A BUTCHERS SHOP IN ARGENTINA.
Frigorifico Ponderosa has been selling meat in the town of Morris, which is a small town in the outer suburbs of Buenos Aires since 1954, when it was opened by Pedro Genta and his wife Carmen.
Today the shop is run by the founders grandson Carlos, aged 28 and his wife Yannina, its the main butchers shop in the town of 70,000 very poor working class inhabitants, with very large families by Australian standards, as five to eight children is quite normal. However with 23 other butchers in the town along with two supermarkets, competition is very keen.
While the location is important being in the main shopping street, Carlos believes that is not as important as selling top quality meat and small goods, "the Argentina shoppers are very particular about their meat as well as being price conscious, they have been spoilt with beef from cattle 12 months old and still sucking the cow in many cases", Carlos said. "When an average family of mum dad and five children are buying 500 kilos of beef a year, they get to know what they want" he smiled.
Carlos buys 40/50 sides of yearling beef a week (all the heavy carcass’s go for the export market) in three deliveries Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Working with two boners he breaks down the meat as soon as it arrives, placing the boneless primal cuts in his coldroom, the shop gets a daily fat and bone collection, in the same manner as butchers in Australia.
He breaks off a 5 rib forequarter, then utilizes the whole of the flank from the 8 rib hindquarter for Assado, which is the most popular meat in Argentina. The flank is cut into strips with the bone in, around 2 inches thick and 12 inches long, this is used for barbecue meat. Barbecues in Argentina are called assado’s thus the name of the meat.
The chuck and blade are used for brazing (griddled) beef, which is barbecued in the garden. The balance of the forequarter then goes into mince for empanadas. These are very similar to the Australian meat pie except in shape, as they are the shape of a Cornish pasty. Every one bakes empanadas at least once a week, using ready made frozen pastry these days, giving Carlos a good mince trade of 500-600 kilos a week.
He makes his own thick sausage using beef casings, of which he sells around 500 kilos a week, along with 100 kilos of black puddings made from ox blood, as opposed to Australia where they are normally made from pigs blood, which he buys in along with his offal.
Offal sales are good in the middle of the week as people are always short of money after the weekend, liver@AU$150c/kg, heart@AU$120c/kg, tongues@AU$170ckg and tripe@AU$120c/kg, pigs heads AU$150/kg, brainsAU$150/kg and lungs@70c/kg are always good sellers in the mid week. There is also a traditional Argentine dish made from cattle intestines, with the fat left on, very similar to chittlings in the South West of England, only beef rather than pork. Sweetbreads (Thyroid)are very popular and as so many cattle are killed young when the gland is at its largest, there is no shortage of supply from the export abattoirs.
There is a good trade in cooked meats in the summer months, pork luncheon meat (Devon) and salami’s as well as a mixture of cold meats chicken, beef and pork based for sandwich’s. This all bought in as Carlos only makes his own sausages and mince, this more than takes care of all his trimmings
The hindquarters are cut in the traditional way, the silverside is sliced very thin into Milanaise steaks, Yannina makes up a mix of garlic and herbs with egg white and milk, the slices are then dipped in the mix, followed by being dipped in breadcrumbs making a delicious crumbed sandwich steak, similar the schnitzel in Australia. These retail as the most expensive meat in the shop after the fillets and always sold out by the weekend, as they make a great sandwich to take to work.
The topside and round are cut into steaks in the same manner as the rump, there is no trade for any roasting meats and none for lamb.
Carlos introduced wine into the shop 5 years ago, the bottles vary from AU$1.50 to AU$3.50 and are very palatable. The wine is supplied along with the wine racks, on a sale or return basis from a local wine wholesaler, Carlos says the wines is sold more for convenience of his shoppers than profit. Argentina is the largest wine producer in the Southern Hemisphere and 80 % is consumed on the home market.
Carlos gets phone calls from 3-4 wholesalers every morning, however sticks to only two, claiming that by having two he can keep them honest. The sides of beef this week were costing AU$230c/kg.
The retail prices this week were Striploin AU$450c/kg, Topside AU$410c/kg,Round AU$400c/kg,Scotch filletUS$400c/kg, Assado (flank bone in)AU$ 430c/kg, Mince AU$390c/kg, Brazing steak AU$390c/kg,Ozzo Bucco AU$290c/kg, Whole chicken AU$290c/kg, Chicken fillets AU$600c/kg, Loin pork chops AU$490c/kg, Sausages AS$290c/kg. People tend to shop on a daily basis for reasons of finances, however at the weekend its not at all uncommon to see the man of the house shopping at the butchers.
Argentina is very family orientated, baby’s come off the bottle and weaned strait on to meat, if a mother does not give her children meat every day, she considers she is being negligent.
The love of the Assado or flank, dates back to Colonial days when the farmers killed a steer, the prime cuts went to the big house and the flanks and offal was given to the servants.
The shop is open 6 days a week from 10am to 1 pm, then closed until 5 pm, when it opens again until 9pm every night. Sundays the shop opens for the mornings only. Weekends they employ two young girls working on the counter, while Carlos is in the back room preparing the meat. The boners are casual and work for several different butchers
Pork is bought in, just trimmed loins and Carlos handles about 60 kilos of these per week. Ham sales have decreased in recent times, purely because of the price. There is no bacon trade as the pork factories make hams from the leg, picnic hams from the shoulders and the loins are sold fresh into the pork trade, with the bellies being used for luncheon meat, salami and sausage.
Chickens and eggs make up a good share of the shops takings, using 300 birds a week and 700x dozen eggs. So all in all with the average person in Argentina, consuming 73 kilos of meat a year, the shop is kept very busy.
Some price indications are eggs AU$170 per dozen, potato’s AU$80cents/kg, Oranges AU$80cents/kg, strawberry’s AU$120kilo, milk AU$90cents a litre.
The disparity between rich and poor is alarming, the minimum wage is AU$400 a month.
A butcher will earn AU$700 a month, while a bank manager will earn AU$5,500 a month.
Carlos’s grandfather arrive in Argentina from Spain after the World War 11, and worked in butchers shops for nine years, before opening his own shop. Carlos father worked the shop before Carlos took over seven years ago, when his father retired.
