Bought a chicken from butchers on Thurs, ok use on Mon?

Scam

Scam

Scam

Soldato
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As title really. We swapped our meals around a bit to account for the weather being warmer this weekend, so might not cook it until Monday. Would you be worried if it's been in the fridge for 4-5 days?

Don't normally worry about this stuff but as it's from the butcher's (an excellent one, worth noting) I'm not 100% sure. Hmn :confused:
 
Wouldn't even phase me.... not in the least.

(this assumes that you have no reason to doubt the sanitary practice of your butcher. Because if you did then wtf are you doing giving him any business at all.)
 
Smell it on Monday. If it smells OK, you are good to go.
Always do this with meat no matter the date. You never know how its been handled and refrigerated before you purchased.
 
Yeah thanks. Absolutely 100% faith in the butcher, they're brilliant. I guess I just wonder if they're quite as regimented as, say a supermarket with how long stock is held for etc? And what with no use by dates too :)
 
droyden said:
Smell it on Monday. If it smells OK, you are good to go.
Always do this with meat no matter the date. You never know how its been handled and refrigerated before you purchased.
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While I agree that food that smells 'off' shouldn't be eaten, the smell test isn't always reliable and shouldn't be used as a determination of safety.

Some bacteria, including salmonella, can be present in quantities sufficient enough to cause illness without any discernible odor.

The two biggest keys to safety are proper handling and proper cooking. Neither of which you can smell.
 
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Scam said:
Yeah thanks. Absolutely 100% faith in the butcher, they're brilliant. I guess I just wonder if they're quite as regimented as, say a supermarket with how long stock is held for etc? And what with no use by dates too :)
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My guess, and it's just a guess, is a small local butcher would generally be as safe, if not safer, than any supermarket. Supermarkets make money on hundreds of other items so if something happened and they had to shut down the meat department they would likely survive. Not so with a local butcher. Something goes wrong and he's out of business.
 
BlueMerle said:
Something goes wrong and he's out of business.
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I totally agree, but without use by dates what is the cut off for using fresh meat if stored correctly? Honest question.

I'm sure a butcher would be a little peeved if someone got ill because they ate a chicken they'd kept in the fridge for 3 weeks!
 
Scam said:
I totally agree, but without use by dates what is the cut off for using fresh meat if stored correctly? Honest question.
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Fair question. I believe that for chicken most government agencies would say 2 to 3 days is the cut off. And I believe that most producers would say the same. But, these time frames are issued out of an abundance of caution and a desire to avoid any legal liability. I think we all know that food doesn't magically go bad the day after the use by date. Handled properly from slaughterhouse to market to home there's no reason a chicken wouldn't be safe to eat 1 week out. There are exceptions but they are very rare, otherwise you'd hear nothing but food poisoning stories on the nightly news. And in most all cases the weak link in the chain is the 'home', and that is almost always how the chicken was cooked. Meaning it wasn't cooked properly. You can't fix stupid!

Scam said:
I'm sure a butcher would be a little peeved if someone got ill because they ate a chicken they'd kept in the fridge for 3 weeks!
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I'm sure he would be, but if you're a local butcher for a small town and only 1 person/family gets sick from eating a 3 week old chicken I think you'd be ok. The problem comes when half the village gets sick from eating your chicken after 1 day. Now, you're in trouble. Once again, you can't fix stupid!
 
BlueMerle said:
While I agree that food that smells 'off' shouldn't be eaten, the smell test isn't always reliable and shouldn't be used as a determination of safety.

Some bacteria, including salmonella, can be present in quantities sufficient enough to cause illness without any discernible odor.
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I'm not saying this isn't true, but I have always just trusted my sense of smell with meat and it's not failed me yet.

To the OP:

Chicken shouldn't smell at all or a very faint"earthy" smell is ok. But anything else definitely don't eat it.

To be fair, I ate a chicken once that didn't smell great and was even going off colour slightly and I was fine - obviously dont advise that I wouldn't do it again.
 
Well. We decided that it was going to be too hot to consider a roast either today or tomorrow so we've elected to play it safe(r) and cook a chicken, fennel and preserved lemon tagine tonight. I broke it down/jointed it and it's now marinading in the fridge. Ever so slight smell coming from it but I think it's fine. I find meat general smells when you're a bit worried about it :o
 
Scam said:
Well. We decided that it was going to be too hot to consider a roast either today or tomorrow so we've elected to play it safe(r) and cook a chicken, fennel and preserved lemon tagine tonight. I broke it down/jointed it and it's now marinading in the fridge. Ever so slight smell coming from it but I think it's fine. I find meat general smells when you're a bit worried about it :o
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Just in case, can I have your stereo? :D ;)

(I'm kidding... you'll be fine!)
 
BlueMerle said:
Just in case, can I have your stereo? :D ;)
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Sorry, besides feeling a bit ropey due to afternoon beers + a bottle of prosecco to e-celebrate our friends anniversary (any excuse) + a wee dram before bed... :P we're fine. The tagine was awesome too.
 
Good stuff.

We've recently started using a local farm shop which has an onsite butcher. We've been buying chicken breasts from him for ages and always been really impressed with it. Lasy week we bought a whole chicken and feel like we couldn't go back to the Supermarket now. Whilst the breasts are similar prices to Waitrose, the chicken is around 2-3x the price but it was definitely worth it!
 
Marvt74 said:
We've recently started using a local farm shop which has an onsite butcher. We've been buying chicken breasts from him for ages and always been really impressed with it. Lasy week we bought a whole chicken and feel like we couldn't go back to the Supermarket now. Whilst the breasts are similar prices to Waitrose, the chicken is around 2-3x the price but it was definitely worth it!
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Unfortunately living where I do in west London it feels like our butcher takes the **** a little bit with pricing. Ribeye steaks are £36.99/kg for example :o Like you, chickens are 3x the price of the supermarket but I'm not actually sure if I notice the difference; but then again we always buy M&S chickens.

Regarding chicken breasts.. well I never buy them. I find them dry and tasteless and thigh/leg is almost always a better fit for what I'm cooking (stir fry, curry, tagine, stews etc.). If you like breast (hrhr :rolleyes: ) I'd buy a whole chicken and get used to jointing/portioning it out. In the supermarkets at least you can generally get a whole chicken for not much more than 2x breasts which I always find crazy.
 
Scam said:
Unfortunately living where I do in west London it feels like our butcher takes the **** a little bit with pricing. Ribeye steaks are £36.99/kg for example :o Like you, chickens are 3x the price of the supermarket but I'm not actually sure if I notice the difference; but then again we always buy M&S chickens.

Regarding chicken breasts.. well I never buy them. I find them dry and tasteless and thigh/leg is almost always a better fit for what I'm cooking (stir fry, curry, tagine, stews etc.). If you like breast (hrhr :rolleyes: ) I'd buy a whole chicken and get used to jointing/portioning it out. In the supermarkets at least you can generally get a whole chicken for not much more than 2x breasts which I always find crazy.
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Indeed, give a Chinaman chicken breast and you'll offend him greatly. They view the breast as the poorest part of the meat. I have no idea why we became so obsessed with it.
 
It's fine let people have their chicken breast, it brings the demand for the thigh meat down which imo is by far the best for pretty much anything.
 
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