The Online Steak Retailer That Replaced My Butcher
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Shop Now $12 and up, snakeriverfarms.com
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Since moving to the big city, I’ve only had one real issue. There isn't a butcher shop in my neighborhood that works for me. I’ve got a fish market, corner store, and grocery store. But I’m in a goldilocks situation with my butchers. There’s none on my block. And while I’m not opposed to a 20 minute walk with a bag of meat, for the price I pay for any steak in 2023, I want a little bit more. So what did I do? I tuened to Snake River Farms and bought the best steak of my life—off the internet, shipped to my door.
The Meat Ships Quick
As an East Coast editor, I obviously don’t own a car. All my groceries have to be bought in small quantities, and I've gotta be able to carry them by hand. The butcher shop model I grew up with—a Saturday drive to a country store to load a cooler up with sausage and good cuts of beef—isn’t what I’m working with these days. If I’m going to the butcher, I’m walking 20 minutes with steaks or taking a train for sausage. (I've got two different spots).
Snake River Farms takes that whole retrieval aspect out. I’m not joking, it’s as easy and as reliable as shopping on Amazon (maybe even better). Scroll for what you want, add to cart, and there it comes via express shipping. When it gets to your doorstep, it’s still frozen and packed nicely in ice. The logistics blows my mind.
Shop Now $12 and up, snakeriverfarms.com
The Quality Is Incredible
Alright, the most important part of this equation is the quality. The meat that Snake River Farms sells is really, really good. Like, it's in Michelin star restaurants for a reason.
The brand has a whole section on its site dedicated to talking about its herd, which is built on the genes of the Japanese Wagyu bull named Fukutsuru. (A prized bull with his own damn Wikipedia page.) Like when racehorses are bred from serial winners, the same is done with cows. Snake River Farms brought Fukutsuru and a handful of other Japanese bulls to America and started one of our country’s best Wagyu breeding programs.
The result of that breeding is that every cut on the Snake River Farms website is technically higher grade than USDA Prime—which is the highest grade in America’s ranking system. That means the brand has to grade itself, and it does so with a scale reminiscent of Japan’s Wagyu standards, which are the most strict in the world.
Shop Now $12 and up, snakeriverfarms.com
It's A Better Way to Buy Beef
Living nowhere near a functioning farm, this is as certain as I can be on my beef. Snake River Farms raises the cows. They process the beef. They ship it to my doorstep. It’s a throwback, and it's as close as I will get to the way my parents grew up: Raise an animal, send it to a butcher, get it back for Christmas dinner.
The result is of that animal wellbeing and general quality is that every steak I get becomes the best steak I’ve ever had. And I’m just an amateur cook, barely even a hobbyist. Throw it in a cast iron or over some charcoal, and don’t fuss over it too much. That American Wagyu will cover up all your cooking flaws. It’s so easy to buy, so easy to cook, and I know I’m supporting a venerable operation that cares about it’s cattle and consumer. Maybe it won’t be my everyday butcher, but for the handful of important dinners I have a year, I’ll forever turn to Snake River Farms. You should too.
Shop Now $12 and up, snakeriverfarms.com
Photography by Joe Lingeman. Prop styling by Heather Greene.
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