Why It Always Pays to Visit a Well-Trained Butcher

Yahoo Food is partnering with Barnraiser, a crowd-funding site that helps raise money for farmers and food entrepreneurs. Each week, we’ll feature a story which highlights the mission of Barnraiser: to put a billion dollars into the hands of food innovators as they reshape a healthy food world. This week, Barnraiser is featuring their story “A Cut Above”.

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We’re going to go out on a flank and assume you probably don’t have a regular local butcher. An extra stop you make for a special meal? A passing glance as you head out to your one-stop market, those big box stores really know their grassfed beef, right? As more butchers begin to go through certification, more small, local shops will begin to open and there are reasons you should have them in your little black book of food.

1. They’ve Been Around the (Butchers) Block Like any good relationship, you want someone who knows what they’re doing. Finding a butcher who has gone through training ensures they understand every cut of meat they are selling. Someone who knows what makes it truly organic beef. Where it comes from, why is has the taste and texture that makes it unique.

2. They Know What To Do With Their Meat (and Can Tell You How) Imagine you go into a trained butcher’s shop and they know your tastes and preferences and skills in the kitchen. They know how to cook the cuts they are selling, and can help you make every meal perfect.

3. They Know What To Do WIth Their Hands (like wash them) They practice safety and sanitation protocols that are specific to meat products because their education has shown them (in lots of detail) exactly what happens when those protocols are not followed. And that’s the expert you want sourcing, handling and selling your meat.

4. The Antonio Banderas of Beef A trained butcher with their own shop has a genuine passion for the trade and cares about offering the best meat to their clients (you!). We’re also loving the women butchers that are exploding onto the male dominated scene. We always thought Catherine Zeta Jones was better in Zorro anyway.

5. Bringing Sexy Back Did you see the flank on that one? We’re not saying we’re happy butchery is experiencing a revival because well-trained butchers are hot, but we are. Someone who is carrying on the passion and tradition that has existed for hundreds of years is sexy. Not to mention an important and sustainable way to bring good food into communities.

Barnraiser is the No. 1 crowd-funding community for good food and healthy living. At Barnraiser, you will meet the people changing how we eat and live, share their inspirational stories and fund good food, farming, edible education, social innovations and more projects that create a healthier world.