When a butcher shop announced it was opening in my Manhattan neighborhood recently, I was thrilled. It brought back memories of the days when as a newbie cook living alone for the first time, I relied on several local butchers to teach me about different cuts of meat and to tell me how to prepare them. Then gradually butcher shops disappeared, thrusting me into the void of pre-cut packaged supermarket meat usually with only a clueless clerk behind the meat counter to guide me.

The good news is that real butchers are back, and able to enhance our entertaining experiences in a host of ways. In her excellent article for the New York Times “Smart Parts: Learn to Talk to a Butcher….,” Nov. 2, 2011, Florence Fabricant explains how the new butchers can help you and your guests eat better, either because they seek out better flavored breeds of cattle or hogs than those favored by industrial meat packers, or because they sell desirable yet uncommon cuts too specialized or odd for supermarkets to stock (among them, crown roasts of lamb, whole veal shanks, and cross-rib roasts).

Fabricant mentions the many ways in which a butcher can save you time and work (boning short ribs for stew or peeling silver skin from a leg of lamb, for instance) or give you better value if not cheaper pricing (by trimming and prepping your meat to order or suggesting less costly but worthwhile cuts for a recipe). She also touches on the services routinely available when you deal with a butcher, such as requesting a certain thickness of filet mignon, or having lamb chops Frenched and taking home the trimmings for another recipe.

It may take a bit of practice to get the knack of buying meat this way, so don’t wait until the night before your next dinner party to start. Cut yourself a break and give that new butcher shop in the neighborhood a try.

There will be no Thursday post this week, since The Hysterical Hostess will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Please enjoy your company and your day!