No more grocery store beef

[berettafan]

Split a cow with some friends. Grass fed, etc etc

Got 1/8 for our household. Maybe 25lbs of ground and a big assortment of steaks.

Pretty sure I won't ever buy grocery store ground beef again. The burgers are just THAT good. Put a good sear on them and my goodness the flavor is for real.

Steaks are very good as well BUT I'm not wild about committing to all those steaks and not being able to pick through them for the best marbling, etc.

All told I think we paid around $5 or $6/lb.

[jcommin]

Haven't bought red meat at a grocery store for years. I go to a meat market in the city, the same store my dad did. Better quality, lower prices. I can get goat, lamb, veal, ox tail , quail, rabbit and stuff that is a little harder to find at the local store. I go to fish markets too.

I will admit, I buy chicken once in a while at the grocery store, its not very often

[jyl]

When I want to make burgers, I buy a solid cut or two, trim off or sear the exterior, and grind it myself. You can use a meat grinder or cut the meat into cubes and use the food processor. I like to mix a fatty cut and a leaner cut, trim out any gristle.

This makes a tastier burger, and also I don't trust grocery store ground meat, I believe a significant percentage of it is contaminated with harmful bacteria. Since I like my burgers very rare, I'm eating nearly raw meat at the center of the burger. With solid cuts as I described, you can actually eat the home-grown beef completely raw, as beef tartare or in French, boeuf hachee.

[enzo1]

buy it whole, age for up to 15 days on tenderloin, 30 for ribeye & 30-40 on top sirloin... then cut it yourself. Use/grind the "chain" on a tenderloin for hamburger meat... How to butcher (trim and cut) a whole beef tenderloin (a.k.a. “PiSMO”) into filet mignon steaks — The 350 Degree Oven

[Jim Bremner]

Grass fed beef is around $750 processed and frozen for a s side here in Southern California. I don't eat that much but have been thinking about splitting it with my extended family.

[VincentVega]

I split a 1/4 with my folks a few years ago, really good meat. It was a little overwhelming at first since I usually only have maybe 5 lbs in the freezer at a time. Prices have gone up a lot here lately as the local/grass feed market is so popular now. I never knew ground beef could be so good, not to mention the roasts and steaks. I really liked how I was able to get a few special cuts from the butcher, not something I usually do but it was great.

[Otter74]

I do not eat remotely enough beef to justify getting a share of a cow, but I am fortunate to have plenty of good local options for good meat, including a market next to my office whose butcher gets their beef as whole cows ("local", grass-fed, etc.) and can butcher them however you like. It's great meat.

[Arizona_928]

I dunno. Around these parts all the cows are grass fed, unless they're in a dairy producing milk.

I've been toying with the idea to buy some milk calves (under a week), and raising some meat cattle. Found a dairy that will sell bulls for 70, or weaned steers for 220. I like veal so one of these days I will buy a few head.

[aigel]

All my red meat is venison. Go to ground meat is antelope. Before upping the big game hunting I would buy a large chunk of sirloin from costco and grind it myself. I am with jyl on this one.

I would be hesitant to buy a fraction of an animal. I would worry I end up with poorer cuts than what was available. A steer is a bit large to deal with, but if I'd do this, I would pick it up whole, broken down in 1/4s and process it myself. I do this with wild animals - I don't trust a butcher - they are likely being wasteful and some of the good cuts may never make it back to you ...

G

[vash]

how do you split an eighth of a cow?

everyone fights for the shoulder meat? or you stack it all up by location into 8 section piles?

my rancher friend. her USDA butcher retired and she took it as a catalyst to call it quits as well. i ate my last steak saturday. super bummed. her ground burger was as described. so much better than the store bought stuff.

having said that, i have a boutique butcher nearby that is so expensive, but his stuff is on par. if i get desperate.

[stevej37]

For burgers...I like these...

[berettafan]

Steve i LOVE those burgers!

To follow up we split another cow some time after the first. It was terrible. Steaks were awful and ground meat was greasy as hell. Bottom line is i've decided for the relatively small amount of red meat i consume it's best to just buy a-la cart.

[gsxrken]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

I dunno. Around these parts all the cows are grass fed, unless they're in a dairy producing milk.

I thought the same thing. Every cow out there is pretty much grass fed. It’s how one can “farm” land that grass can grow on but wouldn’t sustain growing food-crops. Grain fed is much more expensive because they take some grass-fed cows and move them to feedlots for another 4-6 months to fatten/marble up the meat.

[greglepore]

I do a 1/4 just about every year. Get eight or ten steaks, some chuck, a london broil or two, short ribs and beef ribs. Everything else ends up ground.

Last year was $4/lb on the hoof, about 800 for a 1/4 angus. This year 4 of us bought an angus cow, and will grow it out and have it butchered. All in that works out to around $3/lb finished, much better deal, but you need a farm or farmer.

[cabmandone]

I've been buying my beef by the 1/4 for years. The butcher refers to it as a "half of a half". Only way to fly.

[tabs]

Well la tee da..what a bunch of swells...talkin about their gourmet beef preferences when the American food lines are growing longer because they are broke.

Talk about letting them eat cake.

[stevej37]

^^^
The 'Prime Rib beef steak burgers' are $8.95 for a pack of 4 patties.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by tabs

Well la tee da..what a bunch of swells...talkin about their gourmet beef preferences when the American food lines are growing longer because they are broke.

Talk about letting them eat cake.

Nah, I been buyin up all the cake mix in the stores too!

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^
The 'Prime Rib beef steak burgers' are $8.95 for a pack of 4 patties.

That's nothin! Go buy some of those impossible burgers. Yeah I know, "why the hell would I want to do that?". My daughter is a vegetarian

[stevej37]

He's on his way to the $17.95 buffet.

[cabmandone]

Let him eat cake! All that he can for $17.95