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Crowd Cow Beef Tasting in Chicago

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    Crowd Cow Beef Tasting in Chicago

    I was looking for a general thread about Crowd Cow, and in doing so, found a post I made about their constant contact emails, joking that if they were in any more constant contact, <insert your own creepy joke>...

    Well, I might have to get a restraining order or something. Because today, I'm going to a VIP Meat Tasting... originally pitched as an exclusive craft meat tasting flight, featuring grain and grass finished beef, as well as a comparison of US & Japanese Wagyu.

    Yesterday, they sent me an update, that they wanted to explain a bit more. Joe from Crowd Cow will be introducing Nick, their butcher (I am happy to meet any butcher, ever)... Nick will be cooking up some A5 Kagoshima Wagyu, some pork (no description beyond that) and a variety of steaks. They have new cuts they are excited to try on us and get feedback on.

    I'm excited to try and get my feedbag on. Full report after the event.


    #2
    Good for you! Enjoy yourself.

    Comment


      #3
      Enjoy yourself, sounds like fun. Oh and by the way you can tell CC to come get their crappy last shipment of meat they sent me. The tri-tip was so bad I almost fed it to my dog. As you can tell I'm not a big CC fan....

      Comment


      • Potkettleblack
        Potkettleblack commented
        Editing a comment
        Crowd Cow has taught me that I generally have a preference for grain finished beef. I've had some issues cooking grass fed, but even allowing for the leaner meat, and controlling with sous vide, it just doesn't do it for me.

      #4
      Some photos would be nice if they will allow it.

      Comment


      • Potkettleblack
        Potkettleblack commented
        Editing a comment
        That's the plan.

      #5
      Sounds like it would be a great experience.

      I have only ordered from Crowd Cow once and I enjoyed it. I guess it really depends on which farm you get it from.

      Comment


      • CaptainMike
        CaptainMike commented
        Editing a comment
        One of the ranches they use is about 20 miles from us, I'll have to see if they sell locally.

      • JoeSousa
        JoeSousa commented
        Editing a comment
        There is one close to me I saw pop up on Crowd Cow a couple months ago. They sell direct to the public and I am looking forward to trying them out at some point. Comparing the costs it is about half of what they were selling for on Crowd Cow.

      #6
      Never tried it but I am on their email list too, and they do email a lot.

      Comment


        #7
        I think I was the only person out of 50 or so there, who had never bought Wagyu from Crowd Cow.

        At any rate, there was so much very tasty meat that no one left remotely hungry. I’m sorry for picture quality, but it wasn’t easy and I’m not that good with the camera phone. Or at shoving folks out of the way. Click image for larger version

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        To start, domestic Wagyu meatballs. I’m not sure if it was a poor recipe for polpette, or the richness of the wagyu ground beef, but the meatballs didn’t really hang together enough to pull with a toothpick. Delicious, rich and beefy, but I’d’ve served as a ragu in plastic cups.

        But that was just the start.

        Comment


          #8
          Pasturebird chickens. I’ve had these, and my only quibble, beyond packaging (leaky bag), is that the spatchcock the birds prior to shipping. I get it, they pack flat, but as a vertical roaster, not that useful to me. These were a bit over cooked, for my taste, or tested too long, but the flavor was great.
          Attached Files

          Comment


            #9
            Then, to steak after steak after steak.

            First, grass fed ribeyes and strips. I’m not usually that into the grass fed, but these were pretty good. Soused at 130 for a couple hours then griddle seared.
            Attached Files

            Comment


              #10
              Thank you for sharing the photos of the event. Glad you got some good food out of it.

              Comment


                #11
                I did not get pictures of my favorite stuff, sadly.

                American Wagyu was tasty in ribeye form and more to my liking in strip. But the bests for me were:

                wolfe brothers grain finished strip steak roast. Such flavor, none of that grass fed minerality, the right amount of marbling... I had a couple of extra servings.

                And the new product:
                mangalitsa Pork. They sous vided to 140 after holding at 130 for a couple hours. Then seared. Dry brined before the bag, then salted, peppered and buttered, bagged, 130 with the beef for two hours, then dialed to 140 for an hour to bring them up there. It was a function of only having one Sous Vide stick, but it worked better than I have ever liked 140 Pork. I think I will be buying that. Especially if they have the stuff I like (shanks). Though the loin was AMAZING. Like steak almost. A lot of folks took one piece and were holding for the A5 Kagoshima. So me and a couple guys polished off two whole chops. It was that good.

                Comment


                  #12
                  The A5 Kagoshima Wagyu. Like maybe 6 lbs of it? Ribeye. Street value like 300 maybe?

                  Any rate, pretty much dry griddle seared, both sides, to about medium. Sliced thin on the bias. I got a slice from the second one.

                  I could replicate this on the cheap. Sous vide slices of ribeye for a bit longer, at 138, in butter. Then a light sear. But it might not have the tenderness it was tender like filet, flavored like ribeye, and rich like butter.

                  But its not my thing. I’m happy to have tasted it. But the winners for me were the Mangalitsa, the Wolfe Brothers Strip Steak/roasts and the pasturebird chickens.
                  Attached Files

                  Comment


                  • Potkettleblack
                    Potkettleblack commented
                    Editing a comment
                    I looked it up on their website... these sell for $117 a piece, making this $702 worth of ribeye.

