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Post by gracoman on Jul 3, 2016 13:03:55 GMT -5
I know this is common knowledge but the problem has grown.
I have been charged with smoking 4-10lb pork butts for tomorrow's 4th of July celebrations. Now prepping 40lbs of pork butt, with an added injection, is a fair amount of work. Especially with a sub par work station like I have. So I don't want any enhanced pork.
The last bastion of unenhanced local supermarket pork butts, for me, has been Safeway. I could go to Whole Paycheck and fork over the bar of gold they think their pork is worth, but these days pork butts are expensive enough.
Well, Safeway only carries pre-packeged pork butts now. They are now walking the trail blazed by our good friends at WalMart who began selling only pre-packaged meat when a Unionized living wage was suggested. Just like the other local supermarket chain. Today's butcher needs only to know how to take the meat out of the box and put it in the cooler out on the floor. Hopefully in the right section. But that is probably not a qualification.
No one is manning the saws. No one is at the slicers. And, in fact, no one in the meat department has an I.Q. greater than that of a flea. But that is another story.
Once upon a time, in a land that seems far away, and in a time that seems equally as distant... there were butchers.
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Post by BBQ Butcher on Jul 4, 2016 9:00:37 GMT -5
It is indeed a sad state of affairs. I shake my head every time I walk thru the meat department of various stores. Publix, here in the southeast, still has meat-cutters that actually know what they are doing 99% of the time. Winn-Dixie still has a few hold outs that are getting close to retirement age, but the new hires don't know a damn thing about cutting meat. Sav-A-Lot has a meat-cutter on duty, but what they cut is limited....some pork and some beef cuts. I was in their the other day as they had USDA Choice Short Ribs on sale and I wanted a few to put into the sous-vide. I was looking around, but couldn't find them. Then a meat-cutter ( ?) came out from the back to check the meat case's and the inventory. I asked him where the short ribs were. He told me I was standing in front of them. I looked and all I could see was beef strips. I said I wanted the bone-in that were advertised (complete with a photo in their ad). Again, he told me those were the short ribs on sale. I said NO they weren't, these are nothing but strips of boneless beef shoulder. So he rolled his eyes at me and walked off!! Man, was I pissed.......don't EVER roll your eyes at me when you have no clue what the phukk you are talking about
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