Very disappointed

Very disappointed

We were thrilled when Delzotto & Son Butcher Shop opened in Alliston. We bought all of our meat there and recommended Rick Delzotto to everyone we knew. We had people coming from out of town to buy meat at Delzotto's.

Recently, we placed an order for a turkey. We did this ten days before we wanted to pick up the turkey and a couple of days before we actually wanted to cook it. We do this because we brine our turkey in salt and water for 48 hours before cooking.

On pick up day, since we ordered ahead and trusted our butcher, we did not look at the best before date on the turkey.

We brought the turkey home, got out our salt and brining bag and opened the turkey packaging. It smelled horrible, like sulphur, and there was an unusually large amount of blood in both in the turkey and sitting at the bottom of the bag. It didn't look good either.

We looked at each other and said maybe if we rinse it, maybe it's all the blood that smells bad. We put the turkey in the brining bag and began rinsing with bottled water and our brining salt. It didn't help. We had ordered ahead because we needed the turkey for our early Christmas celebration and we were hoping it was okay. Willing it at that point.

We called Rick and the first thing he asked was, "What's the best before date?" We hadn't even thought to look at that. It was never a question that Delzotto's would have sold us meat past the best before date, especially since we ordered ahead. We could clearly see the stamp Dec . . 2011, but the DAY date on the turkey bag was mostly rubbed off. We could see a little bit and by the spacing, it looked like it was the bottom of two ones, Dec 11, 2011, which meant the turkey was three days past the best before date.

Now the smell and look of the turkey made sense.

Rick said we could pick up another turkey at the shop the next day or wait two days for a new shipment. He said the turkeys at the shop were from the same batch. We said we would bring back the bad turkey in the morning and pick up another one. After discussing getting a turkey from the same batch we called Rick right back and said we would still bring back the rotten turkey in the morning, but that we thought it would be best to wait two days for a fresh one and he agreed.

So much for brining our turkey for 48 hours.

We picked up a fresh turkey today. HUGE difference. This one is fresh, the last one was definitely rotten. And herein lies my disappointment. Delzotto's thought it was fair to give us a 16 pound turkey, original rotten turkey was 14 pounds in replacement. That's it. No gift card for our trouble, no offer of anything. In fact, Rick was rude.

This situation was not our fault. We ordered a turkey giving the shop 10 days notice. They sold us a turkey past the best before date which cost us lost time and effort. We had to buy more brine salt, a new brine bag and another gallon of bottled water, not to mention trips back and forth to the butcher shop.

We are not saying this is Delzotto's fault either. Stuff happens. Like a best before date being rubbed off resulting in selling a rotten turkey.

We have been loyal customers since Delzotto's opened. Thank goodness we didn't cook and eat the turkey. Delzotto should be thankful that nobody got sick, or worse.

In light of the confrontational way that Rick handled this situation we can no longer shop at Delzotto & Son Butcher Shop or recommend their shop.

In the end, our mistake was trusting our butcher. Always check best before dates! And if your meat smells or looks bad, do not eat it!