Any of you guys used/heard of this service? The custom box option sure looks like a pretty good deal...just wondering if anyone had experience?
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Any of you guys used/heard of this service? The custom box option sure looks like a pretty good deal...just wondering if anyone had experience? -
I was a kickstarter backer.
It's good product. It ships very well, stays frozen.
I find their portion calculations to be small, but I think they are going with that USDA 4oz of meat idea, which doesn't fly in PKB-land.
As I've been on a health improvement journey this year, and gotten deeper into food quality questions, I think grass finished is a bit oversold, while pastured chicken and pork are worth the spend. Wild fish also worth the spend, in my understanding.-
I have kind of shifted a lot of my purchasing to Crowd Cow. I can get pasture chicken at my grocery. Pork is the devilry. I'm tempted, but their chops are smaller than what I like to cook (being these 14 oz T-bone heritage breeds). -
I'm down 44.5 so far this year, but I don't like to call it a diet, so much as a larger improvement project, Troutman. There's much going on with PKB, with regard to life improvement.
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One thing of note is that grass finished beef will have less marbling than grain finished, and marbling improves flavor.Comment
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If you spend a few minutes to think about it, you'd realize that for most of agricultural history, ruminants (cows) would have been grass fed, and then, due to lack of refrigeration, dry aged by the butcher, either the whole carcass or the primals. That makes sense that it would go better. -
Yeah, if they get into the H-pork, I could dump HeritageFoodsUSA.com, though I'm an elite member there, so I get a free gift with every order. There's an aspect to Crowd Cow that I don't like, which is they sell out of stuff I want before I can get in. annoying.
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EdF The other thing I kind of dislike about Crowd Cow (even though I fully understand it), is that they do packages that have a few of the desireable thing, and a bunch of stuff I don't really want. Like the current H-Pork offering is 72% sold through, so my fault, but, if I got in at the start, let's do a bit of MBA attack on this:
HFUSA: Porterhouse Pork Chops 6/14 x 14 oz Pork Chops @ $69/$125.
Crowd Cow: Thick Cut Pork Chop Pair - 2x 12 oz Pork Chops @ $22.
Let's make Apples to Apples: 3x CC = $66 + 12.99, 7x CC = 154 + 12.99.
On low volume, Crowd Cow wins, at $79 for 6x12 oz over $97/122 for HFUSA 6x14. I'll also say CC wins on general shipping... they're always frozen solid upon arrival, which isn't the case for HFUSA. The HFUSA price variance is the Memorial - Labor Day overnight shipping requirement.
On high volume, CC: $167 vs HFUSA: $161/186. And the HFUSA chops are two ounces bigger.
Very workable, especially in summer, where HFUSA's shipping kills ya.
The downside to CC is the packages, the quick sell through, and the limited cuts. I should mention that I'm a bit mad at HFUSA at the moment, because on my most recent order, I wanted my 14 chops and 4 skin on pork shanks. They called me up and told me they could delay my whole order until they get the skin on shanks again or they could ship me skinless shanks. I rapped and said, "Skinless Shanks, Uhm, No Thanks. Get ya in the fall, maybe."
Meanwhile, no shanks to be seen at CrowdCow. And since I finally cracked the Schweinshaxen code last fall, I'm wanting to be all over those.
grantgallagher Sorry for the derailment. There are MANY online purveyors of high quality meats. If you're interested in Butcher Box, their nearest comp is Moink Box. As I said, I was a kickstarter on BB, and liked it, but I didn't care for their portioning, so I quit. I got a Moink, and kind of had the same problem. Also, I just can't get my head around all the ground beef, as I don't really do burgers, but it might not be a loser for you. Moink vs Butcher, it really hinges on how much you like salmon and lamb. If you don't want those, they're interchangeable, and may as well stick with Butch. If you're interested in lamb, Moink has it, ditto with wild salmon.
Crowd Cow is a kooky shared purchase site that has some very attractive items, and kind of what I'm into, despite the troubles I've detailed above.
HeritageFoodsUSA is a service I've been using for about 8 years, but I think they've fallen behind a bit, sell some awful chickens, but have the most amazing pork. Period. Their beef is priced beyond my sanity limit, tho.
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Feel sorry for you guys who have to resort to getting your meat in a box. I buy at least a side of beef each year from friends. If you want to come visit, I can take you out and show you the cow I'll be putting in my freezer come October. Maybe not the particular cow, but one of a dozen or so that are currently grazing on a nice piece of pasture. Most of their operation is one of the few farrow to finish hog operations in Iowa. The beef goes to family and friends. When I put my beef in the freezer I know exactly where it's been, what it's been fed, and how it's been medicated. It is mostly grass fed, and finished off on corn, so it's reasonably lean, but with good marbling. We pay, on the hoof, what the market price was that day, plus the butchering/processing fee. They generally take steers to three or four lockers in the area, our choice. Gets processed to our specifications. I eat better cuts this way than if I was going to a supermarket, or buying from one of these services, because to me, when I go to the freezer, ribeye and hamburger cost exactly the same. We could do the same for pork, and we generally do get some pork from the same family each year, but I live in an area that produces more hogs than anywhere else in the world, and when a good sale comes along on the cuts I want, I stock up the freezer then. Hey, a hog only has so many shoulders, and that's what I really want, that and ribs. I know the pork hasn't traveled more than 10 miles from where it was raised to my freezer.Comment
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Been on the lookout for these since reading your post, but no such luck.Originally posted by PotkettleblackComment
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Potkettleblack thanks for the ref to moink. hadnt heard of them. i might check them out since we do eat a lot of salmon.Comment
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