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Head to Chinatown for cuts with “high grapple factor”, and seek out a Punjabi butcher’s if you’re struggling to find mutton. Six chefs share their tips for specialist shops.
Kosher
Kosher butchers offer prepared meats that follow Jewish dietary laws known as kashrut. Beef, lamb and poultry take centre stage, but you can also find duck and turkey. You won’t find pork, rabbit or any other non-kosher meat. Most pieces come pre-packed. For example, quartered boilers, perfect for the traditional Friday night chicken soup. Lamb cuts are popular, though not a leg of lamb as it is forbidden to eat the sciatic nerve. Beef enthusiasts will find brisket (plain or pickled), spare and short ribs, London broil, prime bola and rib-eye steaks, while pickled tongue is popular with Ashkenazi Jews. Kosher butchers are closed on Friday afternoons and Saturdays for Shabbat but open on Sundays.
Silvia Nacamulli, author of Jewish Flavours of Italy: A Family Cookbook
Chinese
The list of goods for sale at a Chinatown butcher’s counter is a vivid indication of where Chinese priorities lie when it comes to meat. Right at the top is pork belly, the luxurious meat of celebrations. Then there are those parts that are prized for their interesting flavours and textures: trotter, ear, tongue, tail, heart, liver, kidney, stomach, large intestine, skin (for jellies) and bones (for stock). Below pork comes beef, one of the essential meats for Chinese Muslims and more generally eaten only in relatively modern times. Fresh beef tripe is a favourite ingredient for scalding in Sichuan hotpot. Beef tendons are cool and taut in cold dishes or magnificently gelatinous when braised for hours. There are no chicken breasts for sale: instead, wings and feet, with their enticing “high grapple factor”; crispy-chewy gizzards and delicious hearts; and the “mature hens” (laomuji, “old mother chickens”) which are the base of traditional stocks and many fine soups.
Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food
Punjabi
A Punjabi butcher, often signposted as a “Desi Butcher”, specialises in cuts tailor-made for the cuisines of northern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as dishes from Nepal, Myanmar and Afghanistan. They are known for their outstanding lamb and mutton and always take a nose-to-tail approach — the thickly cut marrow bones and lamb’s liver being especially prized by south Asian customers. Chicken is equally prevalent, pre-marinated in a range of aromatic spice rubs and heady masala pastes. You’ll also find pork, wild boar and venison — but are unlikely to find beef, as cows are considered to be holy by many of the religious communities that use these establishments. Punjabi butchers tend to have very few items on display — orders are usually phoned, freshly prepared and then collected at an allotted slot. Don’t be shy about calling.
Gurdeep Loyal, author of Mother Tongue — Flavours of a Second Generation
Maghrebi
North African butchers specialise in Maghrebi cuisine, encompassing the traditions of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco and Mauritania. These shops are renowned for their merguez — spiced lamb sausages. You’ll also find poultry and beef, but no pork due to halal restrictions. Maghrebi butchers provide specialities for mechoui (charcoal-grilled meat), including lamb chops, brochettes of lamb and chicken marinated in spices. You will also find offal. Consider pre-ordering caul fat — the membrane that surrounds an animal’s internal organs — to wrap around chopped liver for delicious grilled Boulfaf brochettes. A visit to a butcher’s during Ramadan, happening now, is recommended. They transform into lively markets, offering a variety of home-made bread, sweets and cakes made by local women.
Boutheina Ben Salem, chef and host of Babél de B Tunisian Supper Club
Brazilian
The cut Brazil is best known for is picanha — rump steak without the fat cap taken off, which is central to churrasco [barbecue]. One of my favourite things to buy at a Brazilian butcher’s is Calabrese sausages. Modelled on Italian sausages, due to the large Italian-Brazilian population, they’re chunkier, fattier, full of flavour and contain neither rusk nor filler. You’re unlikely to find bacon rashers in Brazilian butcher’s, but there’s a whole other world of smoked and cured pork to discover; knuckles, large lardons, belly and ribs, which you can buy separately or as a mix in vac-packed bags, ready to drop into a pot of feijão (black beans). You can also get a lot of offal, particularly chicken hearts.
Ixta Belfrage, author of MEZCLA: Recipes to Excite
Caribbean and African
With dishes that call for goat meat, chicken necks, mutton and cow foot, dishes from Caribbean islands and African countries are not always served by traditional British butcher counters. For a long time, that need has been met by south Asian-run butchers. With more whole-carcass butchery happening in the UK, it is easier to request particular cuts and even certain animals, such as goat. Though, often, I’ve had to buy more than intended, because the butcher felt they may struggle to sell the rest. And, more recently, specialist Black-owned butchers have opened. Campbell’s Meats, in the West Midlands (now online only), claims to be the first Black butchers in the UK.
Melissa Thompson, author of Motherland: A Jamaican Cookbook
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