Meat & greet
It’s time to restore the butcher shop tradition
Do you know a butcher? ❚ No, Lazar Wolfe, the village butcher from “Fiddler on the Roof,” does not count. Neither does that guy from Seville. Wait, that was a barber. ❚ The food motto nowadays is know your farmer. But for home cooks, knowing — and trusting — your butcher may be just as important. ❚ Meat is commonly the main course for dinner, the backbone of your entertaining menu and the most expensive item in the meal. ❚ An increasing number of concerned consumers want to know more about their meat. ❚ How do I cook this properly? ❚ How do I prepare inexpensive cuts to taste great? ❚ Where did this meat come from, and how were the animals treated? To find answers about serving meat with confidence, a professional butcher at a dedicated meat market is the time-honored place to start.
Milwaukee home cook Brad Johansen has asked the many questions. You might even say he’s on a meat mission.
“I am pretty passionate about scoping out all the meat markets and farmers market stands in the area. I like to buy similar types of meat from various producers and cook/eat them side-by-side for flavor and quality comparisons,” he said.
Johansen is a loyal customer of Kettle Range Meat Co., a butcher shop specializing in local grass-fed and pasture-raised meat at 5501 W. State St. He’s found Kettle Range to be the best combination of quality, variety, craftsmanship, responsible sourcing and price to suit his cooking needs.
In short, Johansen knows his butcher.
“I like to spend my money on meat that tastes really good and comes from places I trust,” he said.
Johansen said supermarket meat has not offered the transparencies he seeks, such as revealing how the animals are treated. “Even when larger chains aren’t recalling 17 tons of plastic-tainted beef, as one major retailer recently had to do, it can be difficult to find one that offers the knowledgeable service and high-quality meat found at dedicated butchers like Kettle Range,” he explained.
Where have all the butchers gone?
Sadly, Kettle Range Meat is just one of a comparatively few dedicated butcher shops left around southeastern Wisconsin.
Years ago, the shops were commonplace institutions of daily life. Even small rural towns could support a meat market.
In Milwaukee, there were hundreds of knowledgeable neighborhood butchers who interacted directly with home cooks.
“In the days before chain stores like A&P and IGA came to town, butcher shops were as numerous as mushrooms after a rain, often sharing street corners with bakeries, mom-and-pop grocery stores, and saloons,” said historian and author John Gurda. “The 1923 city directory listed nearly 700 butchers, from Adler’s on Green Bay Ave. to Zoeller’s on N. 27th St.”
Joe Parajecki, operations manager and master meat crafter at Kettle Range Meat, believes one of the reasons butchers are rare nowadays is because the meat industry got away from whole-animal butchery.
“It is also a job that is very physical, and you have to work in a refrigerator, which is not everyone’s cup of tea,” he explained. Parajecki is a member of the UWMadison Meat Cutter Hall of Fame.
Fourth-generation butchers
Some longtime butcher shops are still around but have moved locations.
Nicole Weber and her two brothers, Vinnie and Sam Wysocki, are fourth-generation operators of House of Homemade Sausage at N112-W14934 Mequon Road in Germantown.
Weber’s great-grandparents opened the original House of Homemade Sausage in 1939 at N. 25th and W. Center St., then moved to N. 35th and W. Villard Ave. in 1951. In 1979, Weber’s parents opened the butcher shop in Germantown where it stands today.
“While the outside of the business may have changed, the quality of our product has not,” Weber said. “The three of us have continued to run our family business since 2000.
“Because there are not many butcher shops like us open anymore, we appreciate our loyal customer clientele. Still to this day, we have many customers that used to shop at our Villard Ave. store.”
Weber thinks there aren’t many butchers left partly because it’s convenient for shoppers to purchase meat from a big-box store.
But the pendulum may be swinging back as many cooks are seeking locally crafted foods served with a smile from someone they know. Weber calls it the “hometown feel.”
