Wanted: a cut above the rest

The late Eric Rolls - farmer, poet, historian and food writer - once reminisced about the butchers of his NSW country childhood. ''A steer walked in the back gate, was slaughtered, broken down, hung in the cool room and then sold at the shop out front.'' Back then, it was obvious where your meat came from. Times have changed.

Good, honest butchers who care about what they sell and know where and how the animals were raised are around - but difficult to find. And with more of us demanding to know that our beef is grass-finished (not just grass-fed - entirely fed on grass); that our pork comes from, at the very least, free-range animals; that our chickens aren't fed antibiotics and our sausages and smallgoods aren't made using a catalogue of chemicals and dodgy ingredients … well, we need to do a bit of work to find a butcher who delivers.

Let's begin with the easiest of the questions you need to ask.

What's the first thing you should notice about a good butcher?

''The smell,'' says Lachlan Bowtell, regional manager Australia with Meat and Livestock Australia, ''there shouldn't be any. Look for the clean and presentable butcher - a clean store, the butcher's apron not covered in blood. And if he's charging $45 a kilogram in these economic conditions he's doing it because he has to, not because wants to.''

But it's not just the consumer of meat products who should be interested in choosing a good butcher. In many ways it's more important for producers who have put effort and care into raising good animals: they are forging long-term relationships.

Peter Clay raises grass-fed and -finished beef at Taralga Springs near Crookwell. ''What I tend to do'', Clay says, ''is hang around and talk to the butcher. The best will be enthusiastic and will want to tell you all about the products they sell because they've found out about them [and] want to pass that knowledge on.''

Gundooee organic wagyu producer Rob Lennon recently spoke to one butcher who didn't pass the talk test. ''He was a very large butcher and processor. I was thinking of selling to him and we got to talking. He said 'I've got customers who want to know where the meat comes from and I say you don't need to know that, it's good quality meat - that's all you need to know.' I said 'I'll get back to you.''' Victorian free-range pig farmer Fiona Chambers believes a butcher's relationship has to go further than just talk. ''I'd like to see what I saw in Germany,'' she says. ''A butcher shop where they have photographs of the farmers who produced the meat with their animals on the wall. It's about honouring the people who raise the animals and the strong link between the butcher and the farmer.''

Lennon agrees. ''One of the yardsticks for me is a butcher who's prepared to come out to the farm. Generally, once they've visited they're more understanding of what I'm doing to raise my animals.''

But it's not just the owner who needs to get it, it's the staff. Just as a good restaurant briefs floor staff on exactly what's on the menu before service, so too a good butcher keeps staff abreast of what's on the counter. ''I'll ask the people I'm selling to whether they want me to come and do a staff talk,'' Lennon says.

How do you know if the meat labelled ''organic'' in a butcher shop really is?

We've heard stories of butchers buying five kilograms of organic chicken and selling 50 kilograms. The truth is, unless you buy from a supermarket where everything is wrapped in plastic and labelled with the certification logo, it's matter of trust, unless the shop is certified. But in Sydney, there are only two certified butcher shops, much to the dismay of Owen Gwilliam of organic certifier Australian Organics.

''Unfortunately, at the moment there are not that many butchers who've taken the step to certify their shops,'' Gwilliam says, ''and it's potentially the highest risk point for accidental or deliberate mix-ups or substitution. But I'd still encourage people to buy from their local butcher - mine has a separated display unit for their organic meat. If they're certified, they can still sell non-organic meat, but it has to be labelled as such.''

So what can we do to make sure when we pay for organic we get organic?

''If the butcher shop isn't certified I'd encourage people to ask to be shown the certificate of the farm they bought the meat from - and to make sure it's current,'' Gwilliam says. ''They're reissued every year.''

Another group who have to be sure of their suppliers are chefs. Jared Ingersoll (ex-Danks Street Depot) doesn't have a restaurant at the moment and he's having to see things through different eyes. ''It's not easy,'' he says. ''A rule of thumb for me is to buy food from someone who has knowledge and enthusiasm. It's rare to find someone in the industry with passion and knowledge who serves shit.''

Chef Simon Lawson from organic restaurant Agape in Botany agrees. ''Ask questions,'' he says. ''The ones who can't answer the questions obviously don't know where their meat is coming from.''

With that in mind, here are a set of questions to ask your butcher - or a butcher you want to build a relationship with:

Do they buy whole carcasses and break them down?

It means they have a cool room and can dry-age their own beef (do they?). Buying whole beasts means they'll use every bit of it and make their own sausages (see above right) and maybe smallgoods. And, if you build up a relationship you'll get something special: ox tail, tongue, sweet breads, liver, kidneys, tripe - all fresh. Busy butchers will supplement their carcass meat with pre-cut boxed meat - there's only one eye fillet in every beast. Does the butcher know where the boxed meat comes from?

Have they visited the farms where the meat comes from, or spoken to the farmers?

And if they did, what did they learn about feeding regimes, breed, and animal welfare?

Is their pork and ham from organic, or at least free-range pigs?

This is a tough one. There are many definitions of ''free-range'' in the pork business. You'll want to be convinced that your butcher's pork products come from animals that have ready access to the outside world, shade and, ideally, a bit of water to wallow in. And sows that aren't confined in sow stalls.

The four basic systems for pigs are: free-range for all of life; bred free-range which means that sows give birth outside and then piglets are moved into some kind of straw-based environment; organic; and Humane Choice. Of these, only the last two certify the producer, and both stipulate free-range.

Is your poultry organic?

If it's not plastic-wrapped with a certification logo, you'll need to see a current certificate. Organic means no growth promotant antibiotics (don't listen to hormone-free - hormones haven't been used in the chicken meat industry for at least 40 years). The only way to absolutely guarantee free-range is to buy organic - if it's not certified, then the term ''free-range'' in the poultry industry has a wide range of meanings. If your butcher is selling free-range chickens, it's best to ask if they've visited the farm or at least spoken to the farmer.

What's in your sausages?

The NSW Food Authority stipulates how much meat - ''no less than 500 grams per kilogram of fat-free meat flesh'' - and fat - ''cannot exceed more than 500 grams per kilogram of fat-free meat flesh'' - a sausage should contain. But then there are a number of additives which, they tell us, ''are suitable to be added to sausages or sausage casings.'' You may not agree and should ask your butcher if the sausages they make contain:

● Sodium metabisulphite (preservative E323 - (the Food Authority allows up to 500 milligrams a kilogram)

● Mineral salt

● Vegetable gum

● Colour E160c (paprika colour)

● Antioxidant E306 (Tocopherol-rich extract - Vitamin E)

● Hydrolysed vegetable protein

● Wheat flour

● Salt

● Sugar

● Wheat gluten

You can look all these additives up but none, except salt, are necessary.

Finally, if you catch a butcher telling porkies, you have the option of complaining to the NSW Food Authority by calling their consumer helpline 1300 552 406.