Anyone here ever purchase part of a cow, pig, etc?

[August_West]

I bought half a pasture-raised pig and 1/4 of a pasture-raised cow. Great quality meat.
We have a chest freezer, not frost free.
But by the time I finished the meat, it was not as tasty. Some freezer burn, and loss of moisture in the meat.
We had some great parties finishing the meat.

That's what my vacuum sealer is great for.


I have bought both Pig and cow from a local farm in 1/4 to 1/2 ranges over the years.

I have to spend pretty much a full day doing some more butchering from how it was received, and then Break it down into portions I can vacuum seal. It takes a while but Ive pulled stuff out of freezer thats well over a year old vacuum sealed and frozen ( I keep my Basement storage Freezer at minus 12 degrees F.) Naturally defrost it and I swear if I gave someone a blind test of say two Ribeyes side by side one 12 months frozen and one 7 days frozen, you could tell no difference.

If you dont have a freezer that goes (at minimum) below Zero degrees dont bother storing meat long term. -10 and below that even is excellent.

However a good Freezer and vacuum sealing can really keep things in shape for quite a long time.

 

[ZenConn]

My parents did years ago. And gave me a massive amount of beef. I became so sick of beef, I went out of my way to avoid it for 3 months. Fish, salad, pork, fruit, you name it. Anything but beef.

 

[Yardigan]

Grew up on a farm in Maine...pretty much what all our neighbors did. I'd do it now, but really need extra freezer space...plus, I like the aggravation of looking for reasonably priced quality beef at the grocery store.