Planning for a few weeks - what to order?

[intrigued]

Hey all.  So I'm planning on making a large-ish order for my first stab at this and I'm hoping for some help.  I want to try to get enough for a few weeks to a month and see how this works for me.  I'm planning on ordering from here - http://store.vermontgrassfedbeef.com/index.html .  In addition to what's on their site, I'm told they can get marrow bones, beef suet, and pork fat.  I'm hoping for some direction in how to approach this.  I'm trying to keep it on the cheaper side if possible. 

I'm thinking I would mostly just stock up on top round/eye round/bottom round roasts, and maybe throw in some steaks to try some different stuff.  Maybe also some liver to try.  I would want to get a bunch of suet too, and some marrow bones, but I'm not entirely sure on these.

Anyway, here's what my list is looking like...

~50 lbs worth of roasts
~30 lbs suet
lbs marrow bones
few lbs of steaks
2 lbs lamb stew meat
2 lbs beef stew meat
2lb beef liver
2lb beef heart

I plan on getting the order fresh and freezing what I'm not eating right away.  I know some are against this, but I need to keep this relatively cost effective.  What do you think, is this a good start?  Am I missing something/what would you change?  How much marrow bones would you get?

[CitrusHigh]

Heart meat is pretty close to other muscle meat in flavor and texture, just more tender IMO, but it's usually around the same price as liver, ie cheap. So when keeping with a budget (this is how I stay in my budget but eat lavishly) heart is a great substitute for more expensive muscle meats, plus probably more nutritious and will provide the raw material to help your heart be it's healthiest.

I'd get all different cuts of meat and one point or another just to become familiar with them for knowledge sake, but once you've done that, for budget sake you can stick with the cheapest cuts, it's cooking that makes meat tough (save for wet cooking) so if you're eating it raw it's pretty tender anyway, or you can tenderize it if you want it even softer.

Marrows and organs are usually your cheapest AND most nutrient dense cuts, so if you like them, go for them, your body will thank you big time.

Muscle meats are great, but people got confused and started paying the most for the least nutritious meats and treating the organs almost as waste (or sometimes actually as such!)

Also this link http://agriculturesociety.com/politics-and-food/questions-to-ask-your-farmer-know-whats-in-your-food/
might be helpful for making sure that farm is doing things right. Some places spray chemicals on their pastures, so grass fed doesn't always mean clean.

And you'll have to get used to that when sourcing foods. If you're not very specific with your questions you may not be getting what you think you are. Unfortunately our food system is fvcked and so you have to really do your homework if you want purity.

Good Luck! MmmM marrow enjoy!

[eveheart]

I'm thinking I would mostly just stock up on top round/eye round/bottom round roasts, and maybe throw in some steaks to try some different stuff.  Maybe also some liver to try.  I would want to get a bunch of suet too, and some marrow bones, but I'm not entirely sure on these.... Anyway, here's what my list is looking like...

~50 lbs worth of roasts
~30 lbs suet
lbs marrow bones
few lbs of steaks
2 lbs lamb stew meat
2 lbs beef stew meat
2lb beef liver
2lb beef heart

Is this for one person? It sounds like a lot for one, unless you're a major eater. No matter, though, if you freeze, you don't have to worry too much about that.

So, my feedback:
Do you LOVE suet? If so, then I have no comment. I do not like suet at all.
Steaks are more $$ than roasts. I would keep the roasts (my favorites) you listed, and forget the steaks.
As a marrow eater, I find that I eat the marrow out of about one or two beef femur bones per week.
A roast is easy to deal with - let's say you eat one roast per week, you can slice off each portion - so I'd forget the stew meat.

Hope this helps. Enjoy!

[CarnivorousApe]

I tried lamb liver, it's great.
Plus tongues - beef and lamb - really cheap and probably the best meat there is.

[CitrusHigh]

Oh yeah, I'd go easy on the suet. It's one thing if you have all of the buttery, creamy succulent, tender suet, but if you get the chalky stuff  you are going to probably be pretty bummed you bought that much! Imagine the delightful taste of oily chalk, not my cup o' tea!

[intrigued]

Hey, so yeah, this would all be for me.  Again, the intent is to get enough for a few weeks to a month to save on shipping.  I would freeze whatever I wasn't eating right away.

I was making a few assumptions from what I've read of others here.  First, people said they were eating 2lbs of meat a day, give or take a fair amount.  As a 6'4" male, I'm assuming I'll be at least on the average side of consumption.    One roast (3lb) per week sounded really unreasonable compared to what I'd heard, but maybe you folks have different experiences?

I'm also going on assumptions from http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/general-discussion/meat-to-fat-ratio-(how-much-you-eat)/msg88592/#msg88592 about getting a decent amount of suet, and maybe eating roughly as much fat as meat.  Does that not sound right?  I don't know the prices on these 2 items, but I expect the marrow bones would be more expensive, especially considering the weight of the bone.

I will consider dropping off the steaks and adding some more heart and some tongue.  The stew meat I mostly just wanted to try because it was slightly cheaper than the roasts, and I figured it'd be even slightly easier to eat than the roasts, as long as it wasn't way tougher or something.

I guess I'll think about just chopping it in half or so, and just try to get enough for more like 2-3 weeks, so then I can try more stuff without over committing.

[intrigued]

Well the order is in.  I should be getting it tuesday or wednesday.  I'll let you know how it goes!

[intrigued]

They actually ended up not being able to get me any suet, but they actually WERE able to get me regular beef fat.  It's pretty much just a cut of fatty beef except the proportions are reversed (almost all fat, just a little meat).  Seems like this is probably perfect. 

I also had my first raw marrow.  The bones they gave me I think are pretty marrow rich... not sure how they could be any richer.  The marrow in them is white and a little crumbly but eating it was very buttery/oily.  It was pretty tasty but there's definitely some deeply ingrained pieces in my brain saying "you can't eat raw meat".  Half the time I'm enjoying it and the other half almost feels like I want to gag... but it's not at all from the taste or anything.  I can tell it's purely mental.  I ate about half out of a 5-6" section, and the rest went to the cat/dogs, who had 0 problems.

Anyway, I know the board feelings against it, but my plan is to do combo cooked paleo and raw paleo.  Doing the cooked paleo I think is going to be a big step up in diet for my gf, and I will work in some raw for myself and slowly try to increase that percentage.

Oh, and having got a couple pounds of tongue... that's going to take a bit of working up to.  Is there some trick to it?  Do you cut off a layer from it?  Small chance it might end up going to the dogs if I'm not feeling up to it this time around.  I doubt I'll have any problem with heart.

[TylerDurden]

Some people like to cut off the tip of the tongue and the outer layer of the tongue as well as the darker, purplier, stringier  part underneath. My solution, as a newbie, was to age the tongue outside the fridge for 2-3 days so it would soften enough. Then i would cut off the darker part and eat the pink, slablike part including the outer skin. After a couple of years, I ended up enjoying the taste of the entire raw tongue and threw nothing away any more.