Fantastic Mister Fox would have felt right at home in the back rooms of Bill Riley Meat, a family-operated butchery in ÂMilnerton in Cape Town.
There are strings of plump sausages, rows of juicy sides of beef and succulent lamb in its many variations.
On the chopping tables and in the larders, quality meat makes sense — it is the antiÂthesis to idiomatic supermarket styrofoam packs and neat parcels of meat that no longer bear any relation to the animal that produced them. There are oxtails as long as your arm, stripped of their hide and vaguely rat-like in Âappearance, but it is strangely Âreassuring — a reminder of the Âorigin of your meat.
Two years ago Andy Fenner, a former property developer who is now a food writer and merchant, read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals and started asking where his meat was coming from. He was “blown away by [people’s] completely naive approach”. “Ignorance was bliss. We all know what’s going on, but it’s Âeasier to turn away,” he said.
What’s “going on” is that, like many cattle-producing countries, between 70% and 80% of South Africa’s beef is farmed in massive feedlots — more than 1.5-million animals a year, according to the department of agriculture. Animals typically spend about 100 days in a feedlot Âsystem before being slaughtered, during which time they add about 100kg to their mass.
Bulking up the beef
Feedlots do three useful things: they increase beef production where there is limited natural grazing; the food for the animals uses up grain by-products resulting from the production of human food that could not otherwise be used (such as that from maize, cooking oil and sugar); and they result in tender meat — feedlot animals bulk up much faster than their grazing counterparts and also have less muscle because they do not walk around as much.
Sometimes, the colour of the fat on the beef shows the effects of this man-made diet: a Âyellow hue rather than white. To speed up their growth and counteract infections and issues directly related to feeding grain to an Âanimal with four compartments to its stomach and adapted to eat grass, feedlot cattle are also given antibiotics and other medicines. These are not the “moo” cows you drew as a kid — they are intensive farming production lines for meat-eaters. Karan Beef, which owns and operates the largest feedlot in Africa, accommodates 120?000 head of cattle at a single time.
This was not the kind of meat Fenner wanted to eat. So he went in search of greener pastures and found a handful of local farmers who were raising pasture-fed herds and slaughtering animals in a way he felt was ethical, responsible and respectful. Among them were Angus McIntosh from Spier Estate and Charlie Crowther, who farms free-range pigs in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley.
Then, with Shaun Bond, former owner of Vida e Caffè and one of the forces behind the We Love Real Beer craft festival, Fenner decided to launch Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants, which recently opened its first store in Cape Town.
There is no butchering on site — the store is simply a sales point for the carefully selected products Fenner purveys. Beef and lamb are prepared at Bill Riley Meat, and Richard Bosman does the curing and jointing for the store’s pork.
Fenner is inordinately proud of his suppliers. “They’re the skilled craftsmen, the real experts. We’re just merchants.”
Dave Riley Junior, the third generation of Rileys to work in the butchery, said he noticed significant differences between the meat of grain- and pasture-fed animals (the store does deal in both, although Frankie Fenner will only stock the pasture-fed variety) – differences in colour, texture and how the meat matured.
Improving with age
“All beef should be matured for at least two weeks,” said Riley Jr.
According to him, during this time the muscle fibres weaken and the grain breaks down; do it wrong and the beef will not mature but go sour.
Pasture-fed beef lasts longer than its grain-fed counterpart after maturation. But it is also less predictable to stock because the animals grow at their own pace without the feedlot interventions.
Farmers decide when an animal is ready by its muscle weight. “You might expect a delivery in April and only get it in June,” Riley Jr said.
“Seasonality is equally important with meat,” Fenner said. “We won’t have mass volumes [at Frankie ÂFenner]; we have limited stock for a reason. And butchers recommend cuts for a reason.”
Riley Jr said the best way to do a taste comparison between grain-fed and pasture-fed beef was in a burger. Beef patties (with no binding agents, “just the meat, packed together; it holds its own shape”) will be sold at Frankie ÂFenner.
The store will also offer pork and Âchouriço burger patties and, if you like sausage, Bloody Mary chouriço.
Riley Jr said that cooks could also enjoy more of the animal with pasture-fed beef.
“You can go back to traditional cuts, like roasting topside, because the beef is actually that good. People are so scared of unusual cuts — short rib is really underutilised — there’s topside, silverside, thick flank, shin —”
Rob Riley said “nothing goes to waste” in the butchery. Whatever was not consumed directly was passed on: fat and pork rinds went to people who made “low-end bulk meat” (also known as polony). Blood and trimmings were used to make pets’ mince. Even the bones were snapped up.
“The standard of food in South Africa has become so much better over the years,” Riley said. “Years ago we had tonnes of bones; now the chefs snap them up to make stock. If a guy tells you he doesn’t want the bones, you can tell the food will be shit.”
Fenner loves the idea of using the whole animal. He talks about meat as his passion and would like to buy his own farm one day.
“Ironically, I’m trying to get people to eat less meat,” he said. “I just want them to buy the right kind of meat.”
Frankie Fenner Meat is at Metal Lane, 8 Kloof Street, Cape Town. Go to ffmm.co.za for more information