Food

Pros and cons of using online butchers for the Christmas shopping 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… panicking yet?

If you’re in charge of the festive dinner on ‘The Big Day’ but feel stretched for (shopping) time, you might be better off pre-ordering your ingredients, especially the meats.

With supermarket slots filling up fast and items soon to be dwindling, it’s useful to look into alternative retailers like online butchers.

But is it really worth it? Let’s find out.

Here are the pros and cons of using online butchers for Christmas Day.

The quality is better

First thing’s first, going directly to the source (aka the butcher) will usually provide you with a higher quality piece of meat.

As an example, Farmison’s beef is free range and grass fed. Similarly, London’s Turner & George butcher claims every piece of meat “has been raised naturally, lived their best lives and is completely hormone, antibiotic and cruelty-free”.

Most butchers are quite open (and proud) of their source too, giving customers farm-to-table knowledge.

Doing research is all well and good but we like to really get our teeth into the topics we tackle, quite literally.

Farmison & Co sent a hamper of items for ON In London to try including a hand-trimmed centre cut fillet. The meat was tender and juicy, and so fresh we didn’t need any seasoning beyond salt and pepper. That’s a win in our book.

The fact that there was also a pre-made sauce (we just had to heat it up) and extras like lush mash and truffle butter was [insert chef’s kiss sound here].

You’ll have a wide range of products to choose from

Each butcher usually has a pretty decent range too and not just of meat.

Pipers Farm for instance sells not only the classic meats – beef, turkey, chicken etc – but also seafood, cheese, sweet treats, hampers and more.

The Dorset Meat Company provides meat boxes, and deli items like pesto, pates and oils, and many sites provide recipe sections too, so you can get some inspiration before cooking.

However, shopping with your eyes as opposed to your nose isn’t always helpful; you might end up adding more to your basket than intended.

Make sure to have a snack before you put that pre-order in.

It could end up costing you

As you might imagine, there’s one key downside to using an online butcher: the price.

While in Sainsbury’s you can get a frozen turkey to feed 5-8 people for as little as £16, the cheapest crown at Farmison will set you back £81. Pipers Farm is slightly cheaper at £79.

But again, you’re paying for quality, so it’s really just a case of deciding what’s most important to you.

Go for the extras, not the mains

Trying to keep costs low but still fancy something a little bit special?

For the table, we’d recommend spending money on the extras instead like Sublime’s truffle & parmesan butter (Farmison’s), pigs in blankets (Turner & George) or charcuterie (The Dorset Meat Company).

It’s both more AND less hassle

On the upside, you can add everything into a basket, add a pre-order date and just wait for it to arrive at your front door.

On the downside, if you forget something, you’ll have to do a brand new order (though it’s possible some butchers will allow for amends).

Written by Almara Abgarian