Do you, like me, find that meat, of any kind, is just not the same anymore?? Theres no flavour, no texture, and certainly, not digestable and it takes longer to cook even good cuts more than it used to!! I cooked a beef casserole over the weekend and, I swear, that even if I left it on a slow cook all day, the meat would still be virtually unchewable!!

Where are we getting our meat from now?? What are the meat producers doing to meat now to make it so unedible??

I think it all depends where you buy it from.

Supermarket meat is abysmal... go to a traditional butcher.

The better the butcher, the better the meat

(two exclamation marks and two question marks - this must be important to you)

I think supermarket meat has declined in quality and now buy all my meat from my local butcher who I trust. Build a rapport with him and he'll look after you.

Supermarkets are to blame, they pay farmers so little for their produce that they cut corners and produce any old crap.

Any proof of this claim you make, or is it just your opinion that this is what's happening?

I have to disagree here - both waitrose and morrisons butcher counters are great.

It's the same with fruit and veg, I forgot how wonderful a carrot or a tomato tasted until I went abroad and bought it of a fruit and veg man selling it from a cart pulled by a horse in rural India.

This wouldn't be a DS thread if at least one person didn't disagree.

The meat I get from Tesco is always satisfactory, and cooks to perfection. The same goes for meat bought at a local farm shop. If you're a good cook you can make even a " value range " chicken taste great using olive oil/lemon/garlic/thyme etc. It would be interesting to know how you cooked the casserole - browning meat well and cooking in stock for about 3 hours on 160 should have made any meat tender.

Two now, I get my red meat and chicken from Lidls sometimes and it is hard to fault on price and quality.

You tend to get what you pay for. It's hard to find quality meat at the supermarket. I get most of my meat from the local butcher. It's much better quality. Cosco tends to be good quality as well.

'A good workman never blames his tools' Usually its a bad cook that makes the food bad but its easier to blame the ingredients.

I have Hugh FW's book on meat, it's a great buy. I wonder at your comment about the good cuts of meat? Generally the better the cut, the shorter the cooking time. For example I cook a fillet steak for about a minute each side, depending on thickness of course. Braising steak, on the other hand, I like to cook for about 3 or 4 hours on a low heat, with lots of onions and gravy, yum drool.

I find Morrisons are good with meat, and the butchers there are helpful. I've also found that they let you have some say in which piece of meat and how it's cut.

It's a well known fact.

Indeed. Rather amazing that anyone needs 'proof' that farmers are struggling massively to produce even bog-standard produce (not just meat).