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I’m not the type to spend a ton of money on the organic brand at the grocery store. I actually buy the cheaper store brand more often than not. There are very few things I’m really that particular about, but good meat is one of them.
I can’t stand the thought of greasy, poor-quality beef in a plastic tube, and I certainly don’t want a steak that tastes like a hockey puck. That’s why I’ve been trying meat delivery services, and their popularity is certainly rising.
There are a lot of them to choose from, so you won’t be disappointed by your selection. You’ll just be disappointed you can’t have them all. There are options for beef steak, pork, chicken, lamb, turkey, barbeque, bison, seafood, jerky, snacks, and even exotic meats.
You even have other options with certain delivery services, like which farm your meat came from, how it was raised, what kind of diet it was fed, how it was dried or cured, and so much more. These services have opened a whole wide world of meats you didn’t even know you wanted.
Criteria to Judge a Meat Delivery Service
It’s now easier than ever to find high quality meats online can get them delivered to your doorstep within days.
But how do I judge the best meat delivery services?
What are their meat sourcing standards? Are they transparent & traceable?
How rungs removed are they from the supply source?
How frequently do they run out of stock?
How do their prices compare to competitors online?
How are their meats packaged to preserve freshness?
How long does it take to ship to various parts of the US?
What is their range of cuts & range of meat grades available?
Do they offer additional meat certifications & standards?
Lastly (but not least), did we enjoy their cuts?
Porter Road
Porter Road is located in Nashville, and they offer cuts that are locally sourced from Tennessee and Kentucky. All of their prime beef is pasture-raised, grass-fed, and grain-finished. It’s also antibiotic and hormone-free, with room to graze and roam.
However, they also offer pork, lamb, and chicken. Everything is shipped in a box with corn-based foam insulation, so you can use it as kindling for your grill as you get ready to sear your steaks to perfection.
Almost everything is shipped fresh, but some cuts will be shipped frozen. Order everything a la carte, to get exactly what you want, and choose from pork chops, strip steaks, ribeyes, filet mignon, or ground beef. You may also want to try something a little more unconventional, like lamb T-bones, andouille sausage, or Denver steak.
They also offer a variety of butcher boxes that have a pre-selected assortment of what they consider their best. It arrives on a two, four, or eight-week cadence, depending on how often you’d like fresh meat.
You can also add more items to your subscription for a week or put a bird on it (their words), if you feel like having some chicken. You’ll find boxes ranging from $50 to $130 depending on the quantity and the cuts. They have a grill master box, a breakfast box, a ‘best of’ box, and so much more.
People rave about the quality of the meat, the selection, and the customization options. They’re a great choice if you want a huge variety of meats delivered on a monthly basis.
Snake River Farms
Snake River Farms is known for its American Wagyu beef. It has rich marbling and is humanely raised in the Northwest. They also have heritage breed Kurobuta Berkshire pork that they source from small family farms in Idaho and the Midwest.
If you’re not feeling so exotic, you can stick to their dry-aged USDA Prime beef. They’re also sustainably and humanely raised in the Northwest. They promote rotational grazing to keep pasture grass on a healthy cycle, they compost cattle waste, and they use beef tallow for fuel.
They ship in a foam box that you can dissolve and use as plant food, compost in your own garden, or use as a firestarter for your grill. They also give back via a Beef Counts membership, where they give food to needy families.
Snake River Farms doesn’t offer a recurring subscription, but you can order everything a la carte, from American Wagyu tomahawk steaks to baby back ribs, and everything in between. Their Wagyu offering ranges from Gold Grade, which is the best and most expensive, to Black grade, which is still delicious but takes a smaller bite out of your wallet.
They also have filet mignon, ribeye, porterhouse, Wagyu burgers, and pork bacon. If you’d rather, you can select a variety pack curated by an expert chef.
Everything is frozen and vacuum-sealed for shipping and you can choose how much you’d like to pay for shipping, depending on how quickly you’d like to receive it.
Crowd Cow
Crowd Cow is also dedicated to sustainably raised meat, but they source theirs from all over the world. Their aim is to get the meat from the location where it grows best. They have a selection of cuts from independent ranches and small farms from around the globe.
They have both American and Japanese Wagyu, chicken, pork, lamb, and bison. If you love to surf and turf, they also have sustainable seafood. The incredibly unique thing about this service is that you can search for your meat by type or by the farm.
If you want a ribeye, narrow your search criteria for ribeyes from a variety of farms and ranches. However, if you like the way one particular ranch operates and raises its meat, you can search their selection alone.
They offer their meats a la carte or you can choose a subscription box. Not surprisingly, their prices are quite high, because of the quality of the meat here. It’s a great option if you’re wanting to splurge every now and then, but most people can’t afford to get it shipped on the regular.
They ship everything frozen in a 100% recyclable container made from compostable materials, labeled with the farm it came from. It adds a great deal of transparency to the items you consume, which a lot of people love.
Rastelli’s
There once was a small butcher shop in New Jersey, dedicated to serving the local community, but its goal was always to focus on premium meats driven by their love of delicious, healthy food. Thus started Rastelli’s.
Now, they ship their beef, seafood, and poultry across the entire country and source from farms in the United States that raise their meat responsibly and free of hormones, steroids, and antibiotics. That includes the wild-caught, sustainably raised Faroe Island salmon.
While you can shop a la carte, they use a different ordering model, which makes it the best option for building your own box. As you choose the steaks you want, it’s added to a box that you curate yourself. You can add as many or as few as you’d like. Either order them once or save 5% by creating the subscription you just built.
They do also offer butcher boxes specially curated by the team if you’d rather select one of those.
Holy Grail Steak Co.
Holy Grail Steak Co. also has an impressive list of quality options like American and Japanese Wagyu, Hokkaido snow beef, and Kobe beef. In fact, their Japanese Wagyu is classified as A5-grade, which is among the top 1% in quality.
You can browse their collections of American Wagyu, Japanese Wagyu, Akaushi, USDA Prime Black Angus, Wagyu burgers, and steak flights online. It’s awesome, but it’s not cheap, so if you want a lot of quality beef, this is the best place to order bulk.
You get free shipping on orders of $200 or more, which isn’t hard given that a 12 pounds Wagyu burger is $199.
Alderspring Ranch
Alderspring Ranch is another premium meat delivery service much like Holy Grail Steak Co. They source their beef from, well, themselves! They operate their own ranch, raise their own cattle, and process their own meat.
They use every bit of the cow and any excess goes back into their farming operations for a sustainable program that has very little waste. Everything is USDA-certified organic, and if it’s not, it’s heavily discounted for you.
They also have other meats like chicken and pork that they source from local farmer friends whose operations they trust. You’ll find dog and cat food, too! It’s pricey, but worth it if you worry about where your meat comes from.
Cooks Venture
Founder and CEO, Matt Wadiak, aims to improve the farming and feeding process for poultry, and then bring it to the industry at scale. Their heirloom chicken is healthy, delicious, and bred to be biologically sound. There’s no genetic farming here.
In fact, if you’re looking specifically for poultry, this is your best option. They don’t offer any a la carte options, but they do have a chicken box, a beef box, and a combination box. Their website also indicates that they’ll soon have lamb, pork, and seafood.
However, they also offer more than poultry. They have pasture-raised beef and a butcher box that contains strips, skirt steaks, brisket, and ground beef. They offer free shipping on all orders, too.
FarmFoods Market
Rather than create an expensive online marketplace for their artisan meats, FarmFoods Market partners with butchers to sell products directly to the consumer. They have a huge selection of cuts that span more than just steak and chicken.
They offer duck, ostrich, lamb, wagyu, seafood, rabbit, elk, bison, venison, antelope, wild boar, and yak.
You can shop a la carte with whatever meat you need and it will give you details on how the meat was raised. While others, like Crowd Cow, will tell you which farm the meat came from, FarmFoods isn’t as transparent as it could be. Many times, what you choose will indicate it came from multiple farms.
Luckily, most beef is grass-fed and grass-finished. And if you’re looking for a huge variety and cuts of meat that are hard to find elsewhere, you’ll have good luck here. They even offer bulk meats at wholesale prices for those who run restaurants or simply want to stock up. Any order $99 or more gets free shipping.
Omaha Steaks
Omaha Steaks is the original meat delivery service. They started as a small butcher shop in Omaha, Nebraska more than 100 years ago, and began shipping their meats via the Union Pacific trains that ran straight through town.
While these steaks won’t fall into the top 1% of beef, they offer a great value. Omaha Steaks is affordable and delicious. Plus, their offering goes beyond just ordering cuts of meat. They have appetizers, sides, desserts, snacks, wines, and meal boxes.
They have both grain and grass-fed beef, grass-fed beef with a grain finish, and plenty of other tasty things to choose from. You probably won’t find organic, all-natural, completely antibiotic-free options here, but for those who aren’t that picky, it’s one of the best services you can get.
They are still family-owned after all these years, and they have great customer service. Everything is sourced from local Midwest farms. They also offer butcher services that allow you to speak directly with the butcher and order exactly what you want.
ButcherBox
This meat delivery service offers strictly subscriptions. There’s no a la carte ordering here. They have three different proteins and their emphasis is on 100% grass-fed, pasture-raised Australian beef.
Australian beef is one of the most well-regulated types of beef in the world, but this company also does heritage pork raised in open pastures on a strict vegetarian diet as well as free-range organic chicken with no hormones or antibiotics.
You can choose from an all-beef box, a beef and chicken box, a beef and pork box, a mixed box, or a custom box. There are two different sizes based on the number of portions you need, and plans start at about $130 per shipment.
Everything is frozen and vacuum-sealed for shipping. They also offer promotions from time to time, so keep an eye out for great deals.
