One of my friends is friends with a rancher/butcher, and he offers whole cow butchery so about 5-6 of us are going to split a whole cow. I've never done that before, has anyone here done that? Some of the guys in the group are interested in other cuts so we'll swap cuts around. Also, does anyone have experience vacuum packing meat?
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You seemed like the dude that would have a lot of experience packing meat tbh.
I do make sausages for the holidays with my parents and family, but this is a bit different.
Oh man this is my calling. Grandfather's brother (so great uncle) gets about six cows every summer for the family to split half a cow each. We don't do the butchering of cows ourselves, but when it comes to deer season we go Goodfellas on each deer. Here's my best advice:
Don't underestimate the 'mid' cuts (Porterhouse, T-bone). Especially straight from the butcher, these are some Grade-A cuts with crazy volume to them (I think we've had 30oz Porterhouses).
Hind Roasts are the most slept-on cuts. Throw these in the crockpot when you leave for work and then shred them up when you come home. Shredded beef sandwiches >= pulled pork sandwiches.
If you're actually involved with the butchering, add Italian seasonings during the grinding of the beef. Of course it depends on the fat level on the cow, but making 'sausages' out of beef is pretty damn good. You don't season after it's ground up, you throw in seasoning DURING the grinding/processing.
Finally, tenderize the Chops. This is where the vacuum-sealing comes in, but for the Low-Grade cuts, running them through the tenderizer once and then vacuum-sealing them leaves a viable breakfast option when you feel like it. Steak & Eggs taste a helluva lot better when the steak is from your steer and the eggs are from your hens.
Also, if you're buying 1/6th of a cow for (let's say) a family of four, that's gonna be gone in an instant if you eat beef semi-often. Dabble in it now, but if you like it, move up to half-cow territory in the future. IDK NY prices for cows but even without the family discount we get, you shouldn't pay more than $1500 for half a steer
I'll reply more to this all later, but that's close to what we were quoted for the full steer (~$2.8-3.1K or so).
This is what makes WSO great. God's Sanest Cokehead is familiar with whole cow butchery
Dude fuck yes. One of my friends has one of those giant eggs, 2 Traegers, and a regular propane grill. All I want in life is to have 2 huge chest freezers in a dedicated shed filled w/ meat from small local farms or hunting trips, but for now I have to settle for bulk ordering from Butcher Box and Good Ranchers.
How are you thinking about storing the meat? All in the freezer? Aging anything? How much in total are you expecting to get?
The cow in question is a Angus/Tarentaise crossbreed.
IMO underwhelming. My family did a half cow at one point and while it does give you access to some of the highest-quality, freshest meat, you end up with a ton of subpar cuts (e.g. tons of ground beef, mid cuts of steak). It's one of those things that yes, if you are only evaluating on price, it is worth it, but if you want to eat strips, ribeyes, filet, etc. and have little use for the less sexy cuts, you are better off just buying what you want individually.
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