My Happy Beef is here!
COOL BEANS CHECK THIS OUT GUYS!
A beautiful piece of meat that’s got my name on it! Literally! (of course that’s not MY phone number on there, so unless you’re wanting to order some happy meat for yourself, don’t bother dialing it!)
How friggin’ cool is that?
After 4 long weeks of anxiously waiting for my happy meat to come in, my order finally got delivered last week.
The thing is, my meat had to age, you see… So I had to be patient!
But it’s finally here and I couldn’t be more thrilled with my purchase! There are, however, a few lessons that I have already learned for my next order.
But I’ll get back to this later.
For now, let’s take a detailed look at what a hindquarter of beef got me (that is the back half of a side of beef, so one quarter of a carcass)
What lessons have I learned in so little time?
Well, for starters, I know that next time, I need to be a lot more specific about my expectations and what I really want.
I hadn’t specified when I placed my order that I wanted to keep the flank steaks, so they got thrown into the ground beef. Same goes for the tail! What a sacrilege!
But Guylaine, over at Viandes Rheintal, was kind enough to offer to send me the “missing” cuts of meat at no extra charge. Needless to say I was VERY appreciative of that gesture. Flank steak happens to be my ultimate favorite cut of meat (yes, I even prefer it to filet mignon) and so I was devastated that I wouldn’t get a chance to sample this delicacy in the supreme, happy version.
In case you are wondering, YES, there really is a major difference in taste and texture between the factory farmed stuff and the pastured meat. For real! I’d never imagined that ground beef could ever be this good!
In one week, my daughter and I have already gone through 2 packages of ground beef and 3 strip steaks!
Check this out: this was my very first happy steak! SPECTACULAR!
And my very first Happy Hamburger Steak. This was just insanely good! Unfortunately, I didn’t even write the recipe down…
I’ll have to try and recreate it from memory, but this time, I’ll make sure to write it down.
The second lesson that I learned is that next time, I’ll probably have to actually go to the farm and sit down with them when I place my order. Or at the very least have a detailed chart in front of me.
I want to take the time to really look at the chart and make better informed decisions when it comes to choosing my cuts of meat. I want to really KNOW what my options are. All of them. I get the feeling that I’m missing out on some pretty good cuts this time around because I asked for mainly boneless.
Thirdly, I really need to make sure that I get as much as possible from my carcass, INCLUDING bones and fat.
I’m sure I could make very good use of all that.
But back to this particular order.
All in all, I got approximately 55 kg (125 pounds) of meat, which ended up costing me about $820, delivered right to my door.
Not bad at all when you think about it! That’s around $6.50/lb for top quality, organic, grass-fed, naturally raised, super happy beef.
Makes ME happy, too!
To give you an idea of what this all looks like in terms of volume, I took a bunch of pictures.
The order came in 3 boxes like these ones.
Three boxes, I said.
Uno, Dos, Tré. Um, sorry: Tres
One of them contained mainly roasts and steaks while another one was completely filled with ground beef.
The third one contained fondue meat, liver, bones, heat and um… tongue!
How’s about we empty those boxes and take a closer look at their contents?
Strip Steaks and Filet Mignons. That’s all of them.
All the roasts…
Fondue meat and beef liver…
A mountain of Lean Ground Beef
Bones, heart…
And tongue, complete with certification stamp!
And that’s all of it right here.
Keeping track of all that meat can prove to be quite tricky, especially if this all lies randomly at the bottom of your freezer. So, I went and got me a few neat storage containers that happen to fit perfectly in my freezer.
Apparently, copy paper boxes also do a great job at storing frozen meat!
Speaking of freezer…
The one that I have is a 27″ (W) x 54″ (L) x 36″ (H) – 17.5 cubic foot chest freezer (courtesy of my mom THANKS MOM and thanks Ubald and Felix for helping with the move!)
As you can see, there’s still plenty of room! I would say that I only needed half the space to store all my meat.
Good thing, ‘cuz I’ll be needing the extra room for my half side of pork which I should be receiving tomorrow!
Of course, I’ll tell you all about that too!
16 Comments on “My Happy Beef is here!”
Isn’t that the BEST? We’ve gone in on a cow share the past few years and its so awesome knowing exactly where your meat comes from. We need to get a chest freezer like that so we can get more next time. Isn’t it awesome to actually see how much meat comes from a single cow??
Right on, Mai-Lis. It’s the BEST, alright! What I like the most is finally being able to eat meat without feeling guilty or bad about it! (although I still feel a bit sad that an animal had to give its life in order to feed me, but unfortunately, there’s no way around this one!) I say a chest drawer is well worth the investment! How did I live without one all my life? 😉
It’s nice to see you get this excited about eating meat again Sonia – and to know that you can actually be healthier doing it! Can’t wait to see some amazing beef recipes coming from you soon! 🙂
You bet Mellissa! Right now, I’m thinking meatballs, patties and sausage! I just ordered a meat grinder and sausage maker attachments for my KitchenAid mixer. Oh, I can’t wait to try ’em out!!! Well, gotta get them first. Somehow, I think there will be a lot of sausage hitting that grill of mine this summer! (unless I totally stink at making it…) 🙂
This is awesome! I’ve been wanting to search for any farm offering that service on this side of the world… so sad that there are so few… glad you found a good meat source.
Hi Sonia
I just stumbled across some of your recipes…..can’t wait to try them out.
I am living in Montreal and am looking to buy 1/2 or 1/4 cow
Could you please give me your contact?
Thanks
Claudia
I did give out their info in the post, Claudia. Perhaps I didn’t make it clear enough, though, since you’re asking. Maybe I should change it and make the info more visible. I’ll definitely look into that! 🙂
Thank you….found it 🙂
Great information. Thanks.
Can your present freezer hold your order of both beef [55K] and pork [31 K] ?
Secondly, are you planning to order a lamb in the same manner?
Were your quoted costs GST in or out?
I’m not sure what you mean by 55k and 31k? But yes, my freezer held both the half pork and quarter beef, with room to spare. I am currently waiting on a whole lamb, too! So excited, I can’t wait!!
7 July 2014
Sonia,
Thanks for your reply.
K meant Kilo.
I am planning to buy beef and pork and lamb in the same way, and I am planning to acquire a Freezer that will accommodate all three in terms of size.
Ah, I see. Makes sense now. I was thinking k as in thousand…
You should be fine with the same size freezer I have, but if you’re gonna buy one, I say go with the biggest you can get. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
I’m surprised no one mentioned that your chart has weight in grams instead of kilograms! 3.2 grams per package of stew beef would make a tiny stew!! (1 gram is about the weight of a postage stamp!)
Otherwise, a helpful article. And the beautiful pictures almost made my mouth water in anticipation of my own order! Thanks!
Haha! So true! I’d never noticed that myself. Good catch and thanks for notifying me!
how much was the total weight of the cow at slaughter?
I was always told to slaughter at about 500 lbs for tenderness.
However, if one hangs the meat for at least 14 -21 days I’m wondering if that’s a concern.
I have no idea, Kathy, and to be honest, I’ve gone vegan since writing that post so the only answer that comes to mind is that it’s best to let the cow live…