Butcher of the month November 2009

Andrew Wilson
Littlewoods Butchers
5 School Lane,
Heaton Chapel,
Stockport,
SK4 5DE.
Tel: 0161 4271745
littlewoodsbutchers.com

Game-to-Eat’s butcher of the month is Littlewoods in Stockport, Cheshire. Butcher Andrew Wilson sells an enormous variety of game, including popular venison from the local National Trust park.

1. What type/cuts of game do you sell? What tends to be the most popular venison, partridge, pheasant?
   We pretty much sell everything in game from local venison to boned quails and wild boar. Our best seller is the venison. After the venison sales it is probably pheasant and partridge that we sell the most of.


2. Is game a popular choice with consumers - do you get a demand for it when then season begins?
   I would say game sales account for about 10% of our weekly sales when the season begins which makes it a popular choice.


3. Is the fact that game is seasonal a positive factor?
   Yes it makes it a very special product and customers certainly get quite excited when the first red deer stags come in.


4. Do you further process game e.g. make pies or sausages?
   We produce a venison, herb and red wine sausage, boned pheasants stuffed with wild boar, venison and red wine burgers and also we bone some of our game for mixed game pie mix.


5. Where do you get your game from?
   We source our venison from Lyme Park - our local National Trust country park, and the rest come from Derbyshire/Cheshire and the Shropshire moors.


6. Do you highlight the source of the game e.g. Pheasant from New Forest, Grouse from North Yorkshire Moors?
   Yes we try to give our customers as much information as possible about how we source our meat, it is important to us that our customers are aware of the provenance of their ingredients.


7. Do you offer customers recipes and serving suggestions for your game products?
   Our staff are all taught how to cook and prepare game so that they can pass this on to the customer. Sometimes it just helps to show how simply game can be prepared and the Game-to-Eat recipe booklets help us no end to get our message across.


8. As a butcher what is your favourite game meat?
   Ah, now than that is a hard one! I think it has to be the local Lyme Park venison. I can walk through the park on a cold crisp autumn day see the deer high up on the moor top, then return home for warming venison and red wine stew, perfect!