Why bother with special online butchers?

[HouseHomey]

Yeah I should have stuck to brisket. I don’t type that well and when I start rambling I go all over the place.

I’m a bit Spaz that way. I tend to think faster than I speak and speak way faster than my fingers. What you didn’t get was how loud I was thinking.

so as far as brisket price and prime. Cant beat Costco.

The SRF gold is just stupid good. Rich off the chart... tender/taste etc... outrageous. My issue with the gold product is yield. Because of fat/marbling etc sometimes the yield is less so price get higher. Sometimes I had to trim more than I wanted.

I guess one would need to decide what it’s worth to them and how often they cook it.

As far as tri tip I assure you I cook it well.

Tri tip is a "Thing" now for a lot of the country. Here in SoCal you walk into any market this week and buy choice for 5 bucks a pound. Meh... no thank you. I get a few pieces a year to cook though. It’s really good in a grind.

i would never pay high end online pricing for tri tip. I would at a butcher though if I were to cook it whole. I am not anti tri tip we just had a lot of it here.

As far as brisket and Costco. You can’t beat that for grading and price.

I really don’t know what high choice is. I’m not sure I’ve seen that grading by the USDA.

Today’s add on my junk table.

[rickgregory]

Stuff about choice and prime sub-grades here https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/05/...ice-steak.html (the high choice stuff is about 60% of the way down).

[HouseHomey]

Yup. How do you know. Label says choice. Not high choice. I never believe the claims of the high choice spiel. Branded programs with accountability helps.

[rickgregory]

Yeah, as they note, the branded programs are the only way to really know by looking at labels.

[jfmorris]

I've made a couple of orders from Porter Road, and it was to get something I could not find locally. Tri-tip for example, which I have never seen at my Costco or Sam's club, other than a frozen pre-marinated tri-tip once at Costco. None in the fresh meat department. I also wanted to try a better cut of pork than the commodity stuff, just to see what all the fuss was about.

I've yet to find short (plate) ribs in the meat case at either Costco or Sam's either, so was tempted by a Creekstone sale a while back, but resisted. Sam's sells flanken-cut ribs, so I may ask to see if they have them un-cut in the back. I've not seen beef ribs at my Costco, ever.

So that would be my answer: order online to get something you cannot find locally.

[Dick Anderson]

If we're talking about saving money, I have to offset that $3.49/lb. brisket against the half gallon of Kirkland booze and another hundred double A batteries that i know I'll need soon enough.
Oohh! Look! Socks!

[ecowper]

My wife gets distracted by the shiny objects case and I get distracted by all the outdoor gear. :-)

[klflowers]

I haven’t bought a brisket from an online source; I cooked one for my mom for Xmas from Costco, USDA prime, but I don’t remember the cost. To be honest, it will probably be my last until she asks for another. It is just me and the wife here at the house, and the cost and trouble to cook a brisket just isn’t worth it to me. That being said, between my local butcher, Sams Club and Costco, I can find quality brisket at pretty good prices, so no need to mail order.

For other stuff such as steaks, tri tips, etc, my butcher carries prime at a slight premium, a new Whole Foods just opened near by, and The Fresh Market down the street carries pretty good beef. We took Waygu out of the discussion, so I can’t see the need for ordering any other beef online. I did get a tri tip from Porter Road awhile back and it was excellent, and if they are on sale and I am getting pork ribs (see the next para), I may buy one again.

On the other hand, Creekstone and Porter Road pork ribs are far better than any pork ribs I have been able to get locally, even at the butcher. Far better. Less extraneous fat, more meaty and just better tasting, so I will continue to buy those online. I try and catch the sales and stock up, I have 8 St Louis slabs in the freezer now. Of course that is probably because they are Kurobuta, but I really love wibs and am willing to pay up.

[klflowers]

ecowper, the ribs I can get at the box stores are commodity like everywhere else. The butcher I use does great beef, but pork seems kind of like an afterthought. There are some farms that slaughter and sell, but that is a lot of pork, and we eat more poultry and beef than pork. Panhead John, I think I am going to do chuckies instead of brisket. I can get good chuck all day, Fresh Market has quality chucks on sale every Tuesday...

[rickgregory]

I don't see myself doing a lot of brisket, but at under $4/lb, I can make the flat into corned beef/pastrami and grind the point for burgers and come out MUCH cheaper than supermarket burger grind. And I can portion, seal and freeze brisket too.

