Any cooking enthusiast will tell you that quality ingredients are the key to making delicious, flavourful meals. So, of course, when you’re whipping up a roast or lamb shank, you’ll want the very best and freshest cuts of meat to be the hero of your dishes. Finding those perfect cuts isn’t always easy, often because of questions around quality or accessibility to butcheries. If you want to find out where you can order fresh meat in Ireland to take your cooking up a level, keep reading!
Local Butchers
Your local butcher will always be the best port of call to find the freshest meat, often sourced directly from farmers for uncompromised quality. Your local butchery will offer a more personalised service and go out of its way to deliver the best quality meat in town. And of course, in our modern world where convenience is key, your local butcher may not be a physical store but an online butcher, such as Hugh Maguire Butchers. Technology removes accessibility issues, giving the whole of Ireland an opportunity to sample superior-quality meat.
Supermarkets
If you are looking for fresh meats in Ireland, then you are probably most often shopping at your local supermarket. While they can provide fresh and good quality meat, it is often from a single supplier and doesn’t always fall under the same strict quality control measures as a butchery. The lead time from the farm to the distribution centre and to the shop is longer so the meat isn’t as fresh as you’ll find at the butcher. You also never know whether your pack of chicken fillets was taken out of the fridge and then left on a shelf if the shopper changed their mind, only to be returned hours later. How fresh can it really be?
Farmer’s Markets
One of the best places to find fresh meat is from a Farmer’s Market because obviously, they come straight from the farm to you. And there’s something very appealing and old school about the whole “farm to table” concept. The problem is that not everyone has access to a local Farmer’s Market, especially inner-city folk. Most Farmer’s Markets are also relatively rustic and without proper refrigeration, so it is easier for meat sitting on the farm stall table to spoil. It is simply easier and more convenient for most people to order farm-fresh meat online, especially when getting to a Farmer’s Market is not a possibility.
Final Thoughts
With online butcheries popping up, offering consumers fresh, high-quality cuts of meat straight from the farm, finding fresh meat in Ireland has never been easier. While you can still find decent cuts from reputable supermarkets or a Farmer’s Market, the convenience of buying your ingredients online just makes more sense with our fast-paced lives. And believe us when we say, you’ll taste the difference in every dish!
