Talk to me about deep freezers and bulk animal meats....

[SarahEiley]

Hi all,

DH and I are thinking about purchasing a deep freezer and stocking it up. There's an abundance of local farms that will sell pastured chickens, beef and pork. We have a unique renting situation - we rent a large carriage house (gargage apartment, really) from our close friends (who live in the main house), and all 4 of us would like to go in on his together. We share a garden and would like to freeze some of our produce. We're also both expecting babies in July!! So, our plan is to make meals ahead of time to freeze. I have no idea though how much cubic space is needed for 1/2 a pig or 1/4 a cow, or whatever we end up getting. Help!!
In your experiences, when buying a 1/2 cow or a share of an animal, or whatever, what's the best way to save money? How large does the deep freeze need to be? I don't think we'd like to spend more than $400 for the freezer, so that we have more moola left for buying quality meats.

Any ideas/thoughts would be helpful!!

[littlecityfarmer]

We have this chest freezer from Sears, and it was a bit over $200 on sale a few years ago. 8.0 Cubic feet, and accommodated 1/4 cow, a dozen frozen chickens, 10 loaves of frozen sandwich bread, and a bunch of random frozen vegetables, with room to spare.

The nice thing about getting a 1/2 or 1/4 animal, at least with our farmers, is that you can custom-order different cuts of meat. We wanted chuck roasts rather than a bunch of burger, rib roast, organs, bones (for stock), etc. It was about $400 for over 200lbs of meat. Good deal, since it included a lot of expensive cuts like tenderloin and the like, that are usually $15+/pound.

Enjoy!

[dogmom327]

The rule of thumb I've seen is 5 cu ft per 1/4 side of beef. Granted, this number is a bit dependent on whether you have a stand up or chest freezer. We have a 14.7 cu ft. chest freezer and when we moved we aquired a 20 cu ft stand up freezer. To make life easier (since it was already cold), we just moved the food from our smaller freezer (which was full) into the bigger freeze--it didn't all fit. We ended up needing to use a freezer on top of a fridge to take the overflow. So while stand up freezers are more convenient, the chest freezers hold a lot more.

[cristeen]

It also depends on the breed of cow. Breeds can vary in size from full grown at 800 lbs, to full grown at 1500 lbs. Your best bet would be to locate the farm you want to buy from and ask them how much space you should need for the amount of meat you want to get, because I've seen estimates anywhere from 3 cubic feet to 6.

[mamadelbosque]

I really don't know about cows (we don't eat much beef), but I'd go for at least a 10-15' chest freezer. My dad had a 7' chest when it was just him, and that worked fine... but with all of us, we now have three freezers totally 32' and while none of them are stuffed, they are all in use. (though, as the winter goes on, they are emptying out and at some point I imagine I'll be able to clean one or the other out... probably the upright or little chest).

And its definetly true that chests hold much more than uprights just because you can REALLy stuff them full!! But, they can also be a PITA to dig through if you don't have them fairly well sorted

[MoonStarFalling]

ETA actually I think it's a 7.5. We've had 1/2 beef (around 350-400 pounds IIRC) in there OR 200 pounds of beef plus a dozen small chickens. I wish I had a stand up freezer now because it's just too hard to find anything in the chest.

[AJP]

I'd say get the biggest freezer you can afford, you will use it.

I have the biggest freezer that was available when we bought it (I think it's around 25 c.f., but forget what it is exactly - huge Whirlpool commercial model). One whole, very large (1400 lb. live weight, nearly 700 lbs. hanging weight) beef fits in it with a little room to spare, organized in boxes (which takes up more room than just dumping all the packages in loose).

IME, the most economical way to buy meat is to buy the whole animal and have it processed by a ranch butcher. You often will get a good deal from the farmer for the whole animal, and ranch butchers tend to be less wasteful than the typical USDA-inspected, disassembly-line slaughterhouse. In most states, if farmers want to sell meat by the cut (meaning not the whole animal sold while alive), the animal has to be processed and packaged by a USDA-approved facility (chickens are sometimes exempted), which means shipping the animal there alive (often a stressful experience for the animal) and not really having much control over what happens once the animal leaves the farm.

Some facilities are better than others in terms of treatment of the animals and handling of the meat, but personally I'm a lot more comfortable with the non-USDA-approved ranch butcher idea. Usually what happens is that the animal is killed at the farm in a swift, humane fashion, cleaned and halved or quartered, then taken to the butcher's facility to be aged (if applicable) and cut to your specifications. We've purchased beef both ways from the same ranch, both a smaller quantity of meat they had processed at the USDA-inspected place (a smaller local one, not a mega-slaughterhouse) and that done by the ranch butcher when we bought the whole animal. We feel so much better about the animal meeting its end while standing grazing in the pasture than having to be shipped to the slaughterhouse, plus we knew we were getting back that exact meat raised in a way we're comfortable with, and we got back so much more product because we asked the butcher to give us all the bones and scraps (for making stock and feeding to dogs).

Joel Salatin's book Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal gives a good picture of why I think the ranch butcher system is preferable to USDA-approved facilities. Here's his article with the same title, as an overview: http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/repr...tin_Sept03.pdf

[~Shanna~]

Originally Posted by AJP

I'd say get the biggest freezer you can afford, you will use it.

Yes! We got an 11.4, and I've seriously considered selling it to buy bigger. Between buying beef by the 1/4, pork by the 1/2 and a garden....I could use 2 of these freezers.

[PaulaJoAnne]

We have two chest freezers and one upright.
One is for fish, lard and fruit, and the other is for moose, bear and bones.
The upright one is for leftovers and misc.
The chest ones are outside, and remain unplugged all winter.
A good trick to keeping everything sorted and accessible, is get a bunch of milk crates.
They are sturdy and allow for fast location of specific items.
Paula

[sewingmama]

Originally Posted by ~Shanna~

Yes! We got an 11.4, and I've seriously considered selling it to buy bigger. Between buying beef by the 1/4, pork by the 1/2 and a garden....I could use 2 of these freezers.

Yes to that! I don't remember what ours is, but it looks like (from the pictures on the Sears site) it's in the 11-14 range. It's a good thing we've eaten a lot of the quarter beef we got in the fall, because I've got a bunch of fruit frozen in there, and we just got about ten whole chickens and are getting half a hog in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure it's all going to fit, and I really would love to get a second freezer! Get the biggest one you can afford.

[AuntNi]

Originally Posted by PaulaJoAnne

A good trick to keeping everything sorted and accessible, is get a bunch of milk crates.
They are sturdy and allow for fast location of specific items.

Oooh, milk crates are a good idea. We use paper file boxes, and they work fine. I get 1/2 a beef at one time, and I love storing the hamburger separate from the roasts, separate from the steaks. It's so much easier to reach in and grab something for dinner!

Another vote for buying the biggest deep freeze you can afford and can fit. I actually overbought - I got the biggest one I could find at Sears. We had to disassemble the door frame to get it in the house! But man, I love having such a huge one. Right now, we have 1/2 a beef, