Smithfield Market

Smithfield Market

This time I would like to share how I am purchasing cheaper and better quality meat from farmers without the execess plastic packaging as getting rid of the excess plastic is one of the biggest challenge of our century. As a wanna be minimalist I try to reduce the plastics as much as possible around myself, which I have to admit super hard.

So yes, let’s start in the beginning, I was always a meat eater, can’t really see myself turning into vegetarian or vegan even though I admit there’s some sense behind those ideology cause veggies and plants should be the base of our diets but I’m a firm believer that meat products should be part of a healthy diet also.

The struggle was real for me to find quality meat and reliable butcher in London. Back in Hungary my family had a butcher we trusted in and we bought our meat products from his store in 95% of the times and we knew how he was raising his animals, how he proceeded it, we trusted him and his business and were satisfied with his products. When I moved here, I didn’t know butchers, didn’t even have one in my area back in time and the supermarket was an obvious choice. The quality wasn’t good at all especially compared to the Hungarian meat I got to used to and on the top of it, wasn’t fresh, you know the type of sealed meat in a plastic tray.

The time was passing by and found butchers around London, even though in most stores, the quality was only a bit better than in the supermarkets but still wasn’t satisfied till I got a hint about the Smithfield market.

You need to know about Smithfield market that it’s a meat market, so called heaven to meat lovers like myself. The quality is super good, fresh, butchers chopping the meat in the back of the stalls, animals are raised in farms, quality is superior and above all packaging free if you would like to so and cheaper than in stores or by butchers in the city.

The quality is amazing as you can all see

From pork via beef and lamb to chicken you’re going to find everything you can just imagine.

The prices also more than competitive, even the restaurants purchase their meat here, £2.60 for a kilo of of boneless pork loin is more than a bargain.

One of the stalls, even though in this picture most things are packaged, you can purchase them also without packaging and please do if you can. Saving the environment is starting from daily little things like purchasing with the least plastic packaging possible.

I just felt the need of attaching few pictures about the market I made, yes I know, I’m more than far away from a photographer but I guess you got the point. So there we go with a better picture about the ‘Cathedral of meat’ aka the butchers paradise;

The butchers in action.

The market is open from Monday to Friday basis from 2AM (yes you read it right, night time) to 7AM, some of the stalls are open a bit longer. The address is London Central Markets (Smithfield Market), Grand Ave, London EC1A 9PS.

I usually go to Smithfield Market once a month to purchase all the meat I’m gonna eat in that month, I’m buying most of the times 3Kg Beef mince (£12.00), 5Kg Chicken breasts (£18.00), 1Kg Collar steak (£3.50), 1Kg Diced beef (£5.50), 1Kg Spanish Chorizo (£6.00), 1Kg Brie cheese (£6.00) so in total of £51.00 which is not too much considering the amount of food, of course apart of this I purchase other things such as vegetables (from small markets also), rice, pasta, fruits etc… but tend to manage to staying around or under £100.00 which is not bad considering my friends and eating better quality freshly cooked food than most of them.

A bit of planning can make wonders guys, pop into the market once a month, buy your food for a month, portion it, measure it, mark it in freezer bags (recycleable ones if possible) and put them into the freezer.

I definitely recommend to everyone to start to learn to cook, prepare your dish yourself, you are going to save money this way and on the top of that you are going to manage to eat healthier and you’re gonna eat better quality food. If you can also try to focus on reducing plastic waste by purchasing from farmers and buying the vegetables and fruits without packaging from markets or from corner shops also, you will do something good for the environment too.

I hope you all benefit from my tip and hope you’re going to plan more your shopping and realize that you don’t need to sacrafice on quality by shopping for cheaper.

Your sincerely

To/Minimal