ButcherBox: Your Monthly Shipment Of High-Quality Meat

Even if you live near a reputable butcher shop, stocking up on a month's worth of meat in one go can pose a challenge. We recently had the opportunity to sample ButcherBox, a service that will ship you a whole bunch of high-quality beef, pork, and chicken (or a combination thereof) every month, and we were very impressed with the quality of the product.

The folks behind ButcherBox have sought out some top-quality meat sourced from a collective of small farms, which they'll ship to your door every month for a set price. Beef is 100 percent grass fed and grass finished. Chickens are both free range organic and pastured; pastured chickens spend their entire lives foraging in the field. Pork is predominantly comprised of Duroc, Berkshire, and Red Wattle heritage breeds. All animals are humanely raised and antibiotic- and hormone-free. This is the good stuff.

Boxes start at $129 (with free shipping), which will get you 8-10 pounds of beef, pork, and chicken; chicken and pork; beef and pork; beef and chicken; or 7-9 pounds of all beef. My box, which contained all three, arrived perfectly frozen in dry ice.

While the provenance of the meat and the shipping technique were all second-to-none, I must admit that I was a little disappointed by what I actually received: four packages of shredded pork shoulder "for fajitas," two of very thinly-sliced beef, two of ground beef, one of steak tips, and one of chicken tenders. Recipe cards were supposed to be included, but I didn't receive any. For $129, I was hoping to receive a steak, a pork chop, or at least one intact piece of meat aside from the tenders. When I inquired into why this didn't happen, I was pointed to the website, where "add-on items" like two ten-ounce ribeyes ($25) and two 10-ounce NY strips ($25) appeared to be only available as supplementary additions; it's unclear if you'll receive any if you just order the basic box. The fact that we're not allowed to select what we want in our box is detrimental; I'm not sure why I needed four packages of shredded pork shoulder, and the thin-sliced beef was good for sandwiches but not much else.

That said, the flavor and quality of the meat that I received was quite good; you can really taste the difference. So if you're okay with dropping $129 a month on a grab-bag of meat and are okay with gambling on the luck of the draw (or have enough money to splurge on add-ons), ButcherBox can be a convenient way to get a month's worth of some of the highest quality meat you'll find anywhere.