We decided to carve out some freezer space and buy a quarter cow, dropping all our meat budget for a while all in one go. It ended up being something like $400 for the cow and just shy of $200 for the processing, and we loaded two shelves of our standalone freezer with 112 lbs of meat. We were offered various organs/offal and bones, and opted to go with an oxtail but no bones as we're not in a space to go stocking right now, but a single soup using the oxtail sounded manageable. I kinda regret not getting tongue. Half our load is ground, and the rest is mostly varous roast cuts and some Extremely Wide T-bones.
The other day I used the last of our Not Fancy ground beef on some chillimac and yesterday we made some tacos with The Good Stuff. I was wowed with the tacos, and then just had some of the leftover chillimac for lunch and. Yeah. Wow OK!!! this beef is So Good.
Even raw there's a marked difference between the two--the fancy beef is far darker, more richly colored, and is noticeably peppered with fat vs being a consistent extruded pink. But cooked, Man. It's got a much fuller texture, a tender bite, and the flavor is just significantly more. There's depth and nuance that makes every bite far more engaging, a richness that's Very Satisfying. It's Good!!!
There's also something here about food, Fine things, and inequality I don't fully know how to articulate. Until this year I have only ever been poor or Very Poor (and sometimes Very Very Very poor) and spending a little extra on something to upgrade to the Nice version or buying a staple in such a large quantity has generally been either out of reach or a far more significant investment compared to my total income and. Man. Nice food should be for everyone. I'm extremely grateful for this cow.