Where do you get your meat?


 
this site has made me such a meat snob.... which is a good thing. I use to always buy meat at walmart/kroger etc. I cooked my first prime dry aged ribeye from a butcher in town. I almost lost it when the price was $24/lb but man you can taste the difference!
I may offend a few people here but when I cook chicken or pork butt I go to walmart or kroger. I don't think pork or chicken taste that different plus stuff like pork butt you are cooking for 10+ hours.
I would rather buy one prime ribeye and split it with my old lady then buy a lesser grade steak so we can each have our own...
 
I buy my Loin Back Ribs at Costco (more meat on them than ANY of the competitors. I buy most other pork products (smoked pork chops, Boston Butts, pork chops, etc.) at a family owned super market in Brookville, In (Rosenberger's) as well as beef roasts and ground beef. That's where I also get my Pork Steak (Rosenberger's has four or five meat cutters on duty at all times). I just have them custom cut a whole Bone-In Boston Butt up into 3/4" thick steaks for the grill. Hoosier's raise GOOD hogs. Salmon and Steelhead (regularly plank cook them) are bought at Costco. Jungle Jim's also has a good selection of general stuff and certainly is the center for exotica of all kinds. Jungle Jim's has all kinds of ethnic meats and foods. Trader Joe's has many interesting items, too. Walmart has been my "go to" for small corned beef brisket that I use to make Faux Pastrami.

Living in SW Ohio (about 20 miles north of Cincinnati) gives me many, many choices. Other than maybe, just maybe, extremely large cities like New York or Los Angeles, we have a terrific selection of a variety of meats and other groceries at decent prices. We are blessed!

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
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Love costco's pork and seafood. No whole packer briskets here in so cal and the regular ones are bleh. I have gotten whole foods pork butt and it is excellent. Their steaks are great too. My local Costco just started selling prime rib eye steaks and haven't tried them. They look great though.
 
Clint said:
KCBS card works too.

http://www.kcbs.us/join.php
Click to expand...

Thanks again for the tip, Clint. I just got off the phone with regional administration to set one of the store mangers straight. I called a local store to confirm if they participate, and after being passed around, I got a semi-rude manager who just gave me a straight "NO"... They should now be aware at that particular store....
 
Just walk in, present your KCBS member card, and request a day pass. At my RD in San Jose, they hunt and peck around on the computer, sorting through old KCBS accounts, until they finally find the current, active one, then they give me the pass. I don't think it's a matter of each location choosing to participate.
 
Chris Allingham said:
Just walk in, present your KCBS member card, and request a day pass. At my RD in San Jose, they hunt and peck around on the computer, sorting through old KCBS accounts, until they finally find the current, active one, then they give me the pass. I don't think it's a matter of each location choosing to participate.
Click to expand...

Will do, once my card gets in. The lady at admin was really helpful and to call back if I have any issues getting in.

I can't wait!
 
I prefer working with a local place as often as I can, there is a small meat processing place about forty minutes away and if a need something "important" I go there. They are also the only place where I can find "caul fat" in small amounts for special projects. Chicken? Actually, Meijer stores are pretty consistent, I like a locals like "Hardings" or "D&W" for the obvious "support your local" reasoning. Earth Fare has just recently opened and I'm not fond of walking through the door and smelling fish! I used to work with a guy who had been a fish monger in NYC who told me "If you smell fish in a fish store, leave!" Truly fresh fish does not smell. I have used that reasoning when buying fish and been quite happy!
 
I think that it REALLY depends upon where you live.

Some cuts of meat are virtually unheard-of in certain parts of the country (Tri-Tips seem pretty difficult to scrounge-up around here, except for Costco). Probably due to "if it doesn't sell / people don't ask for it / there is no point in stocking it"

We have an EXCELLENT old-school neighborhood grocery store with a killer meat department that has "meat guys" who know what the heck they're doing. In some cases, they're a bit more pricey, but they take good care of me as a regular customer and can get (or cut) stuff for me that is hard to find around here.

Some small-towns have local slaughter / butcher businesses who can get you almost anything you want - so IMHO, the SIZE of your town is not as much of a factor as regional preferences and styles and city vs rural.

What I've found to be MOST useful is - Get on good terms with a local butcher who you trust. THAT will pay dividends in a meat-oriented hobby:)
 
Ron, at which Costco are you seeing tri-tips at?
I've been to Kenosha and shop the new joint in New Berlin now but haven't seen tris at either.
 
It was a while ago, but I got some at the Pewaukee store - the meat guy there said that they don't always have them.
When I asked the guys at Bunzel's, they said that they can get some if I would like.
 
I'm a country club manager and deal with very good, high quality meat and seafood purveyors who let me have the chef order up my briskets, butts, brats, prime burgers and steaks and I cut them a check directly. The chef always does any trimming needed, so all I have to do is build a fire in the WSM, sit back and wait for BBQed greatness! But a country club manager's schedule doesn't leave too many days a month for low and slow, so it's mostly High Heat for me.
 
I shop at Costco, Restaurant Depot, and GFS here in Indy. No membership required at GFS, they have good prices and I have found them very willing to help me find the best meat, especially ribs.
 
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