buying a 1/4 side of beef, need help with cuts

[swellmomma]

So I have finally sourced a local farm for buying a 1/2 side of beef.  It is grass fed, organic beef and I am so excited.  The problem is I have no clue about cuts.  TO do a 1/4 I can either choose a hind quarter, fore quarter, or a mix of specific cuts.  I am leaning towards the mix of cuts, but want some help.  If you were buying 1/4 beef for your family, lets envision a family of 5, with 4 of them eating as adults.  What cuts would you go for and in what quantity?  I am looking at 160-188 lbs of beef here. 

[KathyBC]

Hamburger, stew and roast. Usually the butcher or producer helps walk me through my choices, because it can be a bit overwhelming. :-)

[PrincessMommy]

Hmmm.. I've never gotten the chance to decide which quarter of the steer I get so I'm not sure what that is. 

 

I do like to get some chuck to make pot roast.  Also, porterhouse is wonderful - but there's not a lot.  However, they're usually big.  3-4 people could probably eat 2 porterhouse steaks.  There's also the T-bone steaks and sirloin.

 

Most of my meat I also like to make into ground beef.  I just have more uses for ground beef with a big family...as apposed to one 2-3lbs chuck which isn't quite enough.  Now that the amount of kids at home is shrinking that may change.

 

Anyway, enjoy your beef.

[Guest]

I have roasts cut from any of the better pieces (top sirloin, eye of round), a few chuck roasts, but I also ask for a lot ground. I don't want big arm roasts, they are more useful ground. The first few times I needed a lot of guidance and made some mistakes.

[mmasc]

Hamburger, stew and roast. Usually the butcher or producer helps walk me through my choices, because it can be a bit overwhelming. :-)

I agree. ^^^

When we had that done last spring, I realized I had more round steak than I'd like, and didn't have enough ground. Of course, it's specific to each family, but we definitely needed more ground. We probably got about 25 packages at 1 pound each. The butcher should be able to help you though. Good luck!

[AmyontheFarm]

I usually tell the butcher I want as many roasts as possible.  Specify how much stewing beef you want, I use two pounds of it for one meal with 6 of us.  You'll need to decide the thickness of your steaks, we like 1/2 inch.  You will also need to tell them how to wrap it.  I like steaks wrapped individually because it makes it easier for me to just pull one or 4 depending on how many I'm feeding.  I prefer stewing beef and hamburger in one pound packages, it makes defrosting quicker.

[Erica in OR]

I think we got what they called a split side. Maybe that is the mix? We were happy with it. The best butcher we used did lead us through the options. Getting soup bones, if you want liver, how many people a roast is meant to serve, having some of the round steak done as cube steak, 1 or 2 lb pkgs of burger, steak thickness, how many steaks per pkg.

 

Erica in OR

[Susan in TN]

In my dreams of getting 1/2 cow, I ask that the liver be ground into the ground beef for extra B vitamins. Otherwise I would get as many roasts as possible. Bones for broth. Minimal steaks probably because I don't trust myself to cook them correctly.

[Katy]

I just get what the butcher recommends, with the exception of the steaks.  I get them singly wrapped so if someone shows up for dinner I can just pull out the steaks we need rather than worry about leftovers.

 

I think I opted for the T-bones to be 1" thick, all others thinner or standard cuts.

 

Oh, and get the soup and dog bones to make broth, and the fat to make tallow.

[sbbulliv]

I just ordered a half lamb and a quarter beef but I haven't done the cuts yet. Usually going into summer like this I like to get more steaks than roasts cause I like to grill. In the fall I go the other way.

[happypamama]

I always get as much of it in roasts as I can, then steaks, then the rest as stew meat or burger.  I ask for the roasts to be cut in 2-3 pound packages, rather than larger pieces.  A 5 pound roast isn't terribly useful to me, unless we eat it over a couple of nights, and in the rare occasion that I would want to feed a larger crowd, I can cook a couple of 2-3 pound roasts.

