Make Meat Dishes Even Better: Ask Your Butcher This One Question

For all of the vast and varied places that a person can find recipes online, in print, and elsewhere in the media ether, sometimes the best home cooking source is a real, live person. And, in matters of meat, who better to ask for preparation tips, tricks, and full-on instructions, than your butcher? Your protein professional is just that: a trusted steward of all things pork, beef, veal, poultry, and more, plus plenty of ways to make them. So you might want to relax your scrolling thumb and simply ask your butcher for a preparation recommendation the next time you're at their counter.

Enter without any expectations and you will not leave disappointed. In the best-case scenario, a butcher's guidance will ensure that your purchase turns out even more delicious via a method or even a marinade that's new to you. And even in the worst-case scenario, your butcher may still confirm something as basic as your steak time and temperature suspicions to save you an afternoon of Googling and cross-referencing search results all to reach your desired doneness. It can also just feel a little more reliable when an actual person who works with food by the pound tells you the best ways to cook some popular cuts in real time. Your butcher's knowledge will also, obviously, be helpful when you're considering less familiar selections. 

Try to shop during slower times when you know you want to engage your butcher in a little culinary conversation. It will just be harder for them to share the breadth of their expertise under the pressure of a winding line. "How would you prepare this?" is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask at those quieter times, and it opens the door for as detailed an explanation that they may be able to share. Follow up with further questions if you're looking for specifics. It's one thing to learn that some hunk of meat is best roasted. It's another to glean for how long, how hot, and with what enhancing herbs.

One may not know that a bone-in pork loin transforms into an impressive crown roast without first asking their butcher about its possibilities, for example. Only after you inquire about what might at first look like a rack of ribs to toss on the grill will you learn that a butcher can likely trim and tie the swine into a more regal shape for you right there on site. On the less elaborate side, a butcher will also be able to tell you what to do with something like the Denver steaks that may be new to your vocabulary, or how to get tougher (and often cheaper) cuts nice and tender. The ability to get real-time answers is just one of the many reasons it's always better to visit an actual butcher than to avail yourself of the grocery world's less personal options.