D. Ingham & Son Butchers

[Boaty Jo]

Foulridge.

18 years since my first visit in 2006, it's great to see that this terrific business is still thriving.

The guy who served me said he'd started working there just before my first visit.

I'm older, porkier and on a bike rather than a boat, but just as enthusiastic about good grub.

I bought some 'surprise' sausages. 'A mixture of all the others we make,' he said. 'People love them'.

They were delicious and judging by all the folk who came and went as I chatted with the butcher, the shop really is doing nicely.

Ingham's only equal as we travelled on the boat (IMO of course) was the one in Alrewas. Coates is it called?

[Tracy D'arth]

Also R E Burrows and Sons at Beeston, Cheshire. Another outstanding butcher selling local meats and poultry.

[Richard T]

Peter Coates as Alrewas is also very good. They have their own abbatoir and source local animals.

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, Richard T said:

Peter Coates as Alrewas is also very good. They have their own abbatoir and source local animals.

I wasn't impressed with their sausages though, too soft texture and horribly prone to splitting. And yes, I do know how to cook sausages... 😉

[Tony Brooks]

27 minutes ago, IanD said:

I wasn't impressed with their sausages though, too soft texture and horribly prone to splitting. And yes, I do know how to cook sausages... 😉

 

They sound like proper bangers where when you fry them you can get the split bits nice and crispy. At one time all sausages were like that, but not now.

[IanD]

16 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

They sound like proper bangers where when you fry them you can get the split bits nice and crispy. At one time all sausages were like that, but not now.

That's because "bangers" were so-called when they were bulked out with cheap rusk and water instead of meat when this was expensive (and rationed?), all of which makes them split. A good sausage shouldn't do this if cooked properly.

[Alan de Enfield]

34 minutes ago, IanD said:

That's because "bangers" were so-called when they were bulked out with cheap rusk and water instead of meat when this was expensive (and rationed?), all of which makes them split. A good sausage shouldn't do this if cooked properly.

 

According to my Grandfather (a family of butchers for well over 100 years) they had to put bread in the middle of the sausages so they "could make both ends meet"

[tree monkey]

Don't forget Bates Butchers in Atherstone, definitely worth a visit.

 

2 hours ago, IanD said:

I wasn't impressed with their sausages though, too soft texture and horribly prone to splitting. And yes, I do know how to cook sausages... 😉

I find butchers sausages a bit hit and miss, likely due to variations in local recipes and texture preferences, that's not to say they aren't good it's just I don't like them

[IanD]

37 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Don't forget Bates Butchers in Atherstone, definitely worth a visit.

 

I find butchers sausages a bit hit and miss, likely due to variations in local recipes and texture preferences, that's not to say they aren't good it's just I don't like them

They are indeed variable, some are excellent, some not so much. Given how much people raved about the butcher in Alrewas, I expected better from them -- the sausages looked good but didn't deliver on their promise. All sizzle and no steak, you might say... 😉 

 

IIRC some of their lamb was a bit tough and tasteless too. Maybe we caught them on an off day, like the Anchor at High Offley (twice)... 😞 

Edited April 27 by IanD

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

3 hours ago, Richard T said:

Peter Coates as Alrewas is also very good. They have their own abbatoir and source local animals.

Yes I like them too,

for me they’re what fall in to the posh and fancy butcher shop category,

where they have lots of different flavoured stuff and maybe their own trays of different recipes of marinated meats,

the butcher’s counter at Great Haywood Farm Shop is another example and I like that too,

 

but too much choice confuses me

and my favourite of favourites has to be the counter at the back of Todmorden’s in door market, on the right,

nothing fancy but high quality,

most of their stuff is kept in their walk in fridge and bought out to cut to size in front of you,

 

and for Black Pudding the butcher in Whaley Bridge up the hill opposite the CoOp

 

I’ll make a point of looking for the butcher’s in Atherstone next time I pass,

 

Penkridge has a fine butcher too,

good for pies and samosas 

 

🤤

 

Edited April 27 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer
Samosa

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

Yes I like them too,

for me they’re what fall in to the posh and fancy butcher shop category,

where they have lots of different flavoured stuff and maybe their own trays of different recipes of marinated meats,

the butcher’s counter at Great Haywood Farm Shop is another example and I like that too,

 

[snip

 

Penkridge has a fine butcher too,

good for pies and samosas 

 

🤤

 

 

We looked in at Great Haywood (since we're now moored there) and it looked good, but I noticed the lack of prices on the meat which is never a good sign...

 

Stanforth's in Skipton is the dog's wotsits for pies... 🙂 

[cuthound]

4 hours ago, Richard T said:

Peter Coates as Alrewas is also very good. They have their own abbatoir and source local animals.