 

The last guy I got a quarter beef from (and I get a mixed quarter, so sometimes the cuts vary) throws in soup bones too, so if you want those, ask, and ask if you can have other people's if they don't want them.

 

My guy usually calls me up unexpectedly (I place the order, and a month or so later, I get a call) and asks how I want my cuts -- "X or Y, Q or Z, etc.," and it's frustrating because I'd rather have time to research and decide exactly why I want.  Next time I will ask for a list ahead of time when I order the beef, so that I'm prepared when he wants my order.

 

I'm envious!  I miss having a quarter cow; it's been a few years since we have been able to afford the up-front cost.  My favorite time was right before we were going to pick up a quarter, and we had a few random little packages left of the previous one.  It was all the good stuff, but small amounts of each, so we cooked up a bunch of packages, and one random Tuesday evening or something, no special occasion, we enjoyed filet mignon and other really good pieces.  Totally felt like kings then, LOL!

[KatieJ]

You definitely want a mixed half. Ask for,the round steak to be tenderized. Each shop has a different name for it.

1/2 inch steak is too thin for us, but just sit back and think how you like your steak. We get a sheet of paper for. The butcher and we can select what we want, how many pounds per package of burger and he oasis, etc. I would call and ask them for some paperwork, or maybe it's on their website?

[kbutton]

Rib roast has become one of our favorite cuts. Very, very tender and juicy even on a grassfed cow. And in the grocery store here, it's 17.99/lb. We have as much of the rib roast/steak section cut into roasts as we can, and we have the rest ground up. We found that we didn't really care for rib steak.

 

If you get a mixed half, you might have to take spare ribs. We are trying ours Korean style so they are not as fatty. We haven't actually cooked any yet, but they look more manageable. You can get a lot of the meat on the spare ribs ground as well.

 

Enjoy! Getting a half of a cow is one of the highlights of our year.

 

Definitely get the fat. You can find instructions for making it into tallow, and tallow makes the best french fries you'll ever eat.

[swellmomma]

I always get as much of it in roasts as I can, then steaks, then the rest as stew meat or burger.  I ask for the roasts to be cut in 2-3 pound packages, rather than larger pieces.  A 5 pound roast isn't terribly useful to me, unless we eat it over a couple of nights, and in the rare occasion that I would want to feed a larger crowd, I can cook a couple of 2-3 pound roasts.

 

The last guy I got a quarter beef from (and I get a mixed quarter, so sometimes the cuts vary) throws in soup bones too, so if you want those, ask, and ask if you can have other people's if they don't want them.

 

My guy usually calls me up unexpectedly (I place the order, and a month or so later, I get a call) and asks how I want my cuts -- "X or Y, Q or Z, etc.," and it's frustrating because I'd rather have time to research and decide exactly why I want.  Next time I will ask for a list ahead of time when I order the beef, so that I'm prepared when he wants my order.

 

I'm envious!  I miss having a quarter cow; it's been a few years since we have been able to afford the up-front cost.  My favorite time was right before we were going to pick up a quarter, and we had a few random little packages left of the previous one.  It was all the good stuff, but small amounts of each, so we cooked up a bunch of packages, and one random Tuesday evening or something, no special occasion, we enjoyed filet mignon and other really good pieces.  Totally felt like kings then, LOL!

It's been 5 years since I have been able to afford it, and when I did it before it was a different farmer and they determines the cuts and just gave a mixed selection so I did not choose anything.  THis time around it will cost me more than it used to but better quality beef.  The up front will still about kill my budget but is worth it long term.  We used to love it when we got it before and would joke we were the best eating poor folk around, we could have nothing else in the house but be eating steak for supper.  We really did feel like kings those days.  I am so glad to be in  position this year to buy it, who knows if we will be able to next year.

[Ausmumof3]

For winter go roasts and stewing meat, for summer go for more mince and steaks. I think it's a shame to get all the stewing meat ground as you can make super yummy curries and casseroles that go just as far as mince and taste amazing!

