Once upon a time, when you wanted to buy some meat for your family, you went to the butcher shop.
Things were a little more compartmentalized back then. There were no such things as super-mega-marts that sell everything under the sun. There were cobblers, and chandlers (candle-makers), and millers, and tailors, and yes, butchers.
The Damsel remembers as a child being taken to visit Great Aunt Hazel, who worked as a butcher. She wore her hair in a towering red beehive, and had a wonderfully big, husky laugh. She seemed a little bit scary in her red-streaked apron, wielding her giant cleaver.
Beehive hairdos are alarming, aren’t they?
You may be surprised to know that butcher shops still exist in most areas, if you take the time to search them out. You may find, as the Damsel has, that they have good prices and high quality. Check out this bacon:
Bacon this amazing would be super expensive in the grocery store, but from the butcher shop, it’s pretty reasonable. In order to get the good price, one has to buy it 10 pounds at a time, but since bacon freezes so well, that’s no problem.
The Damsel simply puts a couple pounds each of this nice, thick bacon into ziplock bags. Then she dreams of the deliciousness that is to come. Most people agree there’s really nothing quite like the smell of bacon cooking. (try baking it…it works great. Here’s how: bakin’ bacon)
At the Damsel’s favorite butcher shop, there’s more than good deals on bacon. There are roasts, steaks, sausage, and pretty much any carnivorous thing you hanker for. So look up “butcher” or “meat market” in your town, and you may be surprised at how much you like buying meat old school style.
