General Chat

That must be/have been a job full of mixed blessings, Allan :-(

When I lived in Horrabridge (Devon), Mr Chinn the butcher used to slaughter the animals in a room behind his shop.
If we children saw a cow/bullock being walked up the street, we'd follow it, in the hope of seeing it being slaughtered - we never did - probably for the best! :-\ (gosh, we were feral!!)
At least there, we knew we were getting local meat, freshly killed :-D
...and a butcher's shop in a village!!!

My gran used to get a travelling abattoir man in to kill her pigs -this was a rare occurrence, but she didn't want to stress them.
She used to tickle their tummies and ears every morning and evening :-0

It had its moments, Maggie. :-D

When I worked for the Macclesfield Rural District Council back in 1971 (my fist job as a qualified Public Health Inspector) there was a small butchers shop in a village named Chelford. The owner, Mr Williams, did his own slaughtering in premises just behind his shop. He only slaughtered sufficient for his own needs, but as he opened early on Mondays I used to pop over there on a Sunday afternoon to do the inspections.

I took OH with me as it was a lovely run out and whilst I was doing the inspections OH would chat away to his wife. It was from her that I picked up many cooking tips, including the correct method for boiling tongue.

My mother always bought ready cooked tongue slices from the local UCP so I never saw her cook one. By the time I had access to a plentiful supply, my mother had passed away

Just out of interest, in your opinion, were the smaller abattoirs/back of shop slaughterhouses more humane than the big ones?

Strangest slaughter situation I had was in Shetland.
At the time, we were living in a caravan owned by a young widow called Winnie.
Our electricity supply was an extension cord from her house, to under the caravan, with a socket from our caravan plugged into it!! :-S
Yes, very dodgy and illegal, but it gave us somewhere to live and Winnie some extra income.
One day, she invited us in to her house to watch TV, as 'the men' needed the extension lead in the adjoining barn, for the stun gun, to kill a sheep or two (Shetland sheep are small) for her freezer!

Definitely, Maggie.

Mr Williams bought his own livestock and slaughtered them himself. The minute you step into multi-operator premises that is where the cruelty can creep in.

Over the years I've met, and worked with, many slaughtermen and to most it was just a 'job' to be done and some weren't bothered how it was done.

Owner operators were by far and away the better breed

I thought that would be the case.
I was very disappointed at the numbers that were closed in the 1980's - on the basis they weren't 'hygienic'.
Fewer abattoirs mean the animals face longer journeys in cramped lorries.
The cruelty can start there.

Walking Bill the bullock through a village ensured you couldn't be cruel - people would see.
Bill would be led into an empty room - previous blood washed away - no bellowing of other, distressed animals.
Probably more hygienic than 'approved' vast abattoirs have become.

As you say, particularly in a small village where the slightest transgression of any kind is quickly brought to view and in this case Macclesfield with its supermarkets and other butchers' premises was not too far from the village

.......and then, after vast abattoirs were established, the Government reduced the number of inspectors...

Yet this is a case where a 'proper' pair of eyes is much better than carefully placed CCTV!!

The same thing happened in Australia when in the 2000's the meat industry became self-regulating with the resultant chaos and scandals that ensued. At least WA was quick enough to reinstate Inspectors on the premises, but only to oversee things and to do follow-ups for hygiene.

All physical meat inspection is now done by abattoir staff.

oh the alluring siren song of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points).

It might have worked for NASA but certainly not for the meat industry :-|

Thanks Maggie, I will look in our local Tesco.

Morrisons, over the road, sells pigs trotters now, and a few other strange things, that I can't remember now but didn't tempt me lol!

Lizx

I "thought" sweet bits were lamb's testicles too :-S

Never had tounge ...wouldn't eat anything that's been in a cow's mouth.

I've a memory of food poisoning caused by beef imported from South America.

Some one said the beasts were slaughtered while in transit...seems impractical ?

Do you like eggs, David? ;-) :-D :-D

Long long ago in the 50s or 60s the Brits used to import large quantities of canned corned beef from Argentina. It was mostly sold under the "Fray Bentos" brand.

One or more consignments had not been produced according to food hygiene requirements. The result was large scale food poisoning among those who liked canned beef,

It was quite a scandal. In the end the Brits had to take over the supervision of Argentine beef exports to the UK inc canning with many Brits working in Argentina. It took a long time for exports to recover and the even remains a folk memory. The Falklands war did not help.

Booze, chickens and beef from Argentina today are perfectly ok..

I do Allan....and yes I know where they come from.

What a pitiful existence a chicken has, they are kept in close confinement

for there eggs, or slaughtered at the correct weight for the oven, or put into soup.

The largest typhoid outbreak in recent British history occurred in Aberdeen in 1964.
Over 400 cases were reported.
The infection was eventually traced back to a single tin of Fray Bentos Argentinean corned beef sold in a supermarket.
It was a commercial tin, which was opened up and sliced for customers.

The corned beef infected the slicer, which then infected any other meat sliced on it.

Just going through some of the earlier posts I noticed that one mentioned chicken livers :-D

Chicken livers are widely available here as they are sold separately from the chicken carcasses.

Every couple of months I buy some and make chicken liver pate with brandy. Very rich, but very nice :-D

When I was young I remember Savaloys being popular. What were they made of ?

off topic....elsewhere on the thread was being discussed spiders and snakes. There an article in today's Daily Express.

One came up a plug hole while a man was having a shower !!

David - he shouldn't have washed it down there in the first place!! :-D

Savaloys are spicy pork David and my daughters favourite but they don't sell them near to her so she binges on them when she visits :-D :-D

Isn't SPAM also spicy pork ?