The Reputation Of The Butchers And Farms
The good news is the most reputable online providers are more transparent. They will tell you the exact farm your steak came from. Its unlike many groceries that import meat abroad, with you none the wiser.
Buying meat from old-school butchers will give you a level of transparency supermarkets cant afford.
The best part is to vet the online company before buying from them. Sometimes, it takes a simple Google search to learn everything about their practices and sources.
Of course, you have to be discerning with the information you choose to believe. Look for telltale signs of deception before committing to a company.
Myths About Dry Ageing Steak At Home
Many believe that dry-aging steak is impossible because its not cold enough.
This is false, have you heard of the Himalayan Ice Man? He does just fine at freezing temperatures that are much colder than your fridge will be.
The second myth is that dry-aging steak at home will result in freezer burn. This can happen if you leave it for too long, however, in most cases, 30 80 days is the ideal time frame for dry aging steak at home.
The third myth is that you need a humidity-controlled room to age steak effectively.
This too is false because all you need to do is wrap it up and seal it away from air and let the water evaporate off naturally.
You can take extra steps to avoid freezer burn by wrapping the steak up in saran wrap or even better, cheesecloth, as tightly as possible.
This blocks out any humidity and keeps the steak fresh longer.
Another myth is that dry-aging steak at home wont make a difference because you wont be able to age it long enough.
This is very short-sighted thinking because after aging a steak properly, even for 30 days, youll not only notice a more intense flavor but also a significantly reduced cooking loss and overall improved yield.
Best For Small Households: Rastellis
Courtesy of Rastellis
Want the convenience of having steaks shipped directly to your home, but dont have the cold storage space to commit to a large shipment? Rastellis offers single servings of USDA prime-graded bone-in porterhouse, ribeye, filet mignon, and New York strip steaks with no minimum purchase quantity, so you can buy exactly how much meat you need.
Rastellis has a rich 40-year history in butchery and now works with Midwestern family-run farms and ranches to bring pastured meat that is certified humane and verified by the Non-GMO Project. The company still cuts and ages all of its beef in house. All meat is vacuum-sealed and shipped frozen, so you can store it in the freezer or thaw it in the refrigerator for immediate use.
Porter Road is driven by a mission to source high-quality meat from local ranches. Located in Kentucky, it sources pasture-raised cattle from Kentuckian and Tennessean ranches that have high standards for both animal husbandry and environmental concerns.
All steaks are cut and dry-aged for at least 14 days. Dry aging is a process in which steak is exposed to air so that some of its moisture evaporates and the beef flavor concentrates and intensifies. Each of the steak listings features a guide for the cut, so you can learn about which part of the cattle it comes from and the best cooking method to use.
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Best Gift Sets: Chicago Steak Company
Courtesy of Chicago Steak Company
Send an assortment to a steak lover by way of a Chicago Steak Company gift set. Theyre are available for all budgets, free shipping is often included, and theyre shipped frozen, so the recipient doesnt have to cook them all right away. The Chicago Steak Sampler is a customer favorite and includes two filet mignons, two ribeyes, two flat irons, two top sirloins, and 16 steak burgers.
All steak offerings are either USDA prime or choice, which are the top two grades for beef based on fat marbling. Prime steaks have the most marbling, so they cook up with the most flavor and juiciness. Choose a gift set that has been wet-aged for maximum flavor.
For the best steak experience, you want to make sure you have the right kitchen gear and cooking know-how to enjoy your steaks to the fullest. Many online butcher shops feature free recipes and cooking tips, so be sure to keep an eye out for those to make the most of your purchase.
Steaks can be grilled, pan-fried, or broiled in an oven. A cast-iron pan is useful for searing steaks on the stovetop and finishing in a hot oven. A food thermometer will help you ensure your steak is cooked perfectly to suit your preferences.
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Can You Dry Age Just One Steak
Usually when you dry age a piece of meat, you are dry aging an entire roast, like a prime rib or a beef tenderloin. Can you dry age a single steak? Yes, you can, but you will have more loss than you would have with a prime rib. Here is why. The dry aging process dries out the outer surface of the meat, and that has to be trimmed off and discarded before cooking. If you dry age a roast, you will trim off a little more than 1/16 but will still have a lot of roast left. If you dry age a single steak, you will still trim trim off about 1/16 from both sides but ALL of that trimming is coming off one steak. The solution is to buy the thickest steak possible. If the butcher carries only 1 ribeye ask for a 1 1/2 2 ribeye. You will be glad you did.
One important point, be careful not to dry age too long. In the video below, I dry aged a Wagyu ribeye for 7 days and that was too long. Next time I will dry age for only 5 days.
