Forres butcher listed among UK’s finest

A Moray butcher is bracing himself for a stampede after being listed as one of the top ten in the UK by a national newspaper.

Macbeth’s, in Tolbooth Street, Forres, has a good reputation for its fine beef cuts, especially among the restaurant trade.

And manager Jock Gibson was delighted to discover that the Times had selected his shop in a top ten list of butchers in its Weekend Food Supplement, and the only one in Scotland.

Jock said: “I’m really, really chuffed. It’s quite hard to get a bit of recognition every now and again, so to get into this is pretty good.”

The column, written by food journalist and author Hattie Ellis, said of Macbeths: “Top-class farmers Michael and Susan Gibson bought this family-run shop to sell beef from their own Highland, Shorthorn and Aberdeen Angus native-breed herds, hung for three weeks to improve the taste and texture. There is rare-breed pork from free-range pigs, wild venison from the Highlands and other local meat including proper free-range chickens.”

Also on the list are The Ginger Pig in London, Pipers Farm in Devon and Edwards of Conwy, establishments Jock recognises as having a great name in the industry.

“These names have a fantastic reputation, so to be in the mix with them is great,” he said.

Macbeths is one of the few butchers that rears it own animals.

“We have a farm in Dallas and one in Rothes,” Jock added. “The raw materials is one thing. It’s what you do with it in terms of hanging it and maturation which I think is important, not everbody does that any more.

Jock, who jokingly calls himself the chief operations officer, or COO, has embraced the web and social media in an industry which has been generally slow to make use of new technology. With a blog (The Coo’s News) a social media presence (Twitter and Foursquare) and an online shop that delivers chilled produce in 24 hours, he believes that it is a sensible move to use modern marketing tools to keep his brand in the public eye

“I think it’s very important to get in early with these technologies. It may not mean much to some of our customers but when it does, we won’t have to start trying to catch up.”

Web: www.macbeths.com
Twitter: @macbeths

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