ottawa foodies

Just wondering what your favorite butcher is. Do you just buy from the large chains, or do you frequent a local butcher?

Normally, we usually buy from our local Sobeys or Farm Boy, but if I remember to I usually like to visit Lavergne's on Navan Road

Over the years I've used a variety of spots... The Butchery in Bells Corners was a staple for a long time, still stop in there if I'm in the area. Of late, I've discovered Pete & Gus Meat Market - Pete and Gus Meat Market in Barrhaven... they have great Steaks, California Rolls and other items... they won me over though during the Maple Leaf Listeria Crisis, when I discovered they "make" sandwich cold cuts by roasting large items like Turkey, Ham and Roast Beef and then deli slice it thin in-house for their customers. No preservatives, and no other crap... just honest to goodness cuts of meat.

And oh ya, you get FREE potatoe with purchase. LOL

Kimmal - I think this topic has come up in the past on OF... if you use the SEARCH Feature, you'll probably find the input from back at that time as well.

I never buy meat from a big supermarket for tons of reasons. As a kid I worked in a butcher shop and can really appreciate when the man or woman behind the glass counter isn't a pimply neophyte of a butcher. Someone who can and will special order things as well as put aside bones for making stock and demi-glace goes a long way in my book. Almost any butcher shop will be better than a grocery store but if were going to pick one, mine would be Sasloves Meat Market on Wellington. They actually dry age their beef, the chickens are fresher and need to be cooked less and their in-store deli meats are to die for. I recommend the chicken breast, smoked turkey and their organic nitrate free ham.

My wife and I (her mostly since I take the bus) stick to Lavergne's for our meat stuff.

used to go to saslove's all the time when i lived in westboro. i try now to go to the butchery like food&think mentioned. the staff there is superb and knowledgeable and the meat is great. was doing a pig roast last summer - they trussed the pig to the spit for me and gave me great cooking tips (it was prior to my OF days or I would have asked the forum...). really can't say enough about them, especially Paul. also love buying directly from the farmer when i can - like elk ranch.

second you on The butchery,greenqueen. They are my only saurce for South African sausage and biltong (beef jerky) and Mrs Balls chutney. Love the selection of chicken, duck meat.

so how is the boerworst (or however its spelled) at the butchery. I saw it there frozen - didn't buy it at the time. Tried the real stuff in Africa last year and enjoyed it.

I buy my good meat for Aubrey's in the market. I have used Saslove's and the Glebe Meat market as well, but the regular staff at Aubrey's are just more knowledgeable in my opinion. There are some non-regular staff that don't know their stuff as well, though they may be learning. But the owner and the two main staff that work with him know their stuff.

I highly recommend the double smoked bacon and duck eggs when they are in season!

For more day to day meats, I buy from Farm Boy as the price is good and the quality is better than blah blahs IMO.

Cheers

sourdough, the boerwors is good as it is made with all beef and the spices are from SA. we like to thaw it out and barbeque (braai). It come from Florentines butchery in Oakville and taste the same as the ones we had in SA. Wish they had the thin lamb sausages.

Well Kimal..
one of my favorite butcher is lavergne as well. and depending were you live, L'orignal packing, just beside hawksbury, is a great place. Frr duck, mariposa farm is an excellent place, located in plantagenet.

Anyone have any experience with Brian's Butchery on Iris/Cobden?

Are there any other good places I should be aware of in that general area of the city (let's say w/ borders of Queensway, Greenbank, Hunt Club, Merivale)

I normally just hit the grocery stores like Farm Boy, Nicastros, Farmers Pick but would like to develop a closer relationship with an actual butcher now that I'm grilling every day ("DAMN RIGHT WE DO!")

monty, overheard on twitter this morning was a conversation between momomoto and ron eade. pretty sure ron was recommending Brian's, but momomoto might be able to give you more info :)

I figured Ron Eade may know given Brian's is pretty close to the Citizen HQ...

Either way I'll probably check it out this weekend

Stopped by Brian's quickly after work. Nice little place. They do dry aged beef which I'm pretty stoked on. I just picked up some hamburger patties and ribs for a little get-together tomorrow, but will surely be back for steak!

Monty - you just sourced some dry aged beef? That's excellent! I've been doing it myself the few rare times I want an ultra tender rib steak (ie, maybe 2 times a year, learned how to do it from Chef Michael Blackie). Sounds like you've got a good butcher on your hands.

We buy our meat from Veggie Trail Farms on Woodroffe. She has meat orders every month and local grass fed beef every few months. We have been very impressed with the meat. We will also be getting meat this summer through our CSA box with Greener Green Acres farm in Oxford Mills.

