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The White Hat Guide to Butchers in MelbourneTypes of butcherIn most of Australia's larger cities you will find a number of different types of butcher shops:
The standard butcherIn most suburban shopping strips you will find a butchers store. Typically such a store will have carcasses delivered from the abattoir ir wholesaler in the middle of the night. The truck driver will have a key to the coolroom and will leave the ordered goods hanging on hooks. Such a shop may receive several deliveries a night if the carcasses come from different sources - sheep, cattle, pigs etc. The butcher then arrives early in the morning a selection of the carcasses into the desired cuts. The prices may vary during the day if the butcher has some meats he wishes to move or in order to match a special price by the butcher up the road. This type of butcher will usually perform extra preparation of the meat uf you request. Provided the shop is not extra busy you can choose a leg of lamb and haved it boned out or choose you cuts of meat and have them ground into mince. Special cuts may need to be ordered a day or two in advance. A good butcher knows how to manage his stock so there is no wastage. Meats may be turned into sausages, hamburger patties and meat loafs while larger cuts may be corned in brine. Bones, unwanted offal and other by-products will be regularly picked up for recycling in pet food, fertilizers and a host of other applications. Nothing is wasted. If you live in the suburbs we recommend you try a few butchers in your are then settle on one that you're happiest with and establish a relationship. Not too close a relationship, mind you, or your personal life could get complicated.) Expect prices to be moderate - not as expensive as supermarkets but not as cheap as market butchers and wholesalers. However you might be surprised what price reductions can be obtained by a little flirting. (If you need lessons in flirting try following an elderly nonna into her macellaria.) Sometimes you will come across a butcher shop in an unexpected location which appears to have few customers on any one day. This could mean it is a 'front' for some illegal operation, but I wouldn't venture that opinion to the gentleman behind the counter with his meat cleaver close at hand lest you end up on a meat hook in the coolroom. No, a much more likely explanation is that the supply restaurants and hotels or are makers of speciality smallgoods and it may as well have a shopfront as well. Don't expect a wide choice in such a shop but there may well be some particularly good value cuts that were surplus to requirements that day. Market butchers
Larger produce markets often have a series of butcher shops grouped together. These generally opate in the same way as the 'standard' butcher shop mentioned above but don't expect any special meat preparation during peak times. With a number of butchers within earshot, and during peak time they will be spruiking their prices, you can expect competition to be intense and prices to be low. In White Hat's experience, supermarkets often charge double the price of a market butcher for the equivalent cut of meat. Some of our favourite market butchers are:
The wholesale butcher or meat processor
SupermarketSome larger supermarkets have their own in-house butchers section but the majority accept deliveries of pre-packaged cuts of meat from a central supplier. The meat is nearly always packaged in plastic and in most cases there is no butcher present to bone a leg of lamb for you or mince your selected cut of meat. The price is on the plastic wrapper - take it or leave it - and this price even with the benefits of bulk purchasing and even if it is marked as a 'special' is usually well above what you would pay at a market butcher or wholesale butcher. That seems to have little effect on sales because many customers would not know the price of meat outside a supermarket. However supermarkets are very conscious of presentation and if the meat has started to go a little brown or is approaching its sell-by date someone will come around with a red felt pen and dramatically reduce the price. We as White Hat find that as a result we can often pick up good value meats suitable for casseroles and slow cooking around late afternoon on Sundays in a supermarket. Specialist butchers
Paddock to plateThe travelling butcher
The White Hat Food & Wine Map of Melbourne and Regional VictoriaClick on the desired link link to the right of the map. Use the controls to zoom in or out on the map or change to satellite view.
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Some meat processing establishments have shopfronts where they sell direct to the public. These establishments are often engaged in butchering and packaging meat for the export market where uniform quality and presentation become important. You can often buy the product ready for export or cuts that are fine quality but don't measure up to the presentation standards required. After four hours in the slow cooker who is going to know what that fine piece of meat that you bought at half price looked like in the display cabinet? Don't expect to find these places in your main street - they are more likely to be found in industrial estates. The meat is usually far cheaper than supermarkets, particularly if you are buying in bulk, but not usually as cheap as that in the best value market butchers mentioned above. Some that White Hat recommends include: