They say the couple that butchers together stays together.  If so, the eight years and that Josh and Jessica Applestone have spent together (butchering at their shop Fleisher’s Grass-Fed and Organic Meats in Kingston, NY for six of them) bode well for their future. The two met at a restaurant in Saugerties, NY called New World Home Cooking where Josh was a chef and Jessica a server. They call their shop “an old-fashioned butcher shop offering meat sourced locally, free of hormones or antibiotics, and full of real farm flavor.”

When they first met though, both were vegetarians (though Jessica cops to having caved to the occasional bacon craving). And they formed together an ideology around meat consumption and production that they now share with others both in their shop daily and in classes offered there.

When asked why and how he started eating meat, Josh blames Jessica. “I had a motorcycle accident — before I met Jess,” he says, but explains that he was still limping around after they met. “Jess had gotten tired of it and strongly suggested that I change my diet. I had tried to start eating fish and after some basic research I discovered that the environmental impact of the fishing industry was, and still is, worse then the meat industry’s.  It eventually helped me make the decision that our ‘products’ were going to be ‘cleaner’ than anything I could get elsewhere, so here we are.” He adds, “Also, I tried our bacon — after Fleisher’s had been open for 6 months — and I never looked back.”

Jessica explains, “I was an unhappy vegetarian and I wanted to start eating meat again — just not the stuff that supermarkets were selling, and it was too much for me to buy a side of beef. Farmer’s Markets were only open in the summer so it was out of my need that we opened Fleisher’s so that I could get one perfect fresh lamb chop and the butcher could tell me how to cook it.”

Josh and Jessica have a book (coauthored with Alexandra Zissu) coming out this spring aimed at those who also want to be mindful with the meat they eat, encouragingly a growing segment of the population. “The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat: How to Buy, Cut, and Cook Great Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, and More” can be pre-ordered now.

Josh says his goal for the book — as much as he doesn’t want to sound like “a meat hippie” — is for it to teach and, “for people to take lessons or suggestions from the book to ease their minds when handling meat. Not necessarily to eat more meat, but to have the freedom to make choices for themselves rather to have to trust an invisible entity that is telling them this is what they need to eat.” Jessica adds that she’d also like to bust a few myths such as those surrounding “wet aging, portions sizes and the idea that organic HAS to be expensive.”

This is their Butcher Bio

Based: Kingston NY — Hudson Valley, about an hour and a half outside NYC

Ethos: “Eat more veggies” (Josh), ”Eat less meat, just BETTER meat.” (Jessica)

Favorite cut: Sirloin Flap (Josh), Lamb Sirloin (Jessica)

Most under-rated cut: Teres Major (Josh), Lamb neck (Jessica)

Favorite preparation: Raw (Josh), Cooked (Jessica)

Something you really thought would be good but wasn’t: Duck sausage with cherries (Josh), Testicles (Jessica)

Favorite side dish: Potatoes any style as long as there’s salt involved (Josh), Noodles — pasta any type, any kind, any ethnicity — Obviously we are both carb freaks though we usually eat salad as a side dish. (Jessica)

Best offal: Heart (Josh), sweetbreads (Jessica)

Worst offal: Testicles!!!! (both)

Favorite meat/beverage pairing: Beaujolais with any land animal (Josh); Beer with Korean-style short ribs (Jessica)

And now our short answer round

A knife should … cut, hold an edge and be easy to sharpen with a hand steel and be comfortable in your hand in a number of different positions. (Josh) Not be too expensive and NEVER be put in the dishwasher. (Jessica)

The best part of a pig is … the cheeks (Josh), the belly (Jessica)

A hamburger should … be fatty and rare (Josh) … and covered in cheese (Jessica)

You can never have too many ... loyal customers (Josh), turkeys at Thanksgiving (Jess)

The thing most people don’t realize is … the amount of hanger steak per animal is only one (Josh), that dry-aging is a form of controlled rot and that even “natural” nitrites like sea salt and celery juice are still nitrites (Jess)

A farm/supplier we like working with is … Ted Johnson, because we grew up with him in the business. He was the first person who we contacted. He’s shown us a tremendous amount and we will always be grateful to him.

The best part of being a working couple is ... the trust already established — it relieves a lot of stress on one hand.

And the most challenging part is … having Jess not kill me when I come up with another crazy idea (Josh), not killing Josh when he comes up with another “great” idea—it’s so tempting, there are so many knives, a grinder . . . (Jess)

The best advice we ever received ... If you touch a knife to it, then you should be getting a retail price for it.

The best advice we ever gave is … Don’t do it! (Josh), Love what you do, or don’t do it. (Jess)

In the interests of globalization we’ve reached across the pond to feature a Briton butcher. Meat fans, please meet Mr. James Morgan of Stilton Butchers. The Morgan family runs a pretty sizable operation over there, 13,500 state-of-the-art sq-feet in Peterborough delivering to the restaurant industry like a UK family of LaFriedas, and direct to consumers via the web and phone straight out of the beautiful countryside in Cambridgeshire county (from where the cheese that is so good crumbled on a filet does not come, fun fact; another fun fact, Stilton Butchers gave away tickets to see the local football club, The Posh).

And if you want to see bacon (and you do, we know you do, we’ve seen the Google search numbers), they’ve got the real stuff. But we admire how they don’t get haughty about it, like some Brits do (they even offer a “streaked bacon” to their customers — and see below where James offers the most decorously magnanimous answer we’ve ever gotten from an Englishman when we’ve asked about American bacon).

Hails from: Peterborough England

Based/ shop located:
Unit 2 Reynolds Industrial Park
Stevern Way Edgerley Drain Road
Peterborough PE1 5EL

Mantra: Quality fresh meat delivered to you door

Favorite cut: Ribeye Steak

Most under-rated cut: Braising Steak

Favourite preparation: French Trim Rack of Lamb

Favourite side dish: Sweet Potato

Best offal: Lambs Liver

Worst offal: Ox Kidney

Favourite meat/beverage pairing: Ribeye Steak and a nice cold Beer

A knife should always be sharp.

The best part of a pig is the shoulder.

The main problem with American bacon is we don’t see it enough in England.

A hamburger should be cooked fully.

You can never have too many spices.

The thing most people don’t realize is that fresh chicken is not always more expensive than frozen, because by the time you take away weight loss from defrosting, the chicken breast will weigh less than when it was frozen.

Everyone should read a book on correctly cooking meat.

The best advice I ever received was, “Never sell something you would not eat yourself.”

The best advice I ever gave was, “Never sell something you would not eat yourself.”

Welcome to the first in our new series: Butcher Bios — a few questions for our favorite meat jockeys (unless they object to being called that, then we’ll stick to butcher). Our goal is to cast about far and wide and collect a staggering database of butchery knowledge. Failing that, we’d like to have a little fun and find out what beer you all drink with your burgers.

To lead off the series,  we have none other than Mr. Tom Mylan of the Meat Hook in Brooklyn, which, in addition to being one of the only places in the city where you can find chorizo-stuffed duck hearts, is also a swell place to take classes. Some of them — all classes are in partnership with the Brooklyn Kitchen — aren’t even about meat, though the best ones (sample: “Gin and charcuterie pairing“), of course, are.

Based: The Meat Hook, Brooklyn, NY

Ethos: Local, Sustainable, Whole Animal, Hard Working, Hard Drinking, Awesome, Fun

Favorite cut: Bone-in Beef Pin Bone Sirloin

Most under-rated cut: Pork Shanks

Favorite preparation: Beef Sashimi

Something he really thought would be good but wasn’t: Anal

Favorite side dish: Caesar Salad, preferably tableside.

Best offal: Heart, any kind. It’s the gateway drug to offal: Looks wierd, tastes amazing!

Worst offal: Beef Liver, dogs love it. I don’t.

Favorite meat/beverage pairing: Cannibal Sandwich (steak tartare on a burger set-up) and a Pepsi Throwback

Favorite Bands: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Moth Super Rainbow

Favorite Book: Fargo Rock City

Favorite Meat Book: The Beef by Moriyasu Tsuneyoshi

Favorite Cookbook: The River Cottage Cookbook

Favorite Movie: Jaws

Favorite TV show: CSI Miami

Favorite whiskey: Wild Turkey Rye

Favorite beer in a can: Busch

A knife should be sharp. Beyond that it should be cheap, good quality and have a comfortable wooden handle. Plastic [handled] knives make me crazy: they’re ugly and dangerous.

The best part of a pig is the skin. You can make so many great things out of it: Ragu, Cotechino, Scrapple, Members Only jackets, Footballs…

A hamburger should be made from mature (25-29 month old) hanging weight (never cryo-ed box beef) 70-30, ground twice through a medium plate and grilled rare. Grinding a little lamb in there is never a bad idea either.

A butcher should be friendly, happy, helpful and excited to sell you something great. That whole surly, condescending butcher thing makes people scared of cooking, afraid of buying meat and leads them right back to getting the crap at the supermarket. If you’re not excited to get out of bed every morning to work hard and love people you should hang up your knives and go work at the Post Office.

A good customer should keep an open mind, not be a recipe slave and listen to their butcher: it’s in his (or her) best interest to make your dinner the best it can possibly be.

A steak should be expensive. Cheap steaks taste weak. Steak should be a special treat, a cellebration, a good time. Get a good one, cook it right and share it with the people who make your life worth living.

You can never have too many meat hooks. Wanna hang a country ham? Meat hook. Wanna hang a plate? Meat hook. Beef Leg? Meat hook. Get that 6-pack of Busch out of the way? Meat hook. It’s not like we named our shop the Meat Hook by accident.

Everyone should read Little House in the Big Woods. The hog butchering section is amazing, it’s like a nose-to-tail how-to book from the days before refrigeration!

A farm I like working with is Kinderhook Farm because Lee cares, he’s the best and he listens.

The best advice I ever received was “There is a reason why they call it a bone saw” -Aaron Lenz

The best advice I ever gave was “Stop cutting towards yourself!”