Meet Bridget | Award-winning butcher and MasterChef in her own right
Butcher Bridget Earley not only helps the public make delicious recipes using the best cuts of meat, but she’s also passionate about teaching others butchery skills – including me before I appeared on MasterChef: The Professionals.
I chatted to her about what makes butchers’ meat better than the supermarkets, her favourite cuts and her top tips for a Sunday roast.
How did you get into butchery?
I followed my heart and I moved to London to be with my other half [Gary, who started the butchers back in 1994].
I knew nothing about butchery or retail or anything.
To cut a long story short, the lady who used to do the pies at the butchers had a car accident, so I went down to help and, pardon the pun, the rest is history.
I literally started sweeping the floors and baking the bread. I’m a people person anyway. I’m the kind of person that likes to get stuck in. I became interested as I always loved cooking.
Gary got me a set of knives and I went from there. I went from knowing nothing to being able to break down a carcass. I love the fine end of butchery and butchery skills and I love passing them on to people.
I love when somebody comes into the shop and says, ‘I want to do this but don’t know how’. We do the hard work such as boning out the tiniest, fiddliest thing like a saddle of rabbit to tiny birds. We boned out 120 poussins for a lady. That was fun.
I learned from my husband and other colleagues at the time and now I can teach as well. I think as long as you’re patient and giving with your time, butchery is a skill anyone can have. It’s like anything, if you want to be really good at it, then it takes practice and you have to take pride in your work.
You start with a chicken, it doesn’t matter if you muck it up, then you move on to more expensive and more interesting things. The make-up of all animals is the same, fundamentally, it’s just some might be smaller and others bigger. The big ones are easy, it’s the small ones that are fiddly.
We use everything in the shop, from nose to tail. We make our own stocks, we make our own gravies, we cook our own pies, our own hams, everything gets used.
What does The Meat Like It Used To Be Like company mean to you?
Bridget: Nothing gives me greater pleasure than having people around a table with the food that we have provided. Nothing brings family and friends together like food.
Quality of produce and service underlines the whole ethos of the shop but following on from that, we want people to get the very best out of the produce: whether it’s a pound of mince you buy and you make the most amazing bolognese or whether it’s the most expensive thing like a fillet of venison or a loin of beef.
The way it’s been butchered and prepared. The way it’s been looked after and aged and the advice that we give. It’s not just about them coming in and taking it away, it’s about the end result.
What’re your top tips for making a solid Sunday roast?
My aged old thing that I say is, ‘you get organised’. If you buy good quality products it’s always going to be a winner. Get the veggies and gravy made ahead of time. Hot plates and good gravy. Good gravy makes any meal!
What makes your independent butchers’ meat different from the supermarket?
It starts with the relationship you build up with your suppliers, it’s trust. Trust about the quality of what you buy and what you expect from your supplier – and that’s built up over years. Some of our suppliers we have had for 20 years. They know the quality and the consistency we need – and we feed that down to our customers.
It’s knowledge, too. We buy from farmers, and we know their ethos and how much they care, and how much they put into the breeding process and sustainability and the feed. Everything about the whole process is reflected in the quality of the product. It’s then down to us to butcher it well and age it well.
Ageing is a new thing, it adds to the flavour of the meat and how lovely and tender it can be. All of these things are combined into making a really good product. And that’s something that the supermarkets can’t provide. They try and they aim to but it becomes big [the process] and the bigger it becomes the less control you have over it.
So, the chain from the farmer – or from pasture to plate – from them to us the butcher is much smaller, and we can trace it back. The smaller that chain is the easier it is to monitor.
If anyone thing has come good out of Covid it’s a real belief in small independents and especially butchers. There’s a new belief in how good independents are and how much better they are than the supermarkets.
It’s about educating people about food and where it comes from. People might not think they have the budget to buy meat from a butcher, but the meat goes further.
I’m not against supermarkets, but if you buy good quality British poultry that’s been produced by some of the smaller producers, and you pay a little bit more for it, that chicken breast is going to go a lot further than 10 chicken breasts you buy from a supermarket where the meat has come from Poland or Italy or abroad. It’s mass-produced, full of water, doesn’t taste of anything and it also comes down to sustainability. It’s a no brainer really.
Maybe it’s a whole new ear with Brexit and British farming and agriculture will change for the better.
The media plays an important part in that. When they’re putting programmes together, they need to perhaps spend a little bit more time researching on the ground with people at the very backbone of it, the very heart of it. Don’t speak to the CEO of a company, don’t speak to the head of DEFRA, go down to the very grassroots. Speak to the farmers, the mum in the supermarket that needs to feed her family and see what interests her and what she’s looking for.
It’s down to us keen cooks to also show people how to make the most of something with a little bit of effort.
What are your favourite cuts of meat and why?
It has to be rolled sirloin of beef. I love it, and I love all the trimmings. It’s still one of my favourite dinners. It’s happy memories of many Sunday afternoons of when we were little. It’s so quick too, it only takes around 50 minutes and it never lets you down. It’s delicious. I make red wine beef gravy, roast potatoes, Yorkshires, a glass of red wine and I’m in heaven.
What does a day in your shoes look like?
It’s unpredictable. I never know from one minute to the next when I go onto that shop floor what the day is going to be like. Being a small independent is about what you give back. I have many tiles most days: teacher, social worker, advice giver, chef.
Each different cap is an honour to wear. Last year one of my customer’s little girls insisted she came in wearing her full holy communion regalia; that makes me feel special. I feel privileged to work with people. They trust you. You earn their trust, you can never take it for granted and you can never take your foot off the pedal. There are times when I take home too much work, or I could leave the shop early, but I think when you’re passionate it gets into your very soul.
