BUSINESS INTERVIEW

Michael Borg from M & J Butchery

How long have you owned M&J Butchery here in Moulder Street?

I've been working here since 1998 and took over in 2005. We have a shop in Harris Farm too.

What is it that you think sets you apart from other butchers?

Everything we do is a quality product so we are not bulk, we don't do a high volume of turnover but everything we do is spot on — you'll take it home and you'll remember that meal and you come back.

What’s the secret to a great sausage?

The main thing is the meat to fat ratio, about 10 percent is what we run ours, and letting it sit in the cool room for a day or two to let that meal soak up all the flavours in the meat.

Are there any specialty products that you are known for?

We do a butterflied Gilgandra chicken that's one of our most popular lines. We also have 40-day aged scotch fillet at the moment and rumps aged 30 days. I have a purpose built cool room out the back for our aging process.

What’s the benefits of aging meat?

Aging gives quality and tenderness. You've got to let that process of breaking down come into the meat. The Europeans do it a lot and we've been doing it here since I came here in 1998.

What other services do you provide?

We do a lot of pre-packing in cryovac so if you are going away camping we can individually cryovac a piece of meat or we do curries and stir fries in cryovac bags. We also do a lot of private killing and we do that exactly the same as us with that long 28-day hang process for the beef and 14 days for the lambs to get that tenderness.