Since the horsemeat scandal broke, people have flocked back to their family butcher. As MATT CLARK discovers, there’s more than just provenance on offer.

SHAMBLES is alive with craning-neck tourists taking pictures and looking for souvenirs. But during the Middle Ages, people only came here for one thing – to buy their meat.

For centuries little changed; indeed Baines Directory of 1823 listed 24 butchers here.

The last closed in 2012, but a stone’s throw away, in Newgate Market, David Swain still upholds the butchery tradition.

And since horsemeat was found in supermarket burgers and lasagne, David says he’s been run off his feet.

“We have two shops, my father runs the other one in Copmanthorpe and we’ve seen a 20 per cent rise in customers. They’re all asking questions, they want reassurance and that’s what we sell.”

Many consumers fell out of love with butchers when they fell in love with supermarkets and the double-dip recession hasn’t helped.

For families with ever-tightening belts, buying joints of meat didn’t cut the mustard.

According to recently published findings in the BMC Medicine journal, 44 per cent of those who eat high levels of processed meat are more likely to die prematurely than those who eat little of it.

But it’s the horsemeat scandal that has really sent people scurrying back to their family butcher, because, suddenly, the reasons we had for buying convenience food stopped making sense.

We want to know what we are eating and we want to know where it’s come from.

“I feel supermarkets have been driving prices down with producers for so long that suppliers have been forced into buying cheap alternative meats. You can’t do beef lasagne for 99p.”

The main reason people are returning to family butchers is because they know everything is locally sourced. And David says they’re buying old-fashioned cuts like ox cheek and short rib of beef.

But buying from smaller outlets is nothing new. Long before the horsemeat scandal broke, foodie outlets such as York’s Farmer’s Cart and Harrogate’s Fodder and Weetons began to sell high-quality, locally farmed meat that comes with an impeccable provenance.

Interestingly, though, it doesn’t mean the meat is more expensive. Indeed Fodder’s master butcher, Paul Nicholson, says you will probably pay less than at a supermarket. Better still, he has cuts you can only get from a butcher, like shin beef, which is a fraction the cost of rib-eye or sirloin.

And Paul says it’s fantastic.

“Cheaper cuts are best. They have more patina, more marbling and that’s where the taste comes. I’d eat shin beef over fillet steak any day.”

Then there is crown of lamb; you won’t get that in a supermarket.

“I do all the buying and I talk to my suppliers every day,” says Paul. “That’s really important because you know what you’re eating and your local butcher will advise which cuts of meat to go for.”

Indeed, it’s cheaper to buy a week’s worth of fresh meat than a week’s worth of ready meals. And you can make your own. Prepare a vat of lasagne or chilli made from locally sourced meat, put it in the freezer and you have a week’s worth of convenience food, but without the issues.

Perhaps we’ve been more concerned with animal welfare than our own of late and the horsemeat scandal is a long-needed wake-up call that will lead to a renaissance for local butchers.

“You can’t do this on a massive scale,” says Paul.

“The sad thing is a lot of butchers closed because of the supermarkets.

“Maybe not now though. It’s just about getting the message out there.”