‘Cost-wise, there’s not that much difference between a supermarket and us at the moment,’ Julian says. He’s standing behind the counter at Else Family Butchers, trimming a rib of beef with the easy confidence of someone who has spent a lifetime doing exactly this. Outside, Stalbridge High Street is just waking up: inside, there’s already a gentle flow of people ducking through the door. Young couples, gym-goers looking for some good protein and older regulars stopping in for a chat and a couple of ‘bits’ – it’s barely past seven in the morning but Julian has been open since the hour struck.
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The Else family have served Stalbridge from this shop since 1994, when Julian’s father Roger first opened the doors. Julian learned the trade on the job, working alongside his dad until he and his wife Heidi took over the business fifteen years ago. The early starts, the long hours, the absolute insistence on quality – it’s all part of the rhythm of the place. ‘We’ve been trading in the High Street for 30 odd years now,’ he says. ‘Still going strong, still doing well.’
And Christmas, of course, is the busiest time of the year. The Christmas order book is already out, and the shop’s much-loved Christmas hamper is back again this year after repeated requests.
It includes an entire Christmas dinner, with each joint easily feeding four people: a 1.2kg turkey breast, a 1.2kg piece of gammon, 1.2kg of topside, pigs in blankets, sausage meat and gourmet stuffing, all packed into an Else Family Butchers reusable bag for £75. The price is up by £10 on last year: but Julian is frank about it. ‘Food’s costing more,’ he says. ‘But we’ve ensured the quality is as good.’
(find your Else Hamper order form here)
Locally sourced is a quiet principle running through everything here – not as a marketing slogan, but simply as how they work. The beef is all West Country, the pork and sausage meat are from a farm near Taunton, the gammon is from Wiltshire Bacon Company and the turkeys come from just down the road at Stourton Caundle. Ducks and chickens are from Cracknell’s Farm, while the geese are from Milborne Wick. ‘Unfortunately due to bird flu majority of poultry will be barn reared,’ Julian says. ‘But the animal husbandry is as good, if not better, as free range. That’s the most important thing.’
Then there’s the dry-ageing cabinet – something Julian talks about with genuine enthusiasm. A glass-fronted fridge, with Himalayan salt blocks stacked at the base, and air circulating constantly around the meat. ‘It breaks down all the fibres,’ he says. ‘It enhances the eating quality and the flavour. The difference is really noticeable.’ Customers can choose a piece of meat and have it aged specifically for them, something he says has been a real talking point. ‘And it’s not just about the beef. The dry aged pork is absolutely phenomenal. We’ve had so much good feedback on that. We put it in there for two weeks, and as well as the beautiful, tender meat, the crackling you get … it’s just incredible. People travel miles and miles to come for our dry-aged meat,’ he says. ‘It has definitely given us a bit of an edge.’
There’s an honesty, too, about the economics. Trimming dry-aged beef means waste, and with beef prices rising he admits he’s hanging it for slightly less time than he once did. But the price stays the same. ‘We’re at the top end of what we can really charge,’ he says. ‘Right now there is a national shortage of good beef, which is a bit scary. We must support the local English farmers – without them we wouldn’t have anything.’
Supermarkets, he says, are feeling the same pressures, and the idea that a butcher’s shop is vastly more expensive is simply outdated. ‘There’s really not that much difference between a supermarket and us,’ he says again. The distinction, he thinks, is in the clarity. ‘When people come in here and spend 20 or 30 pounds on something, they know they’ve spent 20 or 30 pounds. But when they go to the supermarket, it all goes in the trolley and the cost gets lost. They don’t know what they’ve actually spent on their meat.’ Shopping locally, he says, is the only way forward – not out of charity, but because it makes sense.
Especially in December, there’s far more than meat on offer, too. Alongside the traditional beef, gammon and poultry, Else’s Christmas range stretches into whole sides of kiln roasted salmon, prawns, crab meat, gravlax. Around 25 cheeses, all personally selected by Julian. Gourmet stuffings. Chutneys … even some really good beef, poultry and veg stock. The shelves have been filling steadily for weeks, and ordering is open now in person, by phone or by email. The personal touch is deliberate: ‘We can advise and help with what would work for you, and on cooking instructions and ideas,’ he says. ‘We’re here to help everybody. We’re friendly!’
He’s noticed a shift in who’s coming through the door, too. More young people, more new residents from the recent housing developments, more customers who care about provenance and quality. His small Saturday posts on social media have helped. ‘People feel that they know you,’ he says. ‘They come in and think they’ve already been part of your family business.
‘And that’s the point, just to keep getting new people to taste the difference. We get so many comments on basics like sausages and burgers and mince. We eat so much of that as a nation, but everyone goes to the supermarket and is used to a rubbish sausage, or a rubbish burger,’ Julian says. ‘It’s such a simple thing – we should all be able to take the quality of our meat for granted, and trust where the meat comes from. Processed food doesn’t need to be rubbish food. That’s what we hear, all the time, it’s what everyone notices, and that is what it’s all about. The quality of what you get when you walk through our door.’
Christmas week, Else’s will be open from six in the morning till four in the afternoon: ‘But we do close at lunchtime on Christmas Eve, so make sure you’ve collected your turkey by then!’ Julian says.
(and find your Else Hamper order form here)
