BUTCHERS BLOG David Gigli - NCB North West Executive C ouncil Officer


BARBECUES, BEEF AND BETTER WEBSITES


Brisket, Ossobuco, Louisiana Pork Ribs and baby Back Pork Ribs.


Photo credit Kamado Joe UK


The barbecue season is upon us and always proves to be a very profitable time of the year for us Butchers. I find in my business that there two types of customers for the Barbecue. Both are equally important.


The first and main one is what I call the ‘Bangers and Burgers Barbecuers’. These are the customers that love a family barbecue on a hot summer weekend. Although sausages and burgers are their staples, they are also the type of customers that will buy barbecue- ready products, kebabs, steaks etc. We all have and appreciate these customers.


This brings me onto the second type of Barbecuer – ‘The Professionals’


These guys (yes, they are in the main male) have taken a step up from the summer barbecue. It is more ‘outside cooking’ rather than just barbecuing.


These customers have moved up from a regular kettle barbecue. They are the smokers (not 20 woodbine) and slow cookers. Their equipment of choice is high end - American built cookers like Traegar Grills, Kamado Joe and Big Green Egg. The latter two are Japanese style; in fact, the word Kamado means ‘oven.’ With high-end equipment comes a high-end price - these grills range from £800 to £2000.


So, what do these guys cook? As well as the regular burgers and sausages they cook large steaks - think Tomahawk and T Bone. Always wanting to perfect the sear (which will never be achieved in a domestic kitchen), it is now fashionable to reverse sear the steak. Then you have the slow cook cuts, known as Boston Butts, Packers


It’s a big potential market for us Butchers and growing year upon year. A lot of independent garden centres now have a full range of grills, smokers and even Pizza ovens (which also cook a brilliant steak).


These customers are foodies with disposable income, showing off on social media by posting pictures and sometimes tagging the butcher that they bought their meat from. They cook all year round in all weathers.


So how do you attract these band of merry meat eaters?


It may be worth investing and upgrading your own barbecue (worth checking if it’s tax deductible), posting pictures on your business social media of you cooking and hash-tagging barbecue related subjects. This gives reassurance that you know exactly what customers want.


Know how to prepare cuts of meat specifically for barbecuing. For example, normally you’d totally trim a brisket and roll it for sale in your counter. A Packer Brisket for barbecuing is unrolled and only 20% trimmed.


If you haven’t already guessed, I am one of these guys. I cook on my barbecue 3 to 4 times a week all year round. I enjoy the theatre of cooking over an open fire at the bottom of the garden and getting a better tasting product. Even the Christmas Turkey doesn’t escape!


The rise of Dry Ageing


I purchase my beef in carcase form and used to hang it in my chiller for a couple of weeks. I would then keep my steaks for another couple of weeks after that, selling the steaks at 21 to 28 days hung. This is not dry ageing as the humidity in the fridge would cause my steaks to go sticky while on the bone.


I became increasingly aware of the term ‘Dry aged’ being used to sell beef in supermarkets and restaurants. Call me a cynic but without being able to see for myself I sometimes doubted it. Last year I decided to purchase a Dry Ageing Cabinet myself. The positioning of the cabinet was all important to me. It had to be in the actual shop so that the customer could see it and know what they were paying for.


Twelve months on and my “seeing is believing” campaign has paid dividends, to a point that I’m considering converting my walk-in shop chiller into a dry ager.


Off the shelf websites


Another new addition to my business is our website. Actually, I had my first website 20 years ago, which though it gave me internet presence, didn't really work for me. The reason was that I used a website designer, who did a brilliant job on the design but I couldn’t update it myself. If there was a product price change, or I wanted to upload new images, I always had to go through the designer – not ideal.


Time moved on and so has technology. There are now plenty of low cost ‘off the shelf’ websites out there. I used Wix, or should I say my son, Joe, used Wix.


We had the website live within a couple of weeks, and it has been a great asset to the business, especially at seasonal times like Christmas, Easter etc for taking orders.


Now, if we launch a new product, we can have it on the website within a couple of minutes! Not only that but we can email our online customers direct from our smart phones.


So, if you’re thinking of upgrading your website, shop around. A new website is a great way to reach out to your customer and might be easier than you think.


CRAFT BUTCHER MAY/JUNE 2021| 29


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