Posts filed under Buying and Storing Beef
A half share is roughly a year of beef for a family of four. Here is the rhythm that gets you through it without resentment.
Hanging weight, dry-aged, grass-finished, Prime. Some of these are defined by an agency and some are decoration. Here is which is which.
Buying direct from a farm is not the same as buying from a distributor, and the difference is mostly about what each side can see coming.
The real trade is not price against quality. It is price against choice, and the honest answer depends on how you actually cook.
People order a share and then are not sure what happens next. Here is every step, in order, and roughly how long each takes.
People are reasonably suspicious of meat arriving in a cardboard box. Here is exactly how it is packed and why it works.
Shares are not stocked on a shelf, so the lead time is real. Here is what actually governs it.
Three places to collect, each on its own days. Here is how to choose and what happens when you arrive.
A whole strip loin costs substantially less per pound than the steaks cut from it. Here is what you actually have to do.
The people who regret buying a share almost never regret the beef. They regret the freezer. Six steps so that does not happen.
The failure mode of a beef share is not spoilage. It is forgetting what you have.
Two rules: roast the bones first, and never let the pot boil. Everything else is time.
Ground beef is the largest part of a share by weight. How you pack it decides whether you use it or resent it.
The first cut sheet is intimidating because it looks like a menu. It is not. Every box you tick takes beef away from another box.
Three ways to get beef from us to you, and the choice is mostly settled by where you live and how much you are buying.
A rib roast and a stack of ribeyes are the same muscle. The price difference is almost entirely what happened between them.
Half a half share is how a lot of people start. It works well, and the arguments it causes are always about the same three things.
A 1/8 share is $825 and a half share is $3,000. People expect buying direct from a farm to undercut the supermarket. It does not, and here is why.
The first question everyone asks, and the one most easily answered misleadingly. Here is the arithmetic done honestly.
A whole beef takes a $750 deposit with the balance at $8.75 per hanging pound. The part worth understanding is what hanging weight is.
