It’s National Butchers Week, but how well do you know your meats?

National Butchers Week (8-14 March) has arrived, and despite most people having a butcher local to them selling high quality meats, many are still unsure what questions to ask or what they can buy from them.

Occasions like Mother’s Day can be a hard one for people to decide what to cook, so Barry Green from Cairngorm Butchers in Grantown-on-Spey, which is a member of the Scotch Butchers Club, has shared his top tips on which cuts of meat to buy this year and how to enjoy them:

• If you fancy something a bit different from the usual beef Sunday roast, I would suggest going for a Scotch Beef prime rib cut which you can season up nicely and cook away on the barbecue while you serve your mum a nice glass of wine. For a medium rare cook, aim for 30 to 40 minutes.
• There’s nothing tastier than a Scotch Lamb shoulder stuffed with Mediterranean style cous cous and served with a side of your favourite vegetables – then you can dream of laying in the sun while you enjoy it!
• Belly and loin are my two favourite Specially Selected Pork cuts, best enjoyed as a roast with some potatoes and greens. These are tastiest after a low and slow cook.

But if you still need help knowing your belly from your breast, your rump from your chump, or your shank from your sirloin, the Scotch Butchers Club has launched a new website designed to teach you exactly that.

The website is a first for the club and has several features that focus on making the visit to a Scotch butcher easier for customers, including a personalised view of nearby Scotch butchers based on location, along with information and tips about what questions to ask to help get the best cut of meat for what you are cooking.

The blog section features butchers and suppliers from the club, who will be offering tips and inspiration, and the handy ‘Cuts Guide’ for beef, lamb and pork can suggest a quantity to order, provide an idea of the price range and even recommend recipes based on what you have chosen.

The Scotch Butchers Club is a group of likeminded butchers who are all accredited by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) for being committed to sourcing quality assured Scotch Beef PGI, Scotch Lamb PGI and Specially Selected Pork from Scottish farms that adopt best practice regarding animal welfare and production methods.

With research showing that almost four in five Scots (79%) agree that it is important to keep supporting local suppliers as we continue coming out of lockdowns*, there has never been a better reason to shop at your local Scotch butcher, where you can be assured that the meat you are buying is of top quality and supports local producers.

Gordon Newlands, Brand Development Manager from Quality Meat Scotland said: “Butcher shops are unfamiliar places for some people and they could be put off by the idea that their limited knowledge of different cuts of meat could result in them buying the wrong thing or end up with less than what they need.

“The new Scotch Butchers Club website is designed to alleviate those worries for people by making it a one-stop-shop where they can find their local Scotch butcher and then find out which cut of Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb or Specially Selected Pork will be best suited to whatever they are cooking, then all they need to do is pop down and buy what they need or give their butcher a call and ask to have it delivered to their door.”

For more information on Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork, or to find out more about the Scotch Butchers Club, visit www.scotchbutchers.com.