I do quite a bit of meat shopping at Brian's Butchery, who I have dealt with for years going back to when Dan Alsford's father, Brian, ran the place (sadly, Brian passed away a couple of years ago). I go there for specialty cuts, large pork shoulders, brisket, capon and, lately, his dry-aged beef (on my blog today, www.roneade.com -- sorry for the shameless plug). I also get Dan to grind sirloin with 20-per-cent fat content for special burgers. I never -- not ever -- buy ground beef at a supermarket.
I've also had good luck with The Butchery, where I have found good quality and properly trimmed meat. The Butchery also orders in veal cheeks for me, which I rub, smoke, then slather in barbecue sauce before sealing in a vacuum-sealed freezer bag. Then, it's simply a matter of tossing the bag of prepared cheeks into my Crock Pot filled with hot water, and going to work. Absolutely delicious, and foolproof.

any butcher that will dry age beef for the customers is thumbs up to me
don't know why more don't do it
I wish I had the facilities to do so currently but I wet age mine an extra two weeks after I get it from my supplier

Ron, I forgot to ask: when you say that the dry-aged beef was not noticeably more tender, was that compared to AA or AAA?

If the dry-aged AA is as tender as wet-aged AAA, I'm way interested.

If the dry-aged AA is as tender as wet-aged AA, I think I'd Dan to dry-age some AAA for me, no matter what he says about there being too much marbling in it ;)

Chimi - Are you willing to divulge your secret for super-awesome ribeye? I'd be interested to see what you do.

Momo - it requires: fridge space, a big boneless rib roast (or loin) with lots of fat on the outside layer, rinse, pat extremely dry with paper towel, then wrap the roast with clean white towels or cheese cloth (or maybe you could use paper towel here again if you wanted), place on a rack over a baking sheet in your fridge (to allow airflow over as much of the surface as possible) and change the now moist and perhaps slightly bloody cloth/towels daily with clean DRY ones on a daily basis. Only handle the meat with extremely clean hands. You can age it this way for as short or as long as you want, I usually go just a few days, unwrap and leave unwrapped for another day or two before cutting off the end pieces, trimming some of the fat and then portioning off my steaks. Delish. Some day I should take photos of the process. In fact, I just found a bunch of methods very similar, or exactly the same as this online using google, I'm sure there are photos out there.

With respect to tenderness, this probably has more to do with the grade of meat vs. the aging process. Obviously, higher grade=more marbling=more melt in your mouth meat. I would recommend dry aging with a AAA roast (get one on sale, they seem to be more oft than not these days) to try this out.

I also grind all of my own meat from whole cuts, no supermarket meat for me, thanks! It takes me maybe 5 minutes to produce LOTS of perfectly fresh ground beef, and I can control the ratio of lean:fat.

Next up - sausage making!

Ah, so you dry-age it yourself a bit first before cooking it. That'll definitely help the meat.

My ribeye preparation method is one I lifted from Cooks Illustrated, and works really well since I don't have a BBQ anyway. You take big-honkin' côtes de boeuf (one rib's worth of steak), let them come to room temperature, season and heat in a low oven (275) until they hit an internal temperature of about 95 degrees. Finish by pan-searing the outside on your stovetop. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes, and then slice into big caveman-ribbons of carnality.

The meat stays really juicy, and by putting them in the oven you dry out the outside and lay down the groundwork for a bitchin' crust. Fantastic with frites. Divine with a prohibitively expensive bottle of Pinot.

Somebody more clever than I blogged the recipe before it became pay-only: www.cookography.com

Dang, this makes me hungry.

Momo - that's very close to my indoor steak method (I hate apartment living), this is where a cast-iron pan really helps - wicked crust formation! You get an awesome crust on dry aged beef made in this way. I didn't include a recipe, since you can break the roast down into rib steaks (use whatever you need immediately and vacuum seal & freeze the rest) or just cook the roast as is and you have probably one of the most deluxe rib roasts ever and your guests will beg at your feet for your recipe (secret is: dry aged beef!)

Wow Chimichimi and Momomoto,
I would try either of these methods hands down, and I don't live in an apt. I do not order beef in restaurants anymore because grilling hubby does a fantastic job...but I'm going to pass these little tidbits to him! I love the hint for inside; just can't get the January bbq hot enough. Thank You!

dry aged ribeye from Brian's Butchery (BEFORE)

dry aged ribeye from Brian's Butchery (AFTER)

Mont-eh - DAMN RIGHT YOU DID!

Seriously though, that looks delicious (though it would be even better with some foie gras butter melted on top). This has inspired me even more to do a dry aged bison experiment. Will follow-up when I get my hands on a suitable cut (needs a good fat cap).

i was just about to add a photo to The Butchery The Butchery and noticed it has fallen victim to the 'no comments/reviews' thing...hmmmm

anyhow, i found a pic i took of those 'Vera's Burgers' that were mentioned in username Ratty's lone review. pretty good. they were well spiced. bring your appetite because seriously it felt like eating a pound of beef between a bun - they could probably split them into 2 decent sized patties.