 

I think the only thing we had as steak that I regretted was skirt as it is quite tough. I ended up beating it really thin them slicing for stir fry.

 

I really love the challenge of cooking all the different cuts.

[jemsmom]

It really depends on what your family likes to eat.  We like a lot of ground beef for burgers, tacos, spaghetti, meatloaf, etc. Steak is highly prized over here--t-bone, porterhouse, rib steak and sirloin. Round steak sliced really thin is great for beef stir-fries, and we love boneless oven roasts (sirloin tip and rolled rump roasts cooked medium rare--mmmm). We're not that crazy about chuck roasts, so most of that goes into the grind. 

 

I like the idea of throwing the liver into the grind.  I need to figure out a way to try that on a smaller scale first, so that I don't end up with a year's supply of ground beef that no one will eat!

 

This isn't related to specific cuts, but I always ask that my side of beef be allowed to hang for a minimum of 2 weeks (dry aging).  It makes a huge difference in flavor, especially for the steaks.

[Southern Ivy]

I have wanted to do this for awhile. May I ask how much the upfront cost is typically? I understand that it varies; but a ballpark figure would be great, so I can figure it into the budget. :) 

[swellmomma]

In my case it ranged from $4.50/lb (fore quarter cuts) or $4.80/lb (hind quarter cuts).  Weight for the quarter of 160-188 lbs depending on the steer SO $720 at the cheapest end up to $902 at the highest end.  BUt for use buying like this means we will not buy beef again for a year.  And the grocery stores near us in this little town are VERY expensive.  Like $25 for a little 2 lb roast, $18 for 5 lbs of regular ground etc. So it is well worth it even if it means we only eat ramen next to the meat for a month lol

[KathyBC]

We use leftover roast for lunch meat.

[Katy]

I forgot to mention earlier that I also told them to keep the roasts small enough to fit in a large oval slow cooker.  We hardly ever have leftover roast now, and if we do it's only enough for 1-2 lunches for DH.

 

We're in Oklahoma and beef costs a lot less here.  The meat is grass fed and grain finished, but not certified organic or anything. I feel pretty comfortable with that because most of the prairie here has never been tilled, and I figure those native grasses must be pretty healthy. Also, in the area of Florida where I grew up it was difficult to find grain finished beef.  I prefer the flavor.  I want to say hanging weight was $3.50/pound including processing, and that's been stable for over a year.  Someone DH works with says there's a ranch somewhere south of Wichita that sells grass fed beef straight from the ranch for something like a dollar more per pound, but that was a year ago so that might have changed.

 

The first time we asked for a mixed quarter side of the best beef availible. The butcher asked if we cared what breed (some people specify Angus or whatever).  We said we trusted his judgment.  It took about 6 weeks for him to find what he thought was the best meat availible, and two weeks of aging, and two days of processing & freezing before it was ready to be picked up.  It was totally worth the wait.  It is the best beef I've ever tasted, and I can't believe it was basically the same price as loss leader beef at Sam's or Aldi's.   When I mentioned I liked organ meats the butcher threw in a whole bag of hearts and livers for free.

 

The second time we got a larger freezer and half a cow.  This time I asked for the liver to be sliced more thinly because I couldn't seem to get all the bitterness out of the thicker slices, no matter how long I soaked them in milk.  Otherwise the process was the same, but it took a few extra weeks to get the beef.  Apparently there had been several lightening storms that had decimated nearby herds and the local price of beef went up for several weeks.

 

Our butcher says he gets the cattle from local ranchers, but I'm pretty sure that most of them come from his family.   We also got half a 4H pig right after the state fair, and he called and said they were all too skinny and he was going to keep them at home and fatten them up for 6-8 weeks and then butcher them.   I think that was about $3/lb hanging weight.

 

I can't get used to the flavor of natural bacon though.  They cured it, but it still lacks the flavor of the chemically flavored stuff in stores.  No one else in the family seems to mind.