Buying a whole butchered cow (Cleveland, Cincinnati: appointed, sale, apartment)

[breeinmo.]

Now mind you this was in the late 80's, but we bought 1/2 a cow from the Future Farmers Of America. I think hubby got the deal through the high school. Best meat ever! No clue if schools even have this program anymore. It was a really neat way for the kid to make money to buy another animal to raise.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Wilson513

OK, OK, let's all step back and take a deep breath and think about this transaction.

Where is the savings, again? Oh, buying in bulk, eliminating the middleman. How much is that worth? Its getting butchered anyway, so you have the butcher in the deal.

I have an idea. Ask the butcher how much he will charge you for 200 pounds of untrimmed but butchered quarter.

It is a GREAT deal ... NOT!!! My wife's co-workers do it all of the time. They like the steaks, chops, and ground beef. I end up getting all the less tender cuts that they have NO CLUE as to how to cook - oxtails, shanks, soup bones, etc. I can use those cuts for soups, stews and stocks.

It is probably the MOST expensive way to purchase beef.


Personally, I would find a way to get into a Restaurant Depot or other meat purveyor who sells primal cuts and cut those into the cuts you like. There is a lot less waste and you end up using all the meat.


======================

^^^

Buying a 4-H animal is not a great deal financially BUT it does help to send a farm kid to college. What we used to do is to find a kid who would raise the animal the way we wanted it and agree to buy the animal at the county fair. Both parties benefited.

[kjbrill]

I will have to agree with the statement there is little if any savings with buying beef by the side. While our 4 kids were growing up we did it all the time, dealing with an independent butcher in Montgomery named Marty. My parents also dealt with him but usually only bought a hind quarter. We would buy a side about every 6 months. One side pretty well filled our freezer, especially since I also bought pork loins & roasts, etc. in addition.

As I said, we never figured overall there was much savings if any. But what we did like was the convenience, the fact everything was custom cut to our specifications, and the quality. Marty had a very large freezer in his butcher shop and did a big business selling freezer beef. I cannot recall the name of his supplier, but know it was a local company. I remember him asking which did we want Choice or Prime, the price was the same but Prime would have less net yield due to the fat trimmed.

If you decide to buy bulk you have to develop a relationship with a supplier. Marty did one smart thing, he let you pay it off over time, no interest. I would double check from time to time and get quotes from other butchers, and find out his price per lb hanging weight equalled theirs. But I could give him 6 monthly payments for the side, at which time he was Johnny on the spot making a phone call for us ordering another.

As others have commented, purchasing a whole, side, quarter, etc. is based on a price per lb hanging weight. That is before the meat is atually butchered and trimmed, so your net price per lb is quite higher. Also, you are paying the same price for ground beef as you are paying for steaks, roasts, etc.

But if you find a good supplier, I still feel it is a great way to purchase beef. Chain groceries are so up and down in their quality it is discouraging. The independent butchers near me seem to have supplier problems, some good, some bad. I would like to support the little guy, but only if they can maintain consistency for their higher prices.

Only once, in well over 25 years of doing business with Marty, did I have to call him up and say the quality of my last delivery was just not up to expectations. He did not hesitate, said to pack it all up and return it to him and he would cut me another side. Try and get that type of commitment today, independent or otherwise. A whole side of beef replaced - no charge.

[TomJones123]

If you can get the beef cheap enough, and you use all of it, how are there no savings? We used every freaking scrap and had beef for around 6 months for a half. Going to the freezer and grabbing ribeyes that cost $1.99 a pound vs. $10.00 or so at Kroger is the bomb. Even with the 20 percent waste, I loved doing it. I never did any cost comparisons though, so my question isn't rhetorical. I am interested in someone quantifying how paying retail vs. bulk is a bad deal in this scenario.

Did I mention the quality of the beef is way better than store bought?

[CarpathianPeasant]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

Half of a half is a quarter from both front and back. Less meat, less cost.

"Half of a half" is a fourth of a cow taken as a whole (not in parts) from one side (half) OR the other; it could be either a fore (front) quarter OR a hind (back) quarter.


If someone sold you a quarter of a beef taken from both front and back, chances are you got taken. Evidently what you bought was half of the total weight of the side, IF it did come from both front and back quarters, and you probably paid a premium price for it.