That's too bad - I'll personally add them to my list of places to avoid as a result. Anyone who wants to stifle the kind of feedback this site provides is not going to get my money. Kind of silly of them too, really, given that the only review there was a pretty positive one.

yeah it's really weird because it's a great shop and you'd be pressed to find reasons to fault them. even before becoming a regular there i had heard nothing but praises - both internet reviews and people's recounted personal experiences. i go there to get cuts my small local butcher has to order in (i work on a just-in-time grocery system haha)

as an aside i was at the Celebrity Sports Dinner last week and they served this outstanding prime rib. usually at these big events you get a pretty crappy meal with an even worse cut of meat. anyhow later in the evening the MC noted the meal was sourced from The Butchery, and the shop also helped with the preparation. gotta give them credit, it was fantastic.

i'll still go there. i guess they figure allowing reviews could do more harm than good? funny though the only reason i even bought the burgers was because i remembered Ratty's OF review...

fwiw, they're still listed on the "other" local restaurant review site with what is largely positive feedback.

Yeah, no kidding. I've only ever heard great stuff about them too. The folks at work go there 2 or 3 times a week for sandwiches for lunch.

Watched a show on dry aged beef the other day and was wondering where to get some. Now if I could find dry aged grass fed beef. Anyone got any ideas?

Ken V - I dry aged it myself with Dobson Farms beef, and it turned out to be distinctly flavorful. Ask for a rib roast with a nice fat cap on it and DIY.

Guys, you're jumping to conclusions! The Butchery is open for comments: The Butchery

It seems it was marked for "Deletion" for some reason (presumably by the person who added it). You can't add comments to a vendor that is marked for deletion. Anyway, I've undeleted it and approved it and it's good to go.

I grilled up some excellent center cut pork chops from there last Thursday. Nice and thick!

The Butchery has excellent stuff - people should not miss out on what they offer! On a totally not-meat-related note, do not miss out on their fresh doughnuts at the cash registers when they get them. I had a fresh maple glazed yeast doughnut that blew my mind a few months ago, it put Timmy Ho's to shame.

zymurgist - wanted to post in this thread, rather than cluttering up the vendor listing for Around the Block Butcher Shop. after you panned them, i am curious to know your go-to butcher of choice in this city?

Did not mean it to be a "pan" monty - was just looking for a good selection of local beef. Brian's is clearly an EXTREMELY good butcher shop. Hands down, no questions asked. But "Alberta Beef" is so 1989 - and as I recall the guy who wrote the steak book agrees with that assessment that it is highly overrated.

Anyway, I don't really have a favorite right now because I'm still looking. I rarely buy beef outside of my sides and quarters, and am in the process of looking for a good go-to butcher shop with local beef that will not set me back a fortune, the odd time I want it.

I'm going to recheck a few places including of course Sasloves which is right around the corner from me. Been a while since I've been there. Darvish out at the end of the Carling is pretty ideal for what I'm looking for, but pretty far away. Aljazeera in Hintonburg is absolutely fabulous on all counts, though i've never asked where they source their beef. I'm going to ask that question next time I am in though.

I am a fan of Aubrey's Meats in the market. Agreed that Kyle and Ryan are very knowledgeable and helpful with information, inspiration for meals and sometimes even rough recipes.

Had to bring this thread up again: I've called up Brian's and ordered a two-pound, dry-aged côte de boeuf in anticipation of my wife's birthday in a couple weeks.

I'm positively salivating at the prospect.

Probably the last time I'll make steak frites in the apartment before we move, so I'd best not screw it up ;)

Me!

(I just saw this thread while searching for the dry aged beef thread, and could not resist :-) )

Here's some followup: I'd say that 80% of the steaks we get now are Brian's dry-aged stuff from O'Brien Farms, so I think I'm comfortable enough to say that they're my favourite butcher.

We tried their dry-aged filet mignon yesterday and I can't remember ever having a tenderloin that tasted like, well, like an actual steak, rather than just some soft beefy thing.

+1 for Brian's - great people who clearly love what they do.

it's really a hidden gem. i feel lucky to have them in my neighbourhood.

Boucherie A1 on Principale in Aylmer, afew blocks from the marina. Very good meats and service, and they also have specialty home-made products like tourtière according to the season.

Their meat can be sampled in the panini and other fare served at L'Autre Oeil down the street, washed down with a beer from their selection of hundreds.

O'Briens Farms is at most of the area farmers markets now. Picked up a flat iron from him last weekend and did it on my Weber charcoal grill and it was put of this world. If you email Dan early in the week he will normally bring you whatever you need to the farmers market nearest to you.

Not sure what my fave butcher shop is for "raw meats".
But for smoked chicken and flavored bacons I like Bank St Sausage.
their smoked salmons- hot and cold smoked are very good too.

I don't know of too many other places that actually make smoked chicken (and this one is 5 minutes from my place).
Swiss pastries actually sells their bacon and smoked chicken quite often.

love the butchery....have you tried their egg rolls...mmmm...great for a quick snack

Another vote for Brian's. I look forward to getting a Christmas capon from them. I'll have to look into the dry-aged steaks very soon. I like that I can get a big bag of 1-pound packages of frozen REGULAR ground beef. It is the delicious. Also, I had him order in some Kessler chops for me. Mmmmmmmm. Them's good eatin'.

OMNOMNOM