I used a neat little bag specifically designed for dry aging meat. It is available online and worth the small investment. It does a great job.
After dry aging, this steak lost 9% of its total weight. That loss of water intensifies the beefy flavor.
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Good Chop Subscription Meats & Seafood
Quality, convenience and oh so delicious, Good Chop has cracked the code on subscription meat and seafood delivery. Whats their secret? They put you in charge. Heres how easy it is to get started:
You can change your order at any time, pause for a month or two, or cancel. Its as if Good Chop understands and wants to accommodate customers changing wants and needs. What a concept!
Youll choose from a wide variety of quality meats from American family farms, independent ranchers and domestic wild caught and farmed fisheries. No added hormones or antibiotics ever. The quality is markedly better than what youll find at most grocers. Your selection is delivered flash frozen on dry ice in an insulated, 100% recyclable box.
All good. But the taste? Our experience was consistently excellent. The convenience, selection and quality had us tempted, but it was their pricing that sealed the deal. This is a subscription butcher box service done right.
Pricing: Delivery options come in two options: Medium Box or Large . The website often offers a generous incentive to get started. With the summer grilling season happening, this is the place to start!
Shipping: Your first order ships free! Products ship frozen on dry ice in a 100% recyclable box.
What Is Dry Aging
Dry aging is a meat aging process that involves exposing the meat to a controlled environment with low humidity and circulation of air.
Over a period of weeks or months, this exposure allows the natural enzymes in the meat to break down the connective tissue, resulting in a more tender and flavorful product.
Dry-aged beef is often considered superior in taste and texture to beef that has been aged using other methods, such as wet aging .
While dry aging does have some potential drawbacks , many feel that the end result is worth the effort.
If youre looking for the ultimate steak experience, dry-aged beef is definitely worth seeking out.
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The Art Of Dry Ageing
The story around dry ageing is really about improving eating quality and producing a unique complex range of flavours by storing fresh beef in a humidity and temperature controlled environment for a period of time. The art behind dry ageing is being capable to tell when the beef is at the point when the complexity of flavours is at its optimum while maintaining some juiciness.
What Makes Our Products So Special
Where we get it
You are probably wondering how we manage to be so confident about the quality and taste that we are able to provide you with. The secret lies in how we select our beef. All of our beef is selected from the top 2% of the herd, or better. Furthermore, we dry-age our USDA prime beef in-house. So, we know the effort that goes into it in order to ensure that it tastes incredible and that every mouthful is a memorable experience.
How we cut it
Weve spent almost 50 years sourcing premium beef and carving it. Our butchers are the best in the business and hand-cut and trim every steak. Its an eye for detail that makes a huge difference.
Along with promising premium quality, we also go over and above to ensure that we are able to offer a superior selection of popular beef cuts for our customers to choose from. In other words, whether you are after a tender tenderloin or a tasty tomahawk, you can rest assured that you will find it here.
Why we do it
Need any more reason to buy from Chophouse? Well, here it is. Were the exclusive local purveyor of Brant Lake Canadian Wagyu and also carry 100% authentic Japanese Wagyu. In short, when it comes to Wagyu, we know best! Because world-class steak shouldnt be reserved for steakhouses. And we want people to stop eating mediocre meat. So, we made these premium cuts of beef available online and easily accessible right here. You pick it. We package it and deliver.
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How To Select Meat For Dry
For dry-aging, you want a large cut of high-end beef. Prime rib is the best choice. Its usually available in larger cuts, and can be purchased with a fat cap which protects the meat from drying out during the aging process. The bigger the fat cap, the better protected your meat will be.
Dont buy individual steaks for dry-aging. They will dry out before 14 days which is the minimum time period for developing new flavors. Trying to dry age a single steak is like trying to make barrel-aged cocktails with just one shot. The alcohol would evaporate before you got to taste it.
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Best For Busy Lives: Butcher Box
Maybe you love to eat steak and other meat regularly? Maybe you lead a busy life and dont have time to shop? Perhaps you live somewhere without easy access to a butcher shop? Or maybe, its some combination or even all three?
My point is, there are many good reasons to have someone else do the work for you when it comes to shopping for meat.
Butcher Box is a subscription-based mail-order meat company thats ready to simplify your steak shopping. You start by choosing your plan: you can fully customize an order or select mixed protein, beef & chicken, beef & pork, or all-beef which would be the go-to for steak lovers.
Then, you choose the size of box you want to be delivered, either 811 pounds or 1622 pounds. Finally, you let them know how often to send your order: every 4, 6, or 8 weeks. Thats it!
Now you just wait for delicious steaks to start coming your way. Oh, and shipping is free to all 48 contiguous states.
