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. 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.
DEAL: Check out the current ButcherBox deal – just use this link to sign up!
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!
This month’s box came with a black zip-top reusable cooler bag!
They made sure that everything is intact and secured.
There’s a card that reminds you to get in touch with Butcher Box in case you have any concerns or questions. The extras were more streamlined than in past boxes, as this set did not include recipe or cut-of-meat-specific information cards, and the cooler bag did not have the box logo.
All the delicious cuts of beef included in this month’s Butcher Box!
Everything is portioned to a manageable size, so you can pull it from the freezer as needed without thawing more than you want.
Grass-Fed Ground Beef. This is 85% lean and 15% fat, great for burgers and general use. It creates surprisingly little liquid when cooked, and it doesn’t flare up much when cooked on the grill.
The ground beef are divided in two one-pound packs. Even when they are frozen for so long, the beef still stays moist and juicy!
Grass-Fed Beef Top Sirloin Cap. Like all cuts, the top sirloin is 100% grass-fed. This cut is a pound and a half of meat!
The sirloin cap of is very lean on the interior, with a large slab of fat along one side. I made a pot roast with this cut using my Instant Pot. I threw in some Campbell’s Beef Stroganoff simmer sauce and some fresh cut carrots, onions and celery. After cooking for 50 minutes, it was fall-apart tender. I didn’t need to carve the meat at all — I just broke it apart with the serving spoon. Served on mashed potatoes, it was great.
Grass-Fed Beef Flank Steak. This is a primal cut and generally not broken down into smaller portions. It’s a large flat steak, with a very distinct grain running cross ways. It has a rich meaty flavor and is very easy to cook, making it one the most popular choice for buffets and parties.
This flank steak is best marinated and grilled and sliced thin and against the grain. It is a popular choice for steak sandwiches or served over a fresh salad. I’m planning a nice cumin and garlic heavy marinade for this, then its on to the grill and slicing up for fajitas!
Grass-Fed Beef Eye Round Roast. This boneless low fat cut hails from a lean and active muscle, it means it has less fat and produce a ton of flavor.
It is easy to cook, just roast it whole and serve it sliced thick with horseradish sauce on the side or slice it thin for sandwiches.
We decided to use the meat in a pot roast (with mushrooms and potatoes!) and it was delicious! The beef is so tender and really juicy! I cooked this one in the oven instead of the Instant Pot, so the meat stayed slice-able instead of pulling apart.
Grass-Fed Beef Ribeye Steak. Perhaps the most savory of all the steaks, this grass-fed steak is cut from the center of the rib section. It has a smooth rich texture and a very pronounced beefy flavor.
It comes in two 10 oz packs. The center of the steak is fairly lean and the bands of fat are sufficient enough to give the big, greasy ribeye flavor, but there isn’t much waste once cooked.
These are all the items we got from the butcher box. Each pieces are well-trimmed and are cut carefully according to their intended purpose. I really felt that nothing has been 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 quite pricey because what we are paying is the quality of meat they are providing. 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.I love the quality of the beef we got from Butcher Box. They arrived in deep freeze, and was 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.
What did you think of our haul of grass-fed beef from Butcher Box?
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