Slaughterhouse morality says that you use all of the animal that you can possibly use. Apart from that, no reputable butcher or sensible farmer is going to cut just parts of the front and back until it amounts to a quarter of the whole carcass and then throw away the rest of the side. He (/she) would sell the rest to someone who could use lesser cuts, which generally sell for lesser price.

[TomJones123]

^^ No, and stop telling me what I got, I know darn good and well. And for your information, the butcher I dealt with waited until he had enough orders together where the entire cow would be used. The reason the cuts were from the front and back was to get the same variety of cuts you get with a half in less quantity. So tell me, if the butcher had two separate orders for half of a half, wouldn't that be the same as one person ordering a half? Which brings me to my other point. A quarter is just a quarter from either front or back. Half of a half is totally different and indicates where the cuts come from.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

Did I mention the quality of the beef is way better than store bought?

To me that was the biggest difference. But you have to find a good supplier and stick with them. If they can count on you as a regular customer that is money in their bank. Any smart business knows if they have a reliable repeat base they have a leg up.

The butcher we dealt with worked very hard at his business. He was smart enough to recognize prepared foods were his biggest profit items. Being in Montgomery he served a large number of Indian Hill families. You could go in there at Thanksgiving or Christmas and order a whole turkey dinner, fully cooked and ready to serve. His meat cases always had tempting ready to cook chicken-cordon-bleu, etc. items. I used to kid him his goetta was OK but not as good as mine.

I remember one year when we were having a good part of the family to our house for Christmas dinner. I told the wife I wanted something other than the usual turkey or ham, something people would relate to. I spoke to Marty and he suggested a standing rib roast. He had ovens in his store which were large enough to handle a whole one, the same ovens he prepared all of the holiday turkeys in. We went for it. We actually picked it up on Christmas morning. How many butchers do you know who would open their shop on Christmas morning? I certainly miss those days.

[CarpathianPeasant]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

^^ No, and stop telling me what I got, I know darn good and well. And for your information, the butcher I dealt with waited until he had enough orders together where the entire cow would be used. The reason the cuts were from the front and back was to get the same variety of cuts you get with a half in less quantity. So tell me, if the butcher had two separate orders for half of a half, wouldn't that be the same as one person ordering a half? Which brings me to my other point. A quarter is just a quarter from either front or back. Half of a half is totally different and indicates where the cuts come from.

Well, beef comes in two sides each of which has a quarter. So you are saying he had another customer that wanted the same cuts, more or less, as you wanted. You can technically cut it different ways, you know, for example you can grind up the whole cow as hamberger or cut it all into small pieces as for stew beef.... Regardless, the other party took what you didn't.

This includes a simplified image of beef cuts:

Beef - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now, just for example, who got the first round steak and who got the last one, assuming the first one went to one customer, the next went to the other customer, and so forth.

And, for that matter, how might the chuck be divided equally?

[TomJones123]

If you don't get it, I'm ok with that. I explained it well enough. I'm not gonna argue about this.

Here, I used to get my meats from these folks.

http://www.curlysjerky.com/price%20s...ales%20312.pdf

Look in the right column and you will see they sell either a half, or half of a half. Call the butcher to see how they cut what.

[rrtechno]

Around here, we have :
Quarters = Front or Rear
Split Sides = Basically the same amount of meat as a quarter, but some cuts from the front and some from the rear
Sides = A front and a rear quarter
Whole = Self explanatory

Obviously the farmer would not have the meat processed until he had a buyer for the entire thing. A butcher shop could sell before having a buyer for everything as the parts not custom ordered would be put in the case and sold retail.

This method works just fine for some people, but others cannot make it work and can't see how it could. We always had meat in the freezer when I was growing up, and before we had our own freezer, Mom and Dad rented a storage locker at the local butcher shop/meat locker (for the meat they didn't can). We would also take the fruits and vegetables from our garden up there to store, making a trip every week or so to get things to restock the little freezer in the top of our refrigerator.

When our boys were still home, we would usually get a split side. The quality and convenience were as much a consideration as the price. (Back then, the cost of the meat and processing usually calculated out to around $2 a pound, high for hamburger but way cheap for Porterhouse). Now we sometimes share a split side with our son and his wife.

If you have never done it this way, and have no desire to try, or you have tried and didn't think it was for you, that is fine. No problems with that. I will never try to convince you otherwise. But please don't try to say that, unquestionably, it is a total mistake for everyone to even think about filling a freezer with food.