Buying a Quarter Cow
We have been talking about buying beef in bulk for awhile now and even bought a deep freezer at Christmas in preparation for it.
After researching what felt like hundreds of ranches, Chris found Avenales Ranch, and we were finally ready to pull the trigger. They dry age their meat, are local (Central Coast), and good friends of ours vouched directly for them. Whether you do a little homework online or shop around at your local farmers markets, make sure to give some extra thought to where you are sourcing from - after all, that is one of the main things driving our purchase, having good quality meat.
What You Get in a Quarter Cow Order
This may vary slightly depending on where you order your beef, but our quarter cow consisted of:
50lbs of ground beef
1 Tomahawk Ribeye
1 Tri Tip
1 Ball Tip Roast
2 Beef Brisket
4 Tenderloin Filets
4 Bone In Ribeyes
2 Boneless Ribeyes
5 NY strips
2 Boneless NY
2 Flat Irons
1 Flank Steak
2 Sirloin Tip Steaks
1 Skirt Steak
6 Chuck Eye Steaks
6 Short Ribs
4 Osso Buco
3 Stew Meat
How to Store and Organize Your Beef Efficiently
While the ground beef easily takes up an entire shelf to itself, I’ve used plastic bins like these and these to organize our various cuts. Of course you can choose to break it up as you best see fit, but here are the categories I went with to start:
Bone In (Ribeye, Short Rib, Osso Buco)
Boneless (NY, ribeye, grilling cuts)
Stew meat
Larger cuts separately (tomahawk, tri tip, brisket)
Cooking for Bulk Beef Purchases
So far we have made the following:
Cheeseburger sliders by Natasha’s Kitchen (next up - King’s Hawaiian bacon burgers)
*back with an update - BIG fan of the bacon burgers over regular cheeseburger recipeSlow Cooker Osso Buco by Table for Two (and want to try this recipe in future)
Chris has also grilled up a ribeye and more burgers, both of which had great flavor
If you have any favorite beef recipes, make sure to share them down below and stay tuned for more beef posts to come!
