If you’ve never ordered beef in bulk for your family, you might be wondering what to tell the processor when you call to give them cutting instructions. Most processors will do a great job helping you navigate this process. They’ll answer questions, provide a good idea of how they typically cut, and package the meat.
After going through the process a time or two, you’ll come up with preferences that best fit your meal needs. Here are a few ideas that we’ve come up with to make sure we get full use out of a quarter of beef by making meals that the whole family will enjoy.
1. Think about how much hamburger you want to get back
· Pulling a pound of hamburger out of the freezer, to cook up a dish of your choice, is like pushing the easy button. We do this often and make sure to get around half of our beef ground into hamburger. This usually requires grinding some cuts that may not otherwise be ground, like the round steaks and sirloin tip roasts. This gives us a good amount of hamburger to work with.
2. Another option that we’re happy with is hot dogs
· This may not come to mind when you’re thinking about ordering beef in bulk, but we got sick of pulling store bought hot dogs from our refrigerator as a quick meal for our kids when we have a freezer full of home-grown meat. Now we can feed our kids an occasional meal of hot dogs and feel good knowing that they are 100% grass-fed beef and made locally right at Dicks’ Locker.
3. Soup bones and short ribs can be kept for delicious bone broth, soups, slow cooker, and smoker recipes
· If you’re not into the bones and want to save on freezer space, you can have the meat trimmed off and added to the hamburger.
Here’s a standard list of cutting and packaging options from Dick’s Locker.
T-bone – 2/package
Ribeye – 2/package
Sirloin – 1/package
Round Steak – 1-2/package - regular or tenderized
Roasts – 2-3lbs
Soup Bones – Yes/No or trimmed for burger
Short Ribs – Yes/No or trimmed for burger
Burger – 1lb, 1.5lb, or 2lb packages
Beef Liver – Yes/No
Feel free to contact us if you have specific questions.
Thank you for being here,
Herman