I live close to Birmingham, and I've been looking for a good meat supplier. I usually get my briskets from Sam's Club, and my Pork and Chicken from a local grocery store. Does anyone have a go-to meat market they'd recommend?
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Club Member
- Nov 2017
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- Huntsville, Alabama
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Jim Morris
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I am up in Huntsville, and I get most of my meat at Sam's, Costco or The Fresh Market, but only when it is on sale at Fresh Market. I get most of my brisket from Costco, most of my ribs and chicken at Sam's, and I will get hamburger on Tuesdays at Fresh Market ($2.99 ground chuck every Tuesday). Sometimes Fresh Market has some nice looking ribs on sale for $3ish a pound, or full and half NY strips for $6.99 or $7.99 a pound, in either choice or prime.
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Fresh Market has some good meat and like you I only shop there for sale items. And the bread. I can't make it past the bakery without buying some good bread.
The funny thing about our Fresh Market is that they don't really like to custom cut meat. I tried to ask for a rib steak cut from the large end and the guy actually tried to tell me the the small end was preferable (all they had out in the case were from the small end).
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Welcome from up the road in Chattanooga. I am not in Birmingham, but I think our shopping options are similar. I agree with jfmorris though I do have a pretty good local butcher. Fresh Market and Costco here; the local Sam's is not a good as Costco. Fresh Market can be a little costly though.
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Yep - I only go to Fresh Market when stuff is on sale, or for ground beef. Until Covid-19 happened, 2-3 times per year I would catch whole prime NY strip loins/roasts of 10-12 pounds for $6.99 a pound, but that hasn't happened in a long time. I've seen choice NY strip steaks there for $7.99, but not the whole primal in a while.
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Welcome from NE, FL! I greatly prefer Costco to Sams when it comes to meat. I'm sure they must have one in Birmingham.
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What jfmorris said works as well for Birmingham also. Most reasonably priced meat and best in class for Birmingham goes to Costco IMO. If looking for an extremely good/great meat for a very special occasion the New York Butcher Shop, located in Cahaba Heights or Greystone is the best in town that I know of, but it is expensive......about twice to occasionally three times the Costco price and honestly, to me, very much worth the difference. Welcome to the Pitt.Last edited by Alabama Smoke; October 14, 2020, 10:55 AM.
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Club Member
- Nov 2017
- 7152
- Huntsville, Alabama
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Jim Morris
Cookers- Slow 'N Sear Deluxe Kamado (2021)
- Camp Chef FTG900 Flat Top Grill (2020)
- Weber Genesis II E-410 w/ GrillGrates (2019)
- Weber Performer Deluxe 22.5" w/ GrillGrates & Slow 'N Sear & Drip N Griddle & Vortex & Party Q & Rotisserie (2007)
- Custom Built Offset Smoker (304SS, 22"x34" grate, circa 1985)
- King Kooker 94/90TKD 105K/60K dual burner patio stove
- Lodge L8D03 5 quart dutch oven
- Lodge L10SK3 12" skillet
- Anova
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- Thermoworks RT600C
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- Whatever I brewed and have on tap!
alabamamike and others, I will throw out my usual caution regarding Costco beef.
Costco for whatever reason, likes to take nice, USDA Prime beef, mostly steaks, and run them through a blade tenderizing machine. A blade tenderizer effectively stabs the meat with hundreds of sharp needle like blades. They mark that this has been done on the package, in fine print. Due to this processing, which I believe is done in-club, it means that any contaminants on the outside of the meat have been pushed into the middle of the meat, or however far the blades go. What this means is that it is now no safer than ground beef, and per the label, needs to be cook to well done in order to be "safe".
Costco does NOT do this to their primals - just the cut steaks. Even filet mignon, believe or not. Due to this, I only buy the primal cuts at Costco, such as brisket, whole NY strips, and so on. I cut my own steaks from the primal.
I know a lot on the Pit buy those blade tenderized steaks, and cook them to medium rare, and have never had issues. However, its not a guarantee you won't ever have an issue. If you sous vide the meat long enough to pasteurize it, that would be a way to go medium rare and be safe with the blade tenderized Costco steaks.
I guess it depends on how clean and sanitary they can make that blade tenderizer, and how clean the meat was before it got run through it. To me its just not worth the risk, and I only buy cut steaks at Costco if they were not blade tenderized, and I've not seen any that were not in a long time. So for me, I will buy the larger roasts or loin cuts, and slice them into my own steaks to the thickness I like, and vacuum seal them here at the house. It's nice to have a dozen steaks in the deep freeze to pull out whenever we are in the mood.
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Great point jfmorris. I usually purchase steaks from either the NY Butcher Shop or from Fresh Market for that reason. I don't have a meat slicer.........maybe I should look into one? MCS???
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Alabama Smoke Tom I use this for slicing my meat:
I use it for brisket and boneless roasts, and for portioning out things like strip loins into steaks. It's razor sharp and does a great job.
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jfmorris you are a Godsend! You jogged my memory. I bought a similar knife last Nov and totally forgot about it! It did not quite fit the space I keep my other knives so I went on a search......found it. Not sure I have ever even used it. Not quite as expensive as yours but I bet it will do the job. Its sharp enough that I would not dare slide by thumb down the blade to check sharpness! You can see mine at
Shop Mercer featuring the Millennia™ 11" Commercial Slicer with a Granton Edge! This lifetime blade is ideal for slicing large cuts of meat with optimum performance and control. Enjoy free shipping every day....
Now I need to go buy some meat to cut up!
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That looks like a great knife!
I use one of these to keep anyone from accidentally cutting themselves reaching into the drawer, and also to protect the blade:
I have a steel to hone it with after use, but have yet to actually try sharpening it. When the time comes, I hope my Work Sharp manual sharpener is up to the task...
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Club Member
- Nov 2017
- 7152
- Huntsville, Alabama
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Jim Morris
Cookers- Slow 'N Sear Deluxe Kamado (2021)
- Camp Chef FTG900 Flat Top Grill (2020)
- Weber Genesis II E-410 w/ GrillGrates (2019)
- Weber Performer Deluxe 22.5" w/ GrillGrates & Slow 'N Sear & Drip N Griddle & Vortex & Party Q & Rotisserie (2007)
- Custom Built Offset Smoker (304SS, 22"x34" grate, circa 1985)
- King Kooker 94/90TKD 105K/60K dual burner patio stove
- Lodge L8D03 5 quart dutch oven
- Lodge L10SK3 12" skillet
- Anova
- Thermoworks Smoke w/ Wifi Gateway
- Thermoworks Dot
- Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
- Thermoworks RT600C
- Weber Connect
- Whatever I brewed and have on tap!
Alabama Smoke something else I ordered when getting my "knife drawer(s)" in order were a couple of these:
Two of those are side by side in one drawer. That keeps all the every day knives, steak knives, and such in place, without touching each other, and the really good/sharp knives I use the sheets on the blade, and lay across the drawer. Before that, all the knives got jumbled up in a silverware keeper type thing in a drawer. I got all the knife storage stuff when I bought the Granton blade slicer and some other new sharp knifes.
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