ButcherBox delivers 100% grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, humanely raised pork, and wild-caught seafood directly to your door. Sign up today!
Carnivore Club
Carnivore Club is another subscription service, but they offer mostly snack-style meats like dried and cured sausage links or jerky. They have several boxes you can choose from like the snack box, the classic box, or the jerky box.
They also have salami samplers, a wild game meat sampler, keto meat snacks, jerky samplers, gluten-free meat snacks, and charcuterie. For fun, you can also shop their accessory department containing fun things like butcher knives, cheese boards, and more.
You can pace your deliveries four or eight weeks apart, and they come fresh because everything has already been dried and cured. Nothing needs to be refrigerated or frozen.
Thrive Market
Thrive Market is an online grocery provider that sells all kinds of things. For an annual membership fee, you can order things at wholesale prices. They have the meats, but they also sell snacks, marinades, and even things like paper towels.
They also have meat and seafood boxes, so if you’d like to give it a try before you buy, you can sign up for a 30-day trial. They guarantee you’ll make your money back in savings if you order from them throughout the year. If you don’t, you get store credit for the difference.
They offer grass-fed, free-range beef, organic chicken, pasture-raised pork, and sustainably farmed seafood. They don’t sell their meat a la carte, so you have to get a bundle if you order, but you get free shipping on all orders over $49.
What is a Meat Delivery Service?
Meat delivery services are services that deliver meat to your front door. That’s really all I needed to know. But for inquiring minds, here’s a bit more information. You go to their website, shop for what you want, put it in the cart, and it’s shipped to your door.
There are several different types of meal delivery services. A lot of them specialize in their own niche, some have other things you can order besides meat, and a few offer subscription boxes delivered at regular intervals.
If you’re ready to dive in but you don’t know where to start, here are some of the most popular, highly-rated options. The types of meat, prices, services, shipping, and other factors vary, but you’re sure to find the next thing you want to try.
FAQ
If you’re looking for the best meat delivery services, there’s no shortage of options. I didn’t even list them all here. There are plenty more. These frequently asked questions may help you make a better decision.
Answer: This question can’t be answered unless you know what you want. Every meat delivery service specializes in something. Porter Road is likely the best option if you want your meat to be the freshest, Crowd Cow has the best variety, Fossil Farms offers the best exotic cuts, and Snake River Farms is great for buying in bulk.
Of course, if you want a box, look at ButcherBox or Carnivore club, if you want to support a family-owned company, try Omaha Steaks or Alderspring Ranch, and if you want to look at some things I didn’t include on this list, there’s DeBragga and D’Artagnan Foods.
Answer: If you’re looking specifically for steak, the best options are Snake River Farms, Holy Grail Steak Co., Fossil Farms, Rastelli’s Chicago Steak Company, or Kansas City Steak Company.
Once again, each will have different pricing, quality, and cuts, so you’ll have to do your research before you decide.
Answer: Wagyu directly translates to Japanese cow, so cattle must be raised in Japan to fall into this category. Kobe beef makes up a very small portion of this category. Due to the very strict standards placed on Kobe beef, only 3000 head of cattle a year will qualify.
While Wagyu is delicious, Kobe beef is even better. They’re both very expensive, due to the care, feeding, selection, and extra effort farmers go to in raising them.
Answer: Wagyu beef is generally regarded as the best beef in the world when it comes to quality, marbling, and taste. Wagyu beef comes from four different strains of European cattle:
– Japanese Black cattle were originally working cattle and are prized for their intense marbling.
– Japanese Brown are leaner and healthier and have a light, mild taste.
– Japanese Shorthorn cattle are also lean, but rich in glutamic acid, giving them a more savory flavor.
– Japanese Polled cattle are similar in leanness but have a gamier texture along with a rich, meaty taste.
Over 90% of Wagyu comes from the Japanese Black strain, so you can almost guarantee that when you order it, this is the breed you’re getting.
Answer: Wagyu beef is generally regarded as the best beef in the world when it comes to quality, marbling, and taste. Wagyu beef comes from four different strains of European cattle:
– Japanese Black cattle were originally working cattle and are prized for their intense marbling.
– Japanese Brown are leaner and healthier and have a light, mild taste.
– Japanese Shorthorn cattle are also lean, but rich in glutamic acid, giving them a more savory flavor.
– Japanese Polled cattle are similar in leanness but have a gamier texture along with a rich, meaty taste.
– Over 90% of Wagyu comes from the Japanese Black strain, so you can almost guarantee that when you order it, this is the breed you’re getting.
Final Thoughts
The best meat delivery service for you will depend on what you’re looking for, whether is an affordable price, a particular cut, or responsible farming practices. No matter what, you have a lot of options just waiting for you to try.
These are some of the best options out there if you’ve been asking about “where to buy meat online?”. But if you find one of your own, don’t hesitate to test it and see if you like it!
ButcherBox delivers 100% grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, humanely raised pork, and wild-caught seafood directly to your door. Sign up today!