So, what can you get? The example given for a curated smaller box includes:
- 2 pounds of ground beef
- 2 New York strip steaks
- 1 pound premium steak tips
- 2 pounds chuck roast
- 4 top sirloin steaks
As you can see, youll not only get steaks, but youll also get some other quality beef to cook with. Plus, you can always add on extra steaks or choose to customize your order completely.
Butcher Box offers a level of quality and convenience that might be just what youre after for a set-it-and-forget-it approach to buying steaks. No more empty freezers!
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Best For Wagyu Beef: Crowd Cow
This site was inspired by the concept of purchasing meat directly from a local farmeronly instead of having to buy, transport, and store an entire cow yourself, the animal is crowdfunded between a handful of customers. Shop by independent ranches handpicked for their practices and products, or choose a cut of beef , pork, chicken, lamb, or seafood.
There are also springtime and butcherâs specials, as well as craft meat gifts to send to the meat-lover in your life. Subscribe for free shipping and 5 percent off every order.
Meat N Bone Dry Aged Steaks
Jeremy Repanich
For the longest time, the hardest part of the steakhouse experience to replicate at home was to experience that deep, umami-packed, beefy flavor of dry-aged steak. An artisanal butcher in your city may have some selections, but they usually wouldnt age for that long. And aging at home? Thats not so easy or safe without the right equipment. But online purveyors have filled the void with amazing selections. One of the best comes from the company Meat N Bone. Its thick cowboy ribeye is aged for more than 45 days, giving it an amazing depth of flavor like youd get at your favorite steakhouse. And though the company takes pride in advertising the level of funk in this meat, it doesnt suffer from having a muddled or off flavor like some aged beef has, showing they took some care in the aging process.
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Pretty Much Every Steak You Can Imagine
Dry Aged Taster Box
Cut to our master butchers favourite size.
2x10oz Rump, 2x10oz Sirloin, 2x10oz Ribeye, 2x6oz Fillet and 2x6oz complimentary Ultimate Steak Burgers
Sharing Steaks
Our sharing steaks are cut extra large so they can serve 2 or feed the biggest appetite.
Many are cut on the bone for extra flavour and look really impressive, particularly good for BBQ.
Whole Steak Cuts
Fancy doing your own butchery, why not try one of our whole cuts.
You can even cut them as a premium roasting joint for that special occasion.
The Ultimate Burger
We only make one burger simply seasoned with Himalayan Sea Salt and Black Pepper.
Available in 3 sizes, quarter-pounder, 6oz and half-pounder
Best Mail Order Steaks In 2021
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Until recently if you wanted to buy the best quality steak you were severely limited by where you lived.
Luckily we are now spoilt for choice, with a range of specialty butcher shops delivering restaurant-quality steak online.
Even if you live in a small city, these online butchers deliver steak to your door anywhere in the continental United States.
Weve rounded up the best mail order steak companies in the country for buying steak online.
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Overview Of The Best Way To Cook Dry Aged Steak
To find out more about the dry aging process itself, read our blog posts. You can learn about the history of dry aging, the timeline of the process and some of our favorite recipes. You can see our dry age fridges and the benefits of using them such as the smart features on our dry age refrigerator product page. We hope our tips on the best way to cook dry aged steak have been useful, please get in touch if you have any questions and share your dry aged steak results with us on social media.
Wagyu Beef Kobe Beef And Aged Steaks
Dry aging transforms and concentrates the flavour of beef in the same way that wine and cheese are transformed with age. Its what gives these culinary pleasures their appealing but mysterious edgesome call it funkinessa sensory experience that hits the tongue in waves. According to Bon Appetit magazine dry aged beef is a huge trend among restaurant chefs today who are re-discovering this nearly lost art and breathing new life into the tasty tradition. Now you can try it at home.
Our Canadian dry aged beef is cared for in a temperature and humidity-controlled locker for 40 days . As moisture evaporates and the enzymes go to work on the meats protein, the meat becomes tender and gains more of that irresistible deep, rich, mouthwatering flavour. Only then are the finest striploins and tenderloins cut into our magnificent steaks.
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Buyer’s Guide On Best Mail Order Steaks
When trying each of these meat providers, we looked at a few key considerations to ensure that their steaks were truly high-caliber. These include:
- Flavor of the steaks
- Reputation of the butchers and farms
- Customer feedback
- Wide menu option
- Value for money
Because there are a lot of different steak delivery providers, it was important for us to narrow down the top providers. These key considerations allowed us to objectively name the top businesses for steaks on the internet.
The customer service at Butcher Box is only rivaled by their superior products. For anyone looking for top-quality, sustainable, humanely raised meats this is the place!- Gretchen R., Verified Better Business Bureau Reviewer
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