 

2 hours ago, tree monkey said:

Don't forget Bates Butchers in Atherstone, definitely worth a visit.

 

 

These are my two of my favourite butchers, both local to me. Coates have a branch in Tamworth as well as Alrewas.

Edited April 27 by cuthound
Clarification

[tree monkey]

2 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

Yes I like them too,

for me they’re what fall in to the posh and fancy butcher shop category,

where they have lots of different flavoured stuff and maybe their own trays of different recipes of marinated meats,

the butcher’s counter at Great Haywood Farm Shop is another example and I like that too,

 

but too much choice confuses me

and my favourite of favourites has to be the counter at the back of Todmorden’s in door market, on the right,

nothing fancy but high quality,

most of their stuff is kept in their walk in fridge and bought out to cut to size in front of you,

 

and for Black Pudding the butcher in Whaley Bridge up the hill opposite the CoOp

 

I’ll make a point of looking for the butcher’s in Atherstone next time I pass,

 

Penkridge has a fine butcher too,

good for pies and samosas 

 

🤤

 

Atherstone would fall into your definition of posh then, don't let that put you off though, I think most butchers have to do the neon marinades nowadays but they deffo ain't posh and I think there pork pies and bordering on the best I've eaten

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

55 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

Atherstone would fall into your definition of posh then, don't let that put you off though, I think most butchers have to do the neon marinades nowadays but they deffo ain't posh and I think there pork pies and bordering on the best I've eaten

don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike posh, 

I can do posh 👍

 

[tree monkey]

5 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike posh, 

I can do posh 👍

 

More than I can, I've tried but I trip over in normal shoes and within 30 seconds of the shirt going on there's a spillage of some sort and after a beer or two my gob works a good 30 seconds ahead of my brain

[Rob-M]

We buy quite a bit from the butchers counter in Great Haywood farm shop (it isn't cheap though), we also like the pies from the Penkridge butcher which are very good.

 

We tried the butcher in Alrewas twice but were disappointed both times.

 

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

No not cheap, but a nice treat though,

I like the bread in the farm shop too,

Edited April 27 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer
Too many toos

[Richard T]

For pork pies we liked the butchers in Nantwich and Vemuelens deli in Ellesmere. Both were very good. The fishmongers in Nantwich was also very good. For cheese there is nowhere better than the Cheese Shop in Flying Horse Walk in the centre of Nottingham

[MtB]

The trouble with sausages is the butcher making them will be inclined to bung in all the bits of the animal that can't be sold on the counter as recognisable meat. So the goolies, tongues, lips and random bits and pieces (and worse) all end up in the sausages rather than proper meat. (According to an ex-poster here in PM who would probably know). 

 

People rave about bangers from the butcher in Braunston but I've been unimpressed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tonka]

4 hours ago, MtB said:

The trouble with sausages is the butcher making them will be inclined to bung in all the bits of the animal that can't be sold on the counter as recognisable meat. So the goolies, tongues, lips and random bits and pieces (and worse) all end up in the sausages rather than proper meat. (According to an ex-poster here in PM who would probably know). 

 

People rave about bangers from the butcher in Braunston but I've been unimpressed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We agree with you about the Braunston Sausage

[IanD]

43 minutes ago, Tonka said:

We agree with you about the Braunston Sausage

Ditto.

[Richard T]

For proper suasages you have to go to a butchers which is close to a long gone river navigation - Smiths at Eastleigh which is near the river Itchen. They do really good ones in a large variety of flavours.

[StephenA]

Oxtail and Trotter in Audlem are pretty good  - they even sell Wagyu X Beef sourced from farms in Staffordshire

[IanD]

3 minutes ago, StephenA said:

Oxtail and Trotter in Audlem are pretty good  - they even sell Wagyu X Beef sourced from farms in Staffordshire

I'm not convinced that you can legitimately attach the label "Wagyu" -- especially is it's a cross, which I assume the X means -- to beef which doesn't come from cows treated palatially like those in Japan, complete with special feed and beer and massages, it's not just the breed it's how the cows are raised.

 

Which explains the ludicrously high prices there (also Kobe beef, just as delicious -- or Matsuzaka beef, very similar) as well as the quality, and the reverence with which a chef there treats it, none of this "well done" rubbish -- and if you had the temerity to suggest mincing it up to make a burger you might not make it out of the restaurant alive... 😉 

 

I have a photo somewhere of a butcher's window in Asakusa with a gorgeous piece of Kobe beef weighing several kilograms, and at first I though they'd mistakenly put an extra zero in the price because it cost rather more than my return airfare to Japan... 🙂 

[Tonka]

Mills Butchers in Hockley Heath is quite nice too