My butcher does pork for CHF 16 a kilo. I remember Coop had it at around this price too.

What was the cut of the meat and when was this? I usually get roasts or chunks (stew cuts)...maybe that's more expensive. The cheapest I ever got was 16 to 20 CHF and that was on sale (action). Maybe I ought to switch stores/to a butcher. =.=

I think pre-cut up meat is more expensive in a supermarket. The butcher cuts it however I ask for the same price per kilo.

Actually, stewing meat should be cheaper than other cuts.

The price of meat is high enough here that it's worth the fortnightly trip to Germany to shop there. And I find the quality of beef steaks and pork chops to be better in Germany as well.

Huftsteak 15.99EUR/kg, Fillet 28EUR/kg (Kaufland supermarket) , mince and chicken fillets are so cheap I can't even remember, but cheaper than Gooner's. Water content slightly higher, but not by much.

dave

Lidl Germany had some excellent beef steaks last time I was there. Nice marbling, grilled wonderfully, no shrinkage, no fake sauce needed. Yummy. Getting hungry thinking about it.

Try Nelson's on a weekend. Cheap cattle at the market...

At Coop, 300-400g of organic minced beef is about CHF 8. An organic, free-range chicken (average 1.3kg) is about CHF 25-30.

I almost always buy my chickens from Coop because they have a better selection of organic produce. But for other meats, I tend to prefer Migros because their packaging is better - you can see what the meat looks like whereas Coop tends to vacuum-seal everything.

Though, ideally, I would prefer to buy organic meat from the butcher. However, recent trips to various butchers have not been very inspiring as they don't always stock organic meat and/or their prices are too high.

And then I have the dilemma of choosing organic meat which has been flown in from another continent (like South America or New Zealand), or buying something fresher (and cheaper) from within Switzerland or the EU.

Lately, my preference has been to eat less meat ...

I will report back shortly. As the sun is out Lidl is filled with the great unwashed, so I will leave it until the weekend before indulging in huge succulent juicy tender English-style bloody beefsteak.

dave

Anyone ever identified what that gunky marinade they spread over meat actually is? it always seems to taste the same whether on chicken,beef, or whatever. i dont like it myself and would prefer to make my own sauce.

I'm very particular about my red meat and only buy cut and ground at a butcher. Same goes for lamb as well. Chicken I tend to buy at grocery stores because I couldn't really care less about it and it's cheap everywhere. :P

Beef needs to be highest quality and for me, that's only at a butcher's shop.

do you live on a terrace ?

dave

I'm with you on the whole butcher thing. Down where I live quality is usually better than supermarket though that's reflected in the price. But then I don't really eat enough of it for price to make a big difference budget-wise. I'm going to show my ignorance here but is non-organic meat produced in Switzerland so bad? It's not something I've looked into.

I would suggest staying far away from meat sold in marinade. Don't want to frighten anyone but this is what they usually do to cuts which are close to their due date and the marinade helps to tenderise the meat and keep it for longer.

Agree 100%: I really dislike all the pre-marinated meats available here ... I'd rather cook or mix up my own brine or marinade or dry rub or even let the meat speak for itself.

My main problem with chicken stems from an experience in Tesco years ago. In the organic fridge, I found chicken with hock burn (black marks on the legs caused by the ammonia that is the result of the chickens wallowing in a pool of their own feces and urine). I wrote to Tesco but soon realised that it was ineffective.

How can a free range chicken suffer from hock burn. But this led me to something else.

Take the UK, do some rough calculation. You can buy a chicken for next to nothing in the UK.

Low estimate...

60 000 000 people in the UK.
10% of them eat chicken once a day
= 6 000 000 eating chicken once a day

if they eat a leg, that 1/4 of a chicken

6 000 000 X 25% = 1 500 000 chickens a day.

You can bet those are battery raised, steroid, antibiotic, **** and **** swimming chickens.

The reason chicken is more expensive here is that battery farming was outlawed in the 80s.

It is and should not be cheap to produce meat.

If you really want expensive chicken, go and buy a poulet Bresse for about 50 francs. I can however guarantee that you will remember what chicken tastes like. I hear SWMBO grandparents telling me how chicken was a luxury item at the Christmas table.

Yes, and as for the poor people, let them eat cake



EDIT : noticed that this is not the first reference to cake on this thread...

Actually, I don't know too much about the meat industry in Switzerland either. I presume that animal farms in Switzerland adhere to a high standard (as with everything else in this country).

For me, the difference between organic and non-organic usually comes down to taste; organic meat has a lot more flavour. And then there's the "good" conscience about eating something that has lived a happy life. Though, in the end, organic and non-organically reared animals both suffer the same fate anyway.

But if I had to choose between organic lamb from New Zealand and non-organic lamb from France, I would probably opt for the latter; lamb from New Zealand is often vacuum-sealed and/or frozen for its journey to Europe and I'm sure this has an affect on the taste. And do you want to buy meat that has clocked up air-miles?

Another example is organic kiwi fruit from New Zealand or non-organic kiwi fruit from Italy.

So I am not quite sure where I stand on organic vs non-organic food, especially when I also have to factor in local produce vs produce from far-flung countries.

They are soooo good! The difference is really night & day. There is another French chicken that is also very good a not quite as expensive. They sell them at the Aligro.