Dividing a frozen whole boneless ribeye?

[glitchy]

So, I ordered a Whole Prime Boneless Ribeye from Creekstone. It was supposed to be:

*While supplies last, limited quantities available. These do ship fresh and once received, roasts can be stored in the freezer until you are ready to cook or can be left in the fridge for up to 1 week and then cut into individual steaks or cooked whole as a roast.

However, it arrived frozen solid. The plan was to let it sit in the fridge a few days untouched until we decided if we wanted prime ribs for Thanksgiving or not, then I was going to cut into rib roasts and put what wasn't being cooked next week in the freezer. I was really looking forward to my first fresh USDA Prime Rib roast.

Any advice for the best way to handle this thing frozen? I don't have the tools to cut it like it is (or not the tools I'm thinking a butcher would use). Do I fully thaw it then refreeze it after sectioning? Do I try to catch it partially thawed and hope I get get a knife through it? I generally don't like to thaw and refreeze meat. I don't think 4 of us can put down 19+ pounds of Ribeye in a meal.

[fracmeister]

band saw...somewhere you dog can pick up any bits that go flying

[glitchy]

Any recommendations on a good one? Just kidding, not getting into regular butchering. That's what I guessed would be used at the butcher shop though.

[Mosca]

Well,

Mine arrived like that, I called and complained, and they offered me half off. Just sayin’. My rationale was that something that was going to be straightforward and take about half an hour now is a PITA. The strip loin I received yesterday was cold but not frozen.

My plan was to cut a three bone roast, and the rest into ribeyes, then freeze everything. What I’ll do now is partially thaw it, then do exactly that. The difference is that now I’ll wait until right before Christmas to do it.

As long as it stays partially frozen, don’t worry about it. It will be fine.

[MBMorgan]

Give your local butcher a call and see what he’d charge to cut it for you.

[Mr. Bones]

Great idea, Brother!

[kjbarth]

If a knife can’t get through it, maybe try a hacksaw??

[RonB]

I think I'd try a carpenter's hand saw. You will lose about 1/8" of meat with each cut, but that's the simplest way if you don't have a bandsaw. A hacksaw would also work, but the teeth are very fine on the hacksaw blades I have used and it will take a while. You will probably have to clean the blade often to keep them clean enough to cut...

Good luck.

[glitchy]

I actually bought a Lew 22” meat saw, I hope the meat saw shows up tomorrow like it’s supposed to since the frozen loin was supposed to be Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve emailed Creekstone twice about this order now with no response. I am very disappointed that the ribeye wasn’t delivered as advertised and this will likely be me last purchase from them since they don’t seem to care. It doesn’t seem wise to totally ignore newer customers spending that kinda dough on product, but this is a strange world anymore. I guess we know why Costco stays in business now.

[Mr. Bones]

I hope yer order gits there swiftly, I've had nuthin but great service from Creekstone..
My last order, fer example, was less than 24 hrs from ship to deliver, but then, I only lives ~ 150 miles away...

[Mosca]

Wow, they called me the next day after I emailed them. Sorry you’re having problems. I’d call them to complain about the poor service, as well as the botched delivery.

[Bogy]

glitchy, I was reading down the thread to see if anyone had suggested a meat saw. (c'mon guys, hacksaws and wood saws, right tool for the job). I did a quick google search and I don't know what you paid for the Lew, but I did a quick google search and most of what I saw run in the $40 range. I have one, but mine is pretty close to being an antique. I inherited it from my dad. I showed it to my son recently and explained what it was, so if something happened to me he would know it was.

[fzxdoc]

I'd cut Creekstone a little slack from the response standpoint. It's a holiday week and the pandemic rages on. Who knows what their manpower is at the moment.

Buying a meat saw--that adds to the cost of that cut of meat for sure. But then who doesn't want a meat saw anyway?

Good luck with the roast. I hope it tastes awesome.

Kathryn

[glitchy]

You might be right about the Holiday and hopefully it's because they are giving more people time off to spend with Family. The first e-mail was a week ago now and the follow-up was over this past weekend.

As far as the saw, I figured I'd be prepared in the future to order frozen meat with it in the arsenal, so not a total loss. Reality says though that it will get used less than once a year tops and I'll probably always be trying to remember where I hid it ;-)

[Pobeque]

I bought one of these back in May...come the same way. I left it in the fridge for a day or so until it thawed a little bit - center was still mostly frozen, but not rock solid. I was able to break it down with my chefs knife and repackage and refreeze with no adverse effects. I ended up eating the 2 end pieces pretty quick as they were fully thawed and I didn't want to refreeze.

[glitchy]

It seems to be a common theme that they ship a lot of these frozen when advertised fresh. I've gotten fresh from other places just fine. Maybe when they're on sale they are overstocked and are freezing in warehouse to make sure things don't spoil?

[Mosca]

This is good to know, I’m going to be breaking mine down in a couple-t’ree weeks.

[HawkerXP]

Pictures. We need pictures of the dismembering!

[glitchy]

I'll see what I can do. It might depend on how bad I hack it up and how embarrassing the results are. Nothing like using a new tool for the first time.

[HawkerXP]

Panhead John will just make a new sticky....."Show Us Your Hacked Up Meat" so we can laugh at it!

[Panhead John]

Hell, HawkerXP we don’t need a new sticky for that.....we’ll just laugh at it anyway. glitchy Please post pics, it could be a slow humor day.

[glitchy]

Alright, now I’m getting upset. Here’s the response from Creekstone this afternoon:

"We apologize for the mix-up on your order. We are running into some delivery delays and issues with FedEx shipments so our team has been making sure to include extra dry ice and ice packs to make sure products are arriving nice and cool and it sounds like in your case they were extra cool and flash frozen. If you are planning to separate the loin, they actually cut best when they are slightly frozen as it helps keep the product firm when cutting and can then be individually packaged and re-frozen without any quality loss or food safety concerns as long as the packaging remains air tight and sealed once repackaged. Again, we apologize for the mix-up and appreciate your business. If you have any questions or concerns on the product when you cut or go to cook, definitely just let us know. Thank you."

What do ya’ll think? You think 6 gel ice packs froze a 19 plus pound ‘fresh’ ribeye loin rock solid in the less than 24 hours it traveled to get to me? See pic for container it arrived in. I don’t think it’s possible myself.

So now I’ve spent another $40 on a meat saw that I may never use again. I started trying to saw this beast up and after 5 mins had made it no where on top of trying to saw an ice cube sliding all over, I now have an $250 plus unwrapped loin thawing and growing bacteria that I had hoped to save 2/3rds of for months later in the freezer.

[Mosca]

I agree.

There is a knack to effective complaining. First, even though you are completely done with Creekstone Farms, don't let them know that. if there is no incentive to ever get your business again, then there is no incentive to make you a satisfied customer. Second, address the nut of your complaint: that you will not be able to serve this for Thanksgiving like you wanted to, because it was completely frozen and won't thaw in time. There's no getting that back, and you deserve recompense.

[Mosca]

Third, be realistic. They aren't going to send you back all your money (although they might). You did receive a nice piece of meat after all. but you've invested in a meat saw, you've invested a lot of time and effort, and it's just a lot of trouble. And it wasn't supposed to be. Like I said, I got 50% back, and I was satisfied. Sometimes things go wrong, and we want to have that recognized and considered.

[Ahumadora]

Pro tip: put a dish cloth between the bench and cutting boards to stop it sliding everywhere

[Red Man]

There’s absolutely no way those ice packs froze that thing rock solid. It’s insulting that they would expect you to believe that. You need to talk to somebody.

[glitchy]

Thank you for making me feel like I wasn't losing my mind.

[glitchy]

My apologies to those that saw the overnight rant. I am frustrated with Creekstone, but VERY appreciative of the suggestions people have had here for solutions to my problem.

I held off getting this thing out of the freezer at what probably would have been the correct time waiting on the meat saw and am now stressing figuring out how to get have it separated and able to be cooked tomorrow. Let it set overnight and decided to try something different today that was also a failure: electric filet knife. It's still pretty solid and the knife barely did anything but bogged down pretty quickly so I put the loin back into the fridge before I burnt up the knife.

[Backroadmeats]

Do you have a grocery store or any place with a commercial meat saw close by?? If ya feel like going for a drive north I could cut it for ya in about 3 minutes!!! 😁😁I cut these up for people all the time even if frozen solid my meat bandsaw doesn't even flinch.. good luck..

[MBMorgan]

Yup++++

[glitchy]

I’d feel like an adulterer asking my spouse to help my mistress if I called my local butcher and asked them to cut meat from Creekstone.They’d be like I could have ordered you this (and probably for less).

[Backroadmeats]

Tell them you got it as a gift!!

[glitchy]

Last night after a little more than 24 hours in the fridge, I finally got it separated with my slicing knife and the meat saw. It was far from fully thawed so I did go ahead and refreeze 2 more roasts.

Additionally, Creekstone did refund $100 for the inconvenience after I told them I didn’t believe that gel packs froze a fresh loin in transit.