Being a butcher is “cool” again, according to Parajecki at Kettle Range, which opened just three years ago. Recently, he served on an advisory panel for Madison Area Technical College, where a new farm-to-table meat class will be offered this fall. The program will teach everything from animal husbandry to meat processing.
Butcher benefits
Even if a bona-fide butcher in a local meat market is relatively rare, the trusted relationship with home cooks remains the same.
Often, shoppers seek advice, Parajecki said. It’s a key part of the customer relationship that he values as a butcher.
“I love the interaction with my team and with customers. My team and I get to create something that is going to be the centerpiece of the meal table every day,” he said. “We get to help people cook really good food.”
Parajecki’s three favorite cuts are pork shank, pork steak and beef brisket.
“These are not cuts that everyone carries, but when cooked right, they are the most delicious cuts on the animal,” he said. His favorite steak: the chuck eye.
As for food transparency, Parajecki said because Kettle Range is small, it’s easy for them to trace the origins of every piece of meat in their store.
Consider ground meat, which is grinded in units called lots between cleanups. One lot of Kettle Range’s ground beef is only four to six head of beef. Compare that to “big-box” store ground beef where “there may be 10, 100 or thousands of head of beef in a single lot,” he said.
For an example of helpful butcher advice, take inexpensive but tricky round steak. This is not the flashiest cut of meat in many people’s recipe books.
Plus, there are three types of round steak to consider: the top, bottom and eye.
“Each has its own application,” according to Parajecki. “Top round makes a good grilling steak when it’s cut thick and marinated,” he said. Grill rare to medium, then slice thin across the grain.
“Bottom round makes an excellent pot roast,” he advised. “Eye of round is best roasted in a dry method at high heat until medium-rare and sliced thin, thin, thin. Top with a flavorful mushroom gravy and it is really satisfying.”
Just like “Cheers”
Butchers at Bunzel’s Old Fashioned Meat Market at 9015 W. Burleigh St. also offer plenty of sound meat guidance, according to Jeff Zupan, operations manager.
“Being a meat cutter is a trade, being a butcher is an art, and we do both.
Make the honey-ginger walnuts: In a large sauté pan over medium heat, combine oil, ginger, garlic and walnuts. Cook about 2 minutes until fragrant. Add honey and cook until honey starts sticking to walnuts. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with salt. Do not use paper towel, as walnuts will stick.
Prepare cutlets: In same large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add 4 tablespoons of the oil (add reserved 2 tablespoons oil later if needed). Spread flour on a large plate and lightly dredge cutlets; add to pan. Cook about 2 minutes per side until no longer pink and lightly browned. Cook cutlets in about two or three batches to not overcrowd the pan. Transfer cooked cutlets to the ginger walnut bowl.
Add any remaining oil if needed to pan, then ginger and garlic and cook until garlic sizzles, then add lemon juice, chicken broth and wine (if using) and honey. Scrape up any brown bits up off bottom of pan, then add walnuts and chicken to pan to heat thoroughly.
Serve with rice, and garnish with green onion and parsley.
“Our staff is versed in all areas of preparation and service,” Zupan said. “We are like ‘Cheers.’ We know hundreds of people by their names. Some have been with us from the beginning over 40 years ago.”
He added, “I think our saying here says it all: We want you to walk in as a customer and leave feeling that you are part of our family.”
For novice butcher shoppers, home cook Johansen offered some advice.
“Ask questions. If the person behind the counter is excited and open about their products and where they come from, it’s a good sign they’re legit,” he said.
“Also, start with simpler stuff and see if you can taste the difference. As much as I love a good dry-aged porterhouse, my favorite thing at Kettle Range is probably their hot dogs.”
Pets can also reap butcher benefits. Johansen said his three “spoiled” canines love the dog bones from Kettle Range. “No reason to give my pets toxic rawhide from China when I have a local butcher smoking beef bones from local farms,” he said.