Butcher Box is a subscription box service that delivers premium quality meat for $129 per month. Each box comes with a selection of meat (about 15-20 meals worth) that has been carefully cut and prepared. The Butcher Box brings back that unique experience you get when you visit your local butcher shop. Their specialty is 100% grass-fed beef, but they also provided mixed subscription options that include heritage pork and organic chicken, too! You can also have the box delivered every two or three months depending on your needs.
The outer packaging is Earth-friendly.
Some of the items are multi-packs, as the meat is generally divided into manageable portions for freezing and thawing as needed.
The meat is vacuum sealed in plastic, packed in an insulated bag, and then kept frozen within the outer soft-side cooler padding and box with a large dry ice pack. Careful with the dry ice! Past boxes had the handling precautions immediately visible, but this time it was face down. ?
This month’s box came with a custom, lime green reusable cooler bag!
There are also recipe cards included for the Ribeye Steak and Whole Sirloin Cap. We tried out the Picanha recipe with our Sirloin Cap.
The back of the recipe card gives you more information about the cut and instructions for thawing and prepping the meat.
All the delicious bundles of meat included in this month’s Butcher Box!
You also get a Primal Kitchen Coconut Cashew Bar ($2.66): Designed for primal, paleo, and high-protein diets, this bar uses grass-fed beef collagen as a major ingredient, with pumpkin seeds and cashews for crunch. Not necessarily my thing, but it is certainly and appropriate bones item to receive in a big crate of meat!
Ground Beef Brick: A pair of one pound bricks of grain fed ground beef. The beef is 85/15 – while it has ample fat for flavor and juiciness, it seems leaner and cooks without producing copious amounts of grease – a really good ground beef for grilling. This quality product is raised without antibiotics or growth hormones.
The beef has a pleasant, natural color – you can tell it was packed fresh.
Our remaining selections were all cuts of beef!
Premium Steak Tips: Ideal for grilling or braising, these tender grass-fed tips are pre-cut into large pieces.
The tips are nicely trimmed, with surprisingly little connective tissue.
Ranch Steak: This thick cut comes in big eight ounce portions.
The meat is pale and well-trimmed. This is a nice all-purpose steak – I would either grill these or cut them for use in stew, stir-fry, kabob, and other applications.
Boneless Ribeye Steaks: The king of steaks, this cut is superb grilled, with lots of flavor and greasy goodness.
The big marbling makes this a very flavorful cut, and it can stand up to flavorful sides and pairings – but please don’t desecrate the steak itself by piling on anything more complex than Montreal seasoning!
Still hampered by an out of commission grill, I opted to pan fry my ribeye, dusting it with some garlic, hickory smoked salt, and black pepper. Simple rice and broccoli made fine sides that didn’t distract from the glorious steak. It was tender, immensely flavorful, and it had the pleasant greasiness you only get with a ribeye. Yum!
Beef Top Sirloin Cap: hearty cut with a thick fat cap, this meat can be used as a small roast, but it is versatile enough for a number of uses.
Apart from the big cap of fat, the meat is relatively lean, with a prominent grain. We prepared the Picanha recipe with the steak.
Ready for cooking. Still haven’t got around to filling the propane tank, so I opted for broiling.
Parsley, cilantro, and garlic for the chimichurri.
The plated dish with simple green bean and buttery mash potatoes. The chimichurri had a wonderful bright flavor that was a perfect complement for the broiled fattiness of the cap and the rich meat. The meat had a great texture – tender enough for a butter knife, but with a heartiness that was very satisfying.
I love the quality of the beef we get from Butcher Box. It has great flavor and is well-trimmed for the intended purpose of each cut. I never feel like there is anything wasted, as the cuts are generally lean or gently marbled, with any fat left on being appropriately portioned to flavor and baste the meat as it cooks.
This box is of course expensive. Each box comes with 7 – 10 lbs of meat, which is enough for around 20 individual meals (at a 5 – 8oz portion size), which works out to about $6.50 per portion for the meat – and there is no difference in cost between getting all grass-fed beef or mixing your box to include organic chicken and heritage pork. You may see those as “filler” items or as valuable variety. It arrives in a deep freeze, and it is portioned into manageable sized cuts. This makes it easy to portion out over time, making it a good medium-term investment in protein – you can treat yourself to steak night once a week and think of it as a lifestyle enhancement instead of a one-time splurge.
Comments