Chicken....

[Pheebs]

Okay. I am not one to be turned off foods easily. I've seen some footage of how chickens are kept and not been particularly happy about it at all but with a tight budget and my love for chicken dishes... I still have been eating the bog standard chicken in supermarkets. (Never the Sainsburys own type jobbo... just standard).

Anyway.

I met a guy the other night. He catches chicken for a living for the major supermarkets (bizarre I thought but hey!). He was an all right kind of guy... a little bit peculiar but yeh. Anyway. Was speaking to him and he was telling me about the awful awful conditions chickens were kept in. As in like... properly awful. And described how he would catch them and how they were strung up and things....

Now I think up until this point I've always been semi desensitised to it all because I've never properly witnessed it/come across someone working directly in the industry. I don't know what it was about this guy but when he said he could scoop up 8 at a time and was describing things... and also saying how HE would never eat the chicken there (not being rude but he seemed like the kind of guy who would probably nom road kill). Well that had a massive affect on me. I actually felt quite ill.

So.

Two nights ago I ate my last standard chicken breasts. I'm not going to abstain from eating chicken/not eat it when I'm out etc but I won't be buying normal chicken ever again. I'll just survive off quorn and when I can afford it free range/organic (which the dude said was a gazillion times better...).


I don't really know what the point of this thread is... it just kind of shocked me and I never thought I would be put off.

Odd.

Funny world isn't it.

And before ANYONE tells me about the condition of my duck currently in the oven I am just going to bury my head in the sand because it's one thing I absolutely LOVE and well yeh. I will be more sensible in the future though and try and get proper free range duckeroos but yeh. Shh. It's like my once in a while treat and I love it!

Anyone else have these kind of revolutionary experiences that changes their eating/life habits? I should imagine there's a fair few

[Del Lardo]

I've recently started using a local butcher for most of my meat, the cost is similar to that of the standard Asda/Tesco/Sainburys stuff but the quality is far better and the Butcher was telling me it was because the meat is kept in much better conditions (when alive) than supermarket stuff.

Del Lardo top tip, buy meat from a Butchers and not a supermarket

[SidewinderINC]

Originally Posted by Del Lardo

I've recently started using a local butcher for most of my meat, the cost is similar to that of the standard Asda/Tesco/Sainburys stuff but the quality is far better and the Butcher was telling me it was because the meat is kept in much better conditions (when alive) than supermarket stuff.

Del Lardo top tip, buy meat from a Butchers and not a supermarket

I agree with this completely, unfortunately I was in no state to leave the house today to go to the butchers and they're not open on a sunday

[Jingo]

I wish I could afford to go to the butchers for all our meat - I would state hands down it is far superior in every way bar longevity (which is understandable).

I'm sure there are many reasons to go with butchers cuts etc other than flavour but that and choice of cuts etc would be more than enough of a selling point for me- roll on to a time when I can afford to shop wherever I please!

[Del Lardo]

Originally Posted by Jingo

I wish I could afford to go to the butchers for all our meat - I would state hands down it is far superior in every way bar longevity (which is understandable).

I'm sure there are many reasons to go with butchers cuts etc other than flavour but that and choice of cuts etc would be more than enough of a selling point for me- roll on to a time when I can afford to shop wherever I please!

Is there that much of a price difference between butchers meat and what you buy? I admit that my experience is very limited but for chicken breast the price seems to be very similar (ASDA £3.50 vs Butcher £4.00 for ~500g) with the only real exception being sausages though from the way they cook and taste I'd rather have 2 butcher sausages than 4 ASDA (Walls normally) sausages.

[Pheebs]

Well this is it Jingo, I'm gutted really as I won't be able to afford to eat chicken any more. It will be a rare occasion for me Boo.

But I just couldn't do it now...

[SidewinderINC]

Originally Posted by Pheebs

Well this is it Jingo, I'm gutted really as I won't be able to afford to eat chicken any more. It will be a rare occasion for me Boo.

But I just couldn't do it now...

Turkey is cheaper than chicken, leaner than chicken, and I've never seen a turkey battery farmed

[TinkerBell]

Originally Posted by Jingo

I wish I could afford to go to the butchers for all our meat - I would state hands down it is far superior in every way bar longevity (which is understandable).

I'm sure there are many reasons to go with butchers cuts etc other than flavour but that and choice of cuts etc would be more than enough of a selling point for me- roll on to a time when I can afford to shop wherever I please!

Originally Posted by Pheebs

Well this is it Jingo, I'm gutted really as I won't be able to afford to eat chicken any more. It will be a rare occasion for me Boo.

But I just couldn't do it now...

Have you tried going to the butchers and seeing how much it would cost for the meat? I use the butchers down the road from me and it is only a little bit more expensive that the prices you get in Tesco, and it is awesome quality

I much prefer it, especially when you get to know them and have a little banter while you are there.

[Kitten]

Free range supermarket chicken is not a lot more expensive and often comes in bogof offers or similar or you can just buy what you need from the butcher, which will probably be cheaper for a portion of say, diced chicken breast for one/two than buying full breasts. Or, can't you just bury your head like you're going to with the duck? If you can do it for one, why not the other?

there's absolutely no reason to cut it out due to cost, you just have to be smart & shop around.

[Pheebs]

Chicken is normally a luxury anyway for me as it's expensive at the standard price So that "little bit more" is actually pushing the budget too far!

As for local butchers, I haven't been to ours in ages! But seeing as I'm moving soon I will wait til I figure out where I am before I look about. I know near my folks is a local farm shop which is brilliant


I am going to make a concious effort to go for free range duck in the future but if I can't afford it I will bury my head once in a while. It's a rare treat for me, where as chicken was a weekly thing. If I were to research all my meats I'm sure I would be put off an awful lot, so it would be super stupid for me to cut out things as once I started on one the whole lot would go and I would be broke!

At least I'm making an effort for one thing anyway - for me, in my mind I feel it's better than nothing (this is NO WAY a dig at people who canny afford chicken/buy standard as I've read soooo much about people buying free range only in the past and it's just gone over my head until last weekend! So I'm not one to talk if you know what I mean )