The Q Guild of Butchers has cooked up a mouth watering sausage recipe to raise funds for national children’s charity ChildLine and toast a special anniversary. The champagne based banger, brainchild of Brindon Addy, newly elected President of the Q Guild, will go on sale at shops across the country for a fortnight from 5th March, with 10 pence from every pound of sausages sold being donated to ChildLine. (more…)
Archive for March, 2012
New chair elected
The Q Guild of Butchers has announced Brindon Addy as its new Chairman. Yorkshire born Addy takes over the reins from Philip Cranston who has chaired the elite organisation for seven years.
Father of two, Addy has been involved with the Q Guild for over 13 years. He joined in 1998, was elected chairman of the north east in 2005 and national vice chair in 2010.
On his appointment, he commented: “I feel immensely proud and honoured to be appointed and thank all the members who elected me. (more…)
Local butcher goes an extra 1000 miles for his customers this christmas
A local butcher has gone out of his way this year to make sure that his customers have the best beef for their Christmas dinners. John Buckwell of Buckwells of Southsea, a Q Guild butcher based on Osborne Road, has travelled to Aberdeenshire to attend the Scotch Premier Christmas Classic Carcass Show and Auction Sale with the intention of buying the best beef for his Christmas trade.
John’s 1,160 mile round-trip was made worthwhile when John bought the champion premier bullock, which was a great success.
John said: “Giving our customers the best meat is really important to us, especially as a member of the Q Guild of Butchers, where Q stands for quality. The meat will now be matured until Christmas so our customers know they will be getting something really special.”
Buckwells of Southsea has been trading since 1987 and recently won six Gold awards in the 2011 Smithfield Awards, a national product evaluation which is among the most coveted in the meat industry.
The Q Guild (www.qguild.co.uk) has 140 members across the UK, and serves £3 million worth of meat and related products to over a quarter of a million UK consumers every week.
Christmas meat piles on the pressure for stressed out brits
• Three quarters of us suffer stress as a result of planning Christmas dinner
• 25% of UK have experienced a meat-based cooking disaster on Christmas day
• Independent butchers come to the rescue with new campaign
Research published today reveals that three quarters of the great British public suffer stress as a result of buying and preparing Christmas meat. One in 10 even described the experience as more nerve wracking than their first day in a new job or even moving house!
The study of 1,500 people by the Q Guild of Butchers revealed that 25% of Christmas cooks have experienced a meat-based cooking disaster over the festive period, as the pressure proves too much to handle!
Christmas dinner stress capitals of the UK (with the highest number of people saying they experienced high levels of stress) include Manchester (38%), Glasgow (53%), Belfast (55%), Newcastle (40%) and Brighton (41%).
The biggest faux pas was buying the wrong size bird, with not enough turkey to go round, 3% of those surveyed admitted to leaving it too late and having to do without festive meat on the big day!
Other popular mishaps include dry meat (6%), uncooked turkey (5%) and un-defrosted turkey (4%).
The survey also found that the average UK household will spend £48.90 on Christmas Day meat alone – almost five times what the average family spends on meat in a normal week!* 10% of the UK spends more than £100 on Christmas meat.
Despite the added pressure and expenditure that Christmas meat represents, over half of UK shoppers do not seek expert advice at their local butcher and instead buy off the shelf in the supermarkets.
15% of people questioned agreed that they wouldn’t know what to ask a butcher for or would be too embarrassed to ask for help, when ordering Christmas meat. Shockingly 22% of the UK adult population have never been inside a butcher shop.
In reaction to this research, the Q Guild of Butchers, who represent 140 of Britain’s best butchers, is launching a campaign entitled ‘Meat Your Butcher’ in a bid to encourage more people to visit their local butcher and avoid Christmas meat disasters.
With the aim of creating a stress-free, culinary Christmas, Q Guild butchers are inviting shoppers to attend free 10 minute sessions, where they can offload their woes to a meat expert.
Philip Cranston, Chairman of the Q Guild said: “Meat is certainly centre stage at Christmas, for many it will be the one time of the year when they have to cook for a large party or it may be the only time when all the family sits down to eat. Add to this the extra expenditure that goes into Christmas meat and it’s not surprising that many of us are feeling the pressure.
“We believe that this is where quality, independent butchers can help as we offer expert advice that will save shoppers money and stress during the festive season. Our Meat Your Butcher campaign is for those who have never ventured into an independent butcher – we hope they will change their shopping habits this holiday season and realise the benefits of asking for expert advice.”
For more information about Meat Your Butcher visit www.facebook.com/q_guild or www.qguild.co.uk.
*2005-2006 Office for National Statistics – average family £10.10 per week on meat
Twelve Q Guild butchers win great taste awards 2011
12 members of the Q Guild of Butchers are celebrating after being recognised in the 2011 Great Taste Awards, the acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink.
Glossop member set to be on tv again
Award-winning Peak District butcher John Mettrick, played host to the famous Hairy Bikers in early September as part of their Tour of Britain programme.
