Some Frequently Asked Questions
Support For Meat Your Kitchen
You may have some questions about Meat Your Kitchen.
They are not the same, not apple to apples. We are targeting a market with discerning taste and a desire for higher nutritional content while supporting their local and regional rural communities. These attributes of our product drive costs up a bit.
Grocery store meat typically comes from high volume feed lots that can accommodate the volume needed by grocery store chains. The cattle are confined to these areas until ready for processing. Grocery stores, as they use large volume processors that are often from out of state, have a cost advantage that comes at the expense of local farmers and processors, product differentiation, and quality.
Buying half a cow from the local farmer is different also. Like our meat, the animals are pasture-raised, grazing on whatever is in the fields and live fairly stress free lives, which adds to the quality of the product. They are either grass or grain finished. Typically that meat is processed, wrapped and ready for delivery on the same day and is not dry aged. However, buying beef this way is often performed at processing facilities that are Custom Exempt, meaning that your beef was not slaughtered or butchered in accordance with State or USDA processes and procedures. Only the owner(s) of the animal being processed may procure beef in this way. It is unlawful to resell meat processed Custom Exempt. Performing proper safety and quality inspections and monitoring adds to the cost of processing.
Our meat has the additional step of dry aging which increases nutrient content in the meat and reduces the amount of weight due to moisture evaporation. The meat has a richer taste and is more tender than non-aged meat. Our meat is also packaged for resale, so it undergoes more inspection requirements.
Great question! You receive your order frozen and vacuum sealed for freshness. You can place in the freezer if you are not ready to eat the items right away or place in the refrigerator to thaw slowly for use in a day or two, depending if it is a roast or steak. If you want to thaw for use sooner, a granite counter top does a great job of thawing the meat fairly quickly by pulling the cold away from the meat. Just move the package periodically.
Yes, that is due to the vacuum seal. It pulls all of the air out of the packaging. Once you open the package, the product will expand and look more typical.
Because of the vacuum seal, product should be fine for 2-3 years in a deep freeze and still look and taste great!
When vacuum sealed and stored in a deep freeze near 0F, as ours is, meat retains is flavor and nutritional quality for 2-3 years.
Makes the meat more nutrient dense, richer in flavor, and more tender. As the dry aging reduces the overall weight by 10-15%, the dry aging process alone means you get more actual meat per pound paid for than un-aged or wet-aged meat.
Stress-free animals make for better tasting meat! The cattle are pasture-raised and then dry aged. The flavor of the meat is richer due to what they graze on and the dry aging process.
This means the cattle were allowed to graze (roam freely) in pastures (fields) and eat the grasses and plants available to them. They have lots of room to move, shade trees to lay under, etc.
A few of them are Vitamin B12, Iron, Vitamin D and Zinc! It is a great source of protein which your body which is need for muscle and energy. www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com
Times will vary depending on the thickness of the cut, the degree of intramuscular fat(marbling), and how you are cooking the meat, so the easiest way to be successful is to cook to a temperature not a time.
- Rare: 125 degrees F + 3 minute rest off the heat.
- Medium-Rare: 130 to 135 degrees F.
- Medium: 135 to 140 degrees F.
- Medium-Well: 140 to 150 degrees F.
- Well-Done: 155 degrees F + Cite source.
Very lean beef such as Piedmontese or most grass fed will be more lean and we encourage removing from heat ~5F lower that the standard temps above.
We currently deliver on Thursdays. If this changes, we will contact you with new details.
We take payment security very seriously. For that reason, we use the Stripe payment system, which is used for many of your favorite online retailers.
They will be delivered right to your door (the address you specified in your order) directly from us here at Meat Your Kitchen. The meat will be vacuum sealed in a heavy-duty bag to keep it will preserved.
Not currently. We are looking into ways of doing a subscription service, but our current model of regularly adding new and unique cuts of meat would make a subscription service more difficult. Stay tuned for future updates on this!
