whammies like these!!!
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
All In a Day's Read
As soon as Andy and I started thinking seriously about this butcher shop concept, we did what all good MBAs would do; we started researching. As I look back on this (very much still ongoing) research phase, we've had three major tactics. Good old-fashioned book reading, market survey field trips, and hands on butchery experience. They've all been really helpful, but for those of you who will be following along and want to know where the heck we came up with these ideas or just want to learn more about the meat that you're eating, here are a few of the first books we've been reading to educate ourselves:
The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
So - this book is considered to be a bit of a bible for meat lovers. It's about as thick as the real Bible, and it takes as much dedication to get through it in its entirety, but there are so many lessons you'll learn that if you're a meat fanatic, I'm sure you'll consider it worth the investment. He starts with a philosophical discussion about the morality of eating meat in the first place, before getting into detailed descriptions of each breed all the way from raising them to eating them. He makes the natural, slow raised animals sound like they taste SO much better than what you can buy at the supermarket. I'm not sure I've ever really had the kind of meat he's talking about!! The book ends with a section of recipes that will make your mouth water. My Dad has been talking about the Coq au Vin recipe for weeks now. I'm thinking maybe I'll surprise him with some for his birthday.
Honesty Note: I have not finished this book. I'm telling you. It's really long.
A Butcher's Guide to Well Raised Meat; How to Buy, Cut and Cook Great Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry and More by Joshua and Jessica Applestone and Alexandra Zissu
Awesome Freaking book. Joshua and Jessica were some of the first to kick off this re-emergence of the nose to tail butcher. They tell the story of how they started their butcher shop in the Hudson Valley of NY, and share their values-based but pragmatic approach to sourcing and using the entire animal in their butchery practice. This book is a fun, easy read and is a bit of a handbook for what Andy and I are going to try to do. We may even try to apprentice with Fleisher's to get the hands on experience in how to cut meat and run a business like theirs.
Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman, Brian Polcyn, and Thomas Keller
Did you know that you could make your own bacon in just a few days at your own home? Seriously! I was shocked to see how easy some of these recipes were. Now, I haven't executed any of them yet, so I guess I"ll brag about how easy it was once I've done it successfully, but if you're a bit of a bacon fiend, or can never find guanciale for your spaghetti carbonara, maybe you can just make your own and vary the spice mixes until it's the best you've ever tried! Now that I have some free time on my hands I'm going to start in on these recipes. I'll defnitely be posting my results!
I'll tell you about our market surveys next time. Off to San Francisco for one as we speak!
PS - I'm new to this whole blog thing, so please excuse my lack of technical knowledge. I guess on my first post, the link to "subscribe" wasn't really working for a lot of people, so I added a new link on the bottom of the page where you can either "Join this Page" or "Follow by Email." Otherwise you're welcome to just follow the links I post on Facebook!!
The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
So - this book is considered to be a bit of a bible for meat lovers. It's about as thick as the real Bible, and it takes as much dedication to get through it in its entirety, but there are so many lessons you'll learn that if you're a meat fanatic, I'm sure you'll consider it worth the investment. He starts with a philosophical discussion about the morality of eating meat in the first place, before getting into detailed descriptions of each breed all the way from raising them to eating them. He makes the natural, slow raised animals sound like they taste SO much better than what you can buy at the supermarket. I'm not sure I've ever really had the kind of meat he's talking about!! The book ends with a section of recipes that will make your mouth water. My Dad has been talking about the Coq au Vin recipe for weeks now. I'm thinking maybe I'll surprise him with some for his birthday.
Honesty Note: I have not finished this book. I'm telling you. It's really long.
A Butcher's Guide to Well Raised Meat; How to Buy, Cut and Cook Great Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry and More by Joshua and Jessica Applestone and Alexandra Zissu
Awesome Freaking book. Joshua and Jessica were some of the first to kick off this re-emergence of the nose to tail butcher. They tell the story of how they started their butcher shop in the Hudson Valley of NY, and share their values-based but pragmatic approach to sourcing and using the entire animal in their butchery practice. This book is a fun, easy read and is a bit of a handbook for what Andy and I are going to try to do. We may even try to apprentice with Fleisher's to get the hands on experience in how to cut meat and run a business like theirs.
Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman, Brian Polcyn, and Thomas Keller
Did you know that you could make your own bacon in just a few days at your own home? Seriously! I was shocked to see how easy some of these recipes were. Now, I haven't executed any of them yet, so I guess I"ll brag about how easy it was once I've done it successfully, but if you're a bit of a bacon fiend, or can never find guanciale for your spaghetti carbonara, maybe you can just make your own and vary the spice mixes until it's the best you've ever tried! Now that I have some free time on my hands I'm going to start in on these recipes. I'll defnitely be posting my results!
I'll tell you about our market surveys next time. Off to San Francisco for one as we speak!
PS - I'm new to this whole blog thing, so please excuse my lack of technical knowledge. I guess on my first post, the link to "subscribe" wasn't really working for a lot of people, so I added a new link on the bottom of the page where you can either "Join this Page" or "Follow by Email." Otherwise you're welcome to just follow the links I post on Facebook!!
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