A beefier choice at butchers

IT began in the 80s, a nationwide supermarket sweep that had traditional food shops fighting for survival.

When the supermarket boom exploded on UK high streets, only the fittest, leanest and most innovative of butchers, greengrocers and fishmongers survived.

Then as customers' demand for convenience foods soared, came the sucker punch that sent many out of business - "dinger" meals from the microwave and chiller cabinet convenience were on everyone's shopping list. From beef casserole to coq au vin, frozen fish and ready chopped vegetables . . . all it took was a plastic tray, a microwave and a fork.

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Fishmongers closed, butchers went out of business and greengrocers were a dying breed.

Butcher Sandy Crombie, however, was not tempted to put away his cleaver and admit defeat. His father had started the Broughton Street butchers in 1955, now it was down to him and his son Jonathan to devise a counter- attack on the ready meal market.

Today, Crombie's is among a growing number of independent Edinburgh food outlets successfully playing the ready-meal market at its own game. It has launched specialist "ready to cook" dishes - devised by staff, prepared using its own produce and all aimed at luring back customers seeking to balance flavour and convenience without actually having to cook.

"We started just over a year ago," explains Sandy, below, now 71 but still working with his son at the Broughton Street shop. "We experimented a bit, mostly with casserole-type dishes and stir fries. We put things like Beef in Ale and Boeuf Bourguignon into tin foil trays which go into the oven at home. It's all fresh stuff and good meat."

The shop's recipes clearly pass the taste test. Last week more than 500 butchers gathered at the Scottish Meat Trade Fair to showcase and judge the latest innovations in the butchery trade - with Crombie's taking prized gold medals for two of its new ready meals, Lamb Shank with Eastern Style Medina Spices and Pork Cordon Bleu.

"Butchers are cooks," stresses Sandy. "That's the beauty of going to a proper butcher. They should be able to tell you how to cook the meat you're buying. We are exploring where else we can go with this. We're looking at potatoes and vegetables too. That's our next generation of ready meals - an entire meal."

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Of course Crombie's isn't alone. Butchers across Edinburgh have broadened their range. Fishmongers are also rising to the ready-meal challenge. Armstrong's of Stockbridge already beats the supermarkets by claiming to deliver any kind of fish a customer wants - from red snapper to swordfish - within 48 hours.

Now it also delivers fish which is ready prepared with spices, pre-cut for fish pie and even speared on barbecue kebab skewers to make life easier for the customer. "We can also advise them on how to cook it - that's something you don't get at the supermarket," says fishmonger Sean Burt.

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The Raeburn Place fishmonger will even smoke your fish just how you want it at their in-shop smokehouse. "We do a hot smoked salmon with various flavour toppings that customers can finish off cooking at home themselves," he adds.

As for the greengrocer, finding one of those that's survived is, concedes James Welby, boss of Elm Row outlet Tattie Shaws, a challenge.

He's adopted a "back to basics" defence to the supermarket trend for selling customers pre-chopped vegetables and ready sliced fruit. He prefers to stress the downside of all that excess packaging.

"You end up buying more than you actually need at a supermarket. There's far more waste. It might be nice to get your carrots cut for you or your fruit chopped up, but most people don't realise that to increase their shelf life, they are treated with gas," he adds.

"Better to buy what you need and do the chopping yourself!"