I spoke with Will from Barfield Butchers who provide us with our selection of succulent mouth watering meat items across our menu, all about practicing one of the world’s oldest trades in the modern world, and the work that goes into providing produce to be proud of. They’re a longstanding Brighton butcher that have been operating out of Fiveways for over 100 years!

 

 

Butchery is one of the oldest trades in history, evolving and developing for thousands of years. But have there been any methods or technology that have revolutionised the industry in the modern world?

Truth be told, butchery hasn’t changed much over time. I’m sure the invention of the mincer was a game changer at the time, and vacuum packers are great for long-term storage. But overall we still break down every carcass the same way we always have. The tools were perfected pretty early on so we can still use them today. The main kit is a six inch boning knife, a twelve inch steak knife and a bone saw. You can go from one big carcass to several dozen cuts with just: small knife, big knife, saw. And maybe the stomach for handling a bit of blood. And the rest of it is just elbow grease. No need for anything fancy tools when you have the tried and true tools and the know-how.

 

How did your butchery journey begin?

Well I definitely haven’t always been a butcher, it’s not in the family or anything like that. I used to work for the council in London and was pretty disaffected with life and council politics, and one year about 15 years ago I had come back to Brighton for Christmas and my Dad told me “Roy the old butcher wants to sell up.” And soon as he said that a seed got planted. I started to think “maybe I could do that”.

There’s a really good butcher in Islington called Godfrey’s, and I asked if they had a Saturday job going, and they did. So I started doing every Saturday at the butchers alongside the council job, and found I liked the reality just as much as the idea, so quit the council and went full time at the butchers in London for six months before coming down to Brighton to take over the shop. It was a bit of a harebrained scheme at first, and a pretty major left turned half way through life, but it turned out well.

I’ve always been interested in the world of food but didn’t fancy the cheffing hours, and shopkeepers hours are a lot more reasonable. At a certain point working for the council broke me and when the butcher path opened up it offered a life that was a lot more exciting than the office. And it was in Fiveways right where I grew up in Brighton, so everything felt right and it all fell into place.

 

What was your first experience of cutting up an animal?

It was weird because I was still at the council when I first started. I was doing half days for a while so I would be cutting the head off a pig at 7:30am in the morning and then be in the office a few hours later in a suit and tie doing the usual water cooler chat like nothing had happened. Definitely made sure to thoroughly wash my hands between jobs! A lot of butchers these days buy cuts from boxes but the shop I learned at was full carcass butchery, and I was so enthusiastic and keen to learn that all the butchers who’d been doing it for years were more than happy to let me do some of the work for them. So I got a lot of advanced and technical hands-on experience early on at one of the top shops in the country, and then I brought those skills down to the shop here.

 

How long has Barfield been butchering?

I’ve had the shop for 13 years but there’s been a butcher there for over 100 years. The previous owner before me had it for 30 odd years, and the owner before him was Dan Barfield, where the name originally came from. We chose not to change the name because people recognise it, and plus no one can ever say my actual surname!

 

Can you walk us through your supply line, from rearing to butchering to shop floor?

So sourcing the healthiest animals in the most ethical way has been something I’ve been very invested in from the start of this journey. The previous owners used to get a lot of meat down from Scotland, but being surrounded as we are by the perfect farmland of the Downs, with so much here on our doorstep you really don’t need to be going far afield. I can proudly say that all our pork, beef and lamb comes from right here in the South Downs. We know where it comes from and we know it hasn’t travelled far and that’s very important to us.

Most of our meat has a BN postcode! I did a lot of research before committing to buying the shop, visiting local abattoirs and suppliers and making sure they were meeting high welfare standards, meaning the animals have a good quality of life and are slaughtered humanely. The producers and farmers we work with are all small and independent, it’s nothing like the industrial scale image that might initially come to mind, it’s all done with a personal touch and that makes all the difference.

A happy animal means meat that makes you happy when you eat it. They slaughter it and deliver to us on site, and then we break it down into sellable cuts to sell in the shop or deliver to Babble for cooking in the restaurant.

 

What is the secret to being a good butcher?

Being a butcher is funny. It’s quite a broad job. There aren’t that many butchers around so those that have lasted tend to be because they’ve served their community well. It’s not just knowing about the meat, it’s serving customers, aging the meat beautifully, presenting it beautifully in the shop, staying on top of quality control and never compromising in that department.

There’s lots of different skill sets. To be a good meat cutter isn’t really enough. You have to know your customers and know what they want, be prepared to put new stuff in the display cabinet and introduce people to new cuts they haven’t tried before, you have to love what you do and be excited about really helping your community. Ultimately if you’re passionate that will transfer over to the customers and that’s what being a good butcher is, supplying good people with good meat.

Five years ago the world was in a vegan frenzy as meat was demonised as unhealthy. Now the pendulum seems to have swung back the other way and people are choosing high quality meat instead of cutting out meat entirely.

 

Can you talk to us about the difference between low quality meat and high quality meat?

I think like most things in life, what you put in is what you get out, and that’s especially true for animals. There’s lots of factors that have to come first before a good meat item can end up on your plate. It starts with the animal’s genes, it has to have good characteristics in the first place. Then it needs to be raised properly, and you can’t get better than 100% grass fed, the more wild plants and herbs the better, so the animal is full of healthy nutrients which translates to loads more health benefits when you eat the meat.

Comparing that to grain-fed beef is like comparing a plant that’s been grown in dry, mouldy soil and a plant that’s been grown in rich, fertile soil. Then the way it’s slaughtered, making sure it isn’t stressed as that affects the meat and makes it tougher and less flavourful. Other details like how it’s hung, kept in the fridge, and how it’s butchered and how it’s sold. All these little steps along the way add up to making a big difference, and if all is done right you end up with beautiful, high quality meat that you honestly say is healthy and can be proud to sell.

As for veganism, things have changed so much now. Eating a lot of meat isn’t just a macho thing anymore. Science across the board backs up the fact that the older you get the more protein you need to eat, to ward off a whole range of health issues. Small portions of protein every now and then just don’t cut it any more and the high protein diet, a good amount of protein with every meal, is less of a fad and more of a rulebook for a healthy life. We’ve got a lot of ex-vegans in the shop who are always telling me “I’ve never felt better” and I think that speaks for itself.

 

What is the hardest part of your job, and what is the most fun part of the job?

What I like about it is that the shop work varies, you’re serving customers, processing meat, there’s a lot of cleaning, you can be out and about in the van. No two days are exactly the same and it keeps things interesting. The hardest part is undoubtedly Christmas. Every year it’s an absolute monster and there’s no way around it. You just survive it. Unless you’ve done Christmas in a butcher’s shop you really can’t wrap your head around just how busy and manic it can get, it’s incomparable to anything else. All the young Saturday staff we have are always shellshocked afterwards. Imagine everyone falling asleep in the turkey on Christmas Day, then you’ll get the idea. And it’s not just turkey we sell, it’s everything. Chicken, turkey, gammon, beef, pork, goose, lamb, sausages, everything. And it all funnels down to those two or three days leading up, when everyone’s coming in to pick things up. Once you’ve done that then whatever job you do after you’ll think is easy in comparison. And it’s hard but we still love it. The meat’s the centre of Christmas dinner, you can have all the brussel sprouts in the work but if there’s no turkey, everyone’s gonna go home! It’s special to know you’re the ones providing that for everyone else.

 

What are the ethical practices around the way your livestock are reared and slaughtered?

So like I said before, the most important factor is that we work with small independent farms and abattoirs. There’s a step in the slaughter process called lairage which is a resting area for animals before they’re processed. For big industrial scale productions this is where the animals get stressed because they’re in a huge pen with a massive number of other animals, and they can pick up on what’s going on, smelling things and getting riled up, and the stress carries quickly. So a small lairage is key to keep all the animals calm, which is what they have at the small abattoirs we work with, and so everything is processed in a slow, calm, low stress environment, all designed to minimise distress as much as possible.

 

What is one thing that would surprise people about the life of a butcher?

In a way it’s not that surprising. It does what it says on the tin. I have no idea what half of my friends really do. But as soon as you say butcher someone has a pretty accurate image in their head of my job. I guess going from cutting up carcasses to being customers facing could be quite strange for some but it’s second nature to me now. But maybe it might surprise people to realise how much people love their local butcher. There’s not many jobs where you get showered with praise and gratitude by your customers every single day. There’s a special kind of loyalty there, I get customers coming in looking guilty and then they confess that they went to another butcher and feel they have to apologise to me! It means a lot to know you’re a valued member of a community.

 

What would you like to see for Barfield Butchers at Babble in the future?

The guys in the kitchen definitely know what they’re doing, so I just want to keep supplying them with the goods so they can keep cranking out the good food. They’ve got a well oiled kitchen and their barbecue outside on the terrace, and as a meat man it’s super satisfying to see my product being used so well. I’m just looking forward to seeing what menus the chefs come up with, and in the future I’d like to see myself as a customer enjoying the food we made together!