Crowd Cow...where’s the beef?

[Polarbear777]

I have bought stuff from crowd cow and it was good, pricey but good.

Though when then I look at their site I see about a dozen beef cuts for each farm/cow that are bought before the cow is "tipped". Okay makes sense, but there’s some steaks, maybe a specialty cut or two and some ground beef, but my estimation is that the cuts listed are maybe 20% if the meat yield from a cow.

Where does the rest of it go???

For instance where’s the point brisket, the teres major, the flank/strip etc. they never have back ribs and rarely offal etc.

i emailed them and they directed me to their wholesale site with higher min package quantities, but still a very limited number of mostly the same cuts.

Seems like if you needed to tip the cow you would tip the whole thing?

Seems like we are missing part of their "story".

[Donw]

I’ve noticed this too. Can’t even find roasts on most of the cows now.

[customtrim]

I just go to my butcher,it is fresh get anything I want, custom cut, better price

[Polarbear777]

Anything I ask for locally, they usually have no idea what I’m talking about. Haven’t found a good butcher yet. Had hopes for places like crowd cow but am suspicious now.

[customtrim]

I have one that I got trip from ordered 3 I got 30 pounds of sirloin roast. Ii know now not to order that from him but everything else is good

[jumbo7676]

I've seen the point brisket on Crowd Cow before and have purchased flanks from them. They don't automatically show all cuts that have been sold. They usually just show a small sample and then there is a button to click to show all of the rest.

[jumbo7676]

There are actually 3 new cows up right now that have those available. These are all from one of the cows currently listed:

[Polarbear777]

Still just 20% of the cow. I guess maybe they are just selling what doesn’t sell well locally.

[jumbo7676]

Could be. My thoughts on Crowd Cow - I may not always want to spend what they charge. They may not always have what I want. But I can sit on my couch, take my phone out of my pocket, click a few times, and two weeks later a package filled with quality meat (better than my local grocery store) shows up on my doorstep. Sounds like magic to me, even though it clearly has flaws.

[Troutman]

Do you really think their local partners are going to give up teres major, hangar and other choice cuts? Those go in their personal stash I'm sure. I'm actually a little pissed at CC right now. Had some beautiful flat irons from my local butcher but he was out last time I was in there. I saw some on CC that were reasonable so I ordered them along with some tri-tip. They came yesterday well packaged, fully frozen but the flat irons were the size of my hand, and I don't have big hands !! I think they took a good size cut and chopped it into pieces to make it seem like you're getting a lot, when really you're price per pound is exorbitant.

I have a good butcher (mostly CAB quality) and plenty of local grocer and Costco options. Guess I've had it with ordering specialty meats for a while, you just never really know what's going to show up

[Polarbear777]

You have to really read the fine print. You are paying a ton for small pieces and they throw in ground beef but add it to the top of the listing as the total weight was the size of the thing you want. It’s all written there but...

I open and look and usually give up before ordering anything.

[Troutman]

You're right, it was an impulse buy Polarbear777. I usually am very picky about what I buy on line, that goes back to the old Omaha steak days. You'd buy some little tiny tenderloins that weighed like 4 oz. and pay $50/lb. You could pop them in your your mouth like a lifesaver piece of candy. I'm done with CC for the time being. And I am going to let them know that as well

[Steve R.]

I think I would go vegetarian before paying that much for that stuff.

[johnec00]

I've ordered a couple of times from CC without being particularly impressed with the quality particularly given the price. It's interesting that they imply that you are buying cuts from a particular cow. Yet currently one of the cows listed has 4 tri-tips and 5-8 pound brisket flats still available. It's either a steer with a very strange anatomy, or they're just selling stock from the butchering of several (many?) steers. GMO maybe? (\sarc).

[Potkettleblack]

It's funny. I just got a brisket flat (order a point... they refunded... Free Brisket, even if it's flat), a 3 bone chuck short rib piece, and some other roast. I've had a teres major (they call it petite tenderloin... not a big fan of teres major, turns out), skirts, and flanks. They seem to always have hearts and livers or kidneys.

The key is to get in early on the cow. If there's a cut in the sold out portion, you can tag it, and get notified if it comes back, or when they next offer. That's how I got some popular pork cuts for them.

To Johnec00's point, they work with a rancher, who butchers a bunch of beevs at a go. So, 4 tri tips (2 cows, minimum). I think the give the impression that their doing one animal at a time, but that doesn't seem remotely economical for any rancher.

I'm out on Crowd Cow for the moment. I LOVE the product. I have come to despise the packaging. So many loose, weak or no vac bags. Loose bags lead to freezer burn, and despite the quality of the bag, are not suitable for sous vide. Also, the chicken packaging is prone to leaks, and I'm kind of paranoid about raw chicken juice. I've raised this issue with them several times, and they are non-responsive on it (they pointedly ignored it, despite it being the bulk of my comment on the brisket flat question).

I

[Polarbear777]

Ordered again to give them a second chance. Packaging was not sealed well and not impressed with the cut I got.

They won’t see a third order from me.

[Donw]

‘i emailed them and they directed me to their wholesale site with higher min package quantities, but still a very limited number of mostly the same cuts.’

Would like to take a look at that site. Will you provide the link?

[jumbo7676]

I've ordered 2 or 3 times from Crowd Cow and have been happy with the quality, though it is more expensive than I'm willing to pay on a regular basis (hence only 2 or 3 orders). I tried Butcher Box, hoping for good results since it is cheaper, but was very unhappy with the quality of meat. Plus I had to throw out a Butcher Box steak and a few packs of ground beef from one order because the packaging was punctured when it arrived. I'm very satisfied with pork and poultry that I get from my local Wegmans, but still haven't found a local place for beef where I'm consistently happy with the product.

I clearly need to take the plunge and buy a chest freezer, find a quality farm within reasonable driving distance, and buy my beef one side at a time. Now, how do I convince my wife that this is a higher priority than furniture for a new nursery for a baby on the way? Maybe we can do a farm animal theme and keep the freezer in the nursery so the beef feels at home.

[jumbo7676]

Thanks!

[Polarbear777]

Watch out. I guarantee that freezer will be commandeered to hold something else.

Better put the new freezer or another one in the garage in hard to access place.

[jecucolo]

Simple...you don’t!

[JGo37]

When I was in high school you could get arrested for tipping. Tried it a couple times - Okay - twice. It did involve the whole cow, at least back then.