                    Which is insanity, and yet, understandable. You've seen photos of A5, but if you've never seen it in person, the marbling doesn't really track... this is a poor photo, because I was jockeying with about 12 other folks to marvel at it.

                  #13
                  I also had a chance to talk with Kathryn Ficarra, who is the Head of Marketing for Crowd Cow, aka the person responsible for sending you an email a day or more. She was hearing it all night, and in other cities, about how the emails are way too often. But, email is over 60% of their business. They're getting a bit more diversified in customers, with SmashBurger (IIRC, might've been Shake Shack) buying their ground beef. I got her and the guy standing next to me with the "What Cut Does the Butcher Most Want You to Buy" question, and both were amazed that there's 200 lbs of ground beef on every beef carcass, and no more than 40 lbs of anything else.

                  Any rate, they're into a national premium burger chain (I think SmashBurger has left Chicago, though there's one in the burbs still... never been to Shake Shack here, but it's here). Might've been a different company altogether... but they're also going to be served where the Mariners play (if you didn't know, Crowd Cow is based in Seattle). They're also going to be offering some complimentary products (like Joule, knives... I suggested planchas/griddles, as they were using a stove top one, and she seemed to like that idea... especially as I already have a Joule and knives) and some broader food options... Lamb and Lobster and some other things they've hooking up. That seems like a natural extension, though of limited interest to me (wife not into lamb, I have a great fish monger or two in Chicago, so sourcing lobster is not a problem)...

                  Best conversation was had with Nick the butcher. Talked about the potential of selling rendered mangalitsa lard. It's nigh impossible, though he agrees it would be amazing. Folks who render commercial volumes require 5000 lbs of fat to do a run. If their pig farmers produce 10 hogs a month, they're doing high volume. A fattened mangalitsa runs about 600 lbs, of which the pork yield is ~70%, so call it 80 lbs of fat on them maybe. Buy 10 of them, you're not even 20% of the way to satisfying a renderer's minimum run.

                  I wonder how the folks at FatWorks make it work.

                  The sous vide process on the chop would be about how I would do it if I had to cook a ton of pork and beef together. Nick commented that 145 is what the USDA recommends, but we had a conversation about time-temp log-10 kill rates and so on, but he's a 140 pork guy. I wonder if that's because he's getting better and thicker chops? I'm solidly on #Team135, though this loin was simply amazing with just salt, pepper and butter.

                  Here's a shot (not from Crowd Cow of a mangalitsa pork T-bone, bible thick.


                  I learned that east coast and west coast customers get different offerings. Apparently, the west coast folks don't get the Wolfe Brothers, to minimize the shipping. But I'm missing the stuff their getting in the back yard out in Eastern Washington. That's why the zip code thing. The Kagoshima and the Olive, that they ship anywhere.

                  An observation about folks who buy A5 Wagyu in Chicago. I dunno that I want to hang out with any of them. Nice enough folks, but seem like a lot of folks who work in finance or sth like that, and they are in it as much for the prestige of having the most exclusive thing, as much as the sensual pleasure of why it's the most exclusive thing. I liked the A5, but not as much as the Wolfe Brothers or the Mangalitsa (which to be fair, is kind of the a5 of pork, absent the Tokyo X (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo-X) which I will probably never have for home use.

                  Did not get to talk to Joe, did not get to harrangue anyone about the bagging issue. But learned a lot, tasted a metric ton of steakhouse cuts from different farms and husbandry practices, and paid nothing for it, so it was great. Now, if they give me a coupon code for showing up or if I post to Insta or Twitter... maybe even better.

                  Comment


                  • JoeSousa
                    JoeSousa commented
                    Editing a comment
                    Awesome write up and information. I lived in Florida until this past summer and now live in Washington State and there are definitely different ranches for different parts of the country. Most of the ones I saw while in Florida were from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc. and most of the ones out here are local Washington ranches.

                    And they do supply beef to Shake Shake in the Seattle area.

                  • Donw
                    Donw commented
                    Editing a comment
                    I agree with you that the Wolfe Brothers’ meat is my favorite of their local beef offerings. Still like the A5 which we buy from them often; but do it for the meat, not the prestige as I’m only spending that kind of money on my family. 🙂

                  • Potkettleblack
                    Potkettleblack commented
                    Editing a comment
                    Yeah, for us in Chicago, we get the East Coast stuff... Pennsylvania, WV, New York, and Texas. I'm curious about the Washington stuff.

                  #14
                  Forgot: I told Kathryn Ficarra that if they were in closer contact than the daily mail, they'd have to rename the company Harvey Weinstein's Crowd Cow.

                  Comment


                    #15
                    Thanks for the thoughtful write up! My suspicions match yours as far as the Wagyu. I'm sure it's delectable, but likely a bit overrated compared to what we could do ourselves for a better value. I gotta try some heritage piggy though.

                    Comment


                    • Potkettleblack
                      Potkettleblack commented
                      Editing a comment
                      I've had a few breeds of heritage pork: Berkshire/Kurobuta, Old Spot, Tamworth and Glouchester. I may have had another. Duroc, maybe. the Mangalitsa was really the best, for me. And that's saying something, as I was kind of full, but couldn't stop with it.

                      It was kind of like, you taste commercial pork, then taste a nice Berkshire... this was that kind of leap over the BERKSHIRE.

                    • Donw
                      Donw commented
                      Editing a comment
                      I really like their thick cut pork chops but IMHO most of their sausages suck as they grind way to fine for a good texture.

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