[klflowers]

rickgregory, I am planning on getting some flats for pastrami. Prepared corned beef (the way I usually do it) is really expensive right now. I use chuck for my burger grind, Fresh Market chuck is 2.99/lb on Tuesdays.

[SheilaAnn]

tbob4 I’m surprised you are not part of this conversation. You live where the good stuff is!

[HouseHomey]

Dang... tbob4 that was a heavy caliber busting up the front end of 61 Buick Electra.

[tbob4]

Hahahahahaha. I wrote a dissertation on the front end of this thread but was on the fourth beer. Between my iPhone fiasco’s of late and my lack of dexterity after three beers I deleted my response. I got tagged and will have to catch up . HouseHomey is on a roll but my wife has to give me the computer so I can read it. Only two beers tonight.

[tbob4]

Since I got tagged - I have never bought from an online source. I have a Costco - a huge Costco 15 minutes = 15 miles away. HouseHomeySheilaAnn - my daughter lives in SoCal so I thought your would get a kick out of 15 miles = 15 minutes.

When I first moved here 20 years ago I bought all of my steak steaks from the Chico State farm/market. My wife went to school here for her first two years of college. She had meat cutting classes in the lab on the farm. It was great until all of the restaurants in town got first choice and I was left with less than stellar cuts. While I would like to continue to support the program, I think the restaurants were doing a good job of it.

I love Costco for tri-tips. This may be a sin to admit but I really don't mind the blade tenderized steaks. Don't tell anyone but I have been known to marinade a New York steak and beat the heck with it with forks to get the marinade inside. I would never do that to a ribeye. That last couple of sentences are supposed to disappear after you read them.

It took forever for our Costco to start getting briskets. I remember reading with envy about others getting them at $2lb and I had to pay $6lb at the butcher shop. Once ours started getting them I OD'd on brisket.

I am very lucky as mrteddyprincess (my secret Santa) knows to have a really good butcher in town. I get my specialty cuts from him. We also have a very nice farmers market that has a couple of specialty meat suppliers. I read with great interest folks' experience with online meat. Every time I want to pull the trigger just to try it, someone posts a story about a disappointment.

HouseHomey - I don't know what went out of style first the Buick or the Carmen Electra. Hahahahaha.

[HouseHomey]

Ha! The Buick.

[glitchy]

If you buy whole ribeye and strip loins at Costco, they are not blade tenderized, are usually even cheaper and you can cut however you like, thick, thin, roasts, etc. As well, I have been in Costco for 9 months, but the last time I was, many of the cut steaks no longer had the warnings, only sirloins and something else did, but I was beginning to think they were moving away from it?

[Dadof3Illinois]

I saw someone post what looked like a 1/2 boneless ribeye roast from Costco that was blade tenderized. That was the first time I had seen that in a big hunk of meat. It just kills me when they blade tenderize prime steaks!!!

[Panhead John]

I’ve bought many steaks and other cuts of beef from Costco over the last few years. Never even noticed if the packaging said blade tenderized or not. I’ve only seen it recently brought up here. Even if it was blade tenderized, to me the final taste is what matters. So why the big deal? I love their steaks and other meat.

[glitchy]

Panhead John The big deal is it’s not the safest to eat blade tenderized meat medium rare or medium as anything growing on the outside could be pressed inside. I’ve bought a few tenderized and cooked sous vide instead to counter this and honestly they were absolutely great steaks.

[pknj]

I live in the NorthEast and the lines to get in and out of the Costco by me is nuts on the weekends. Pre-COVID, I was in and out of the city on the train, long hours, etc, so spending 4 hours on the weekend to buy meat (and somehow a 40 gallon jug of mayo?) wasn’t worth the time/energy. We also had good (but expensive) local guys, so I would do some of that and online. So I guess convenience is my answer.

Post COVID, I am hoping that I can work from home at least one or two days a week, so I think Costco might be an option. Can’t wait for that vaccine shot! Or any shot at this point. I need to get out of this house!

[BBQPhil]

I used to buy Costco prime ny sirloin, but it often was too chewy. I’ve ordered steaks from n SRF and Creekstone and they are so much better. My ribs and brisket from Costco are not as good as from these mail order companies, but closer than the steaks and I still use. But no more steaks from Costco.

[STEbbq]

I think this thread is worth bringing up again now that meat prices have spiked. Has anyone's thoughts on online changed recently?

In my case, yes.

Two things have changed for me:

1) Prime briskets at Costco are now $90-$100 for me. While I recognize the cost on a per pound basis is higher, it no longer seems quite as outrageous to drop $120-$130 on a Akaushi brisket particularly if I am offered the potential for a materially better than usual experience with the higher quality meat. Still, a one-time deal, but a change for me. Thanks Troutman

2) I really can't find bavette, teres majors, or dino ribs locally, and I've cooked enough meats that I'd like to give them a shot. And since I am ordering a good chunk of meat already, why not add some favorites like chicken, skirt steak and hot dogs to offer a fun experience for well-loved recipes?

Depending on how we love the hard-to-find cuts, I could see repeat orders in the future, but we will see.

[jpietrantone]

STEbbq I agree completely! I am much more inclined to try wagyu now than I was a year ago. In fact, I'm receiving my first order of Cheshire ribs in the next day or so.

[Murdy]

Don't quote me on this, but I think you see "Teres Major" occassionally around the mid-west labeled "mock tenderloin"

[Clark]

The meat in the stores in Tulsa area is very disappointing. A couple of butcher shops aren't much better, but I found one about 30 miles away that is pretty good for ribs, chops, roasts. Their briskets are packaged and shipped in from somewhere else, so no advantage over chain super markets.

For almost two years, I have been buying excellent steaks from an online supplier with overnight delivery and have been very happy with them. A few months ago, I accidentally found another source for CAB steaks from a Texas ranch. Steaks are bigger and better but each shipment has had a problem. Box crushed and broken so some of the product had thawed; Ordered prime but received choice; Called and they made it good. Most recent was a $125 brisket that is such an odd shape that I will have to cut it in half in order to cook it right.

That odd brisket got me looking around and yesterday I received my November issue of Texas Monthly. In it was an ad for Goodstock by Nolan Ryan so last night I ordered one of their briskets. They call it Prime Black Label Beef, 10-14 lbs, for $99.99 plus $9.99 shipping. I'll let you know how it turns out.

One very minor advantage of ordering online: You end up with a lot of nice solid styrofoam coolers. At our neighborhood garage sale last month, I sold 6 of them for $3-5 each, depending on size.

[Joey877]

Thanks to Troutman I went online yesterday and bought a Akaushi brisket from Heartbrand. Yes, I know what I said in that thread, but nobody else listens to me so why should I? The spikes in meat price haven't hit as hard where I am, at least not compared to what a lot of you are saying, but I was curious after all the commentary and wanted to try it. Wild Fork still has Prime brisket at around $5 a pound so that or the local Costco (less than $5/pound) will still be my go to. Special occasions, such as my birthday, may warrant more Akaushi purchases. I'll let you know after I smoke it...

[rickgregory]

I think this thread is worth bringing up again now that meat prices have spiked. Has anyone's thoughts on online changed recently?

Maybe... One of the things that I've started to see here and there (lastly at https://2fakaushibeef.com/product/brisket/) are smaller briskets so that you're not having to spend $12/lb for 16lbs of meat. That link is to an Akaushi brisket that's 7-8lbs for $85. I'd want to call them and see if it's trimmed or not since untrimmed you'd lose some of that mass but if you can get ~ 7lbs for that price, it's not a bad outlay and it will still feed a lot of people... probably 8-10 if you get 5bs usable after it's done.

Even in late summer, though, I was seeing choice brisket for $5 from good sources, so I don't think the per pound prices are comparable yet. It's more that we're seeing different options like this.

[STEbbq]

I emailed them and they wrote back it under 10 minutes. They sell the briskets primarily for competition so they do some trimming but leave some fat on per the teams’ preference. I am waiting to hear back from the Heartland shop on the same question.

[Murdy]

I think the main reason to go online for meat is variety. I get most of my beef at Costco and pork at Meijer. But I can't find a lot of the less standardized cuts or things like berkshire or chessire. I just recently found a reliable source of tri-tips, and this is the Chicago suburbs, not an isolated rural area.

[STEbbq]

We found tri tip at Aldi in the suburbs but it is a once a year thing . Don’t see it regularly for sure.

[Murdy]

STEbbq Ream's in Elburn has it most (or all) of the time. They sell it pre-marinaded, but they will get you an unmarinanded one from the back.

[rickgregory]

The lack of tri tips elsewhere always slips my mind as they're easy to find on the west coast.

But yeah. I don't see dino ribs around here and while I can request them from a couple of butchers in the areas so I see your point.

[FireMan]

For me, I’m makin plans to not settle fer one deer. My goal is to be like C Numb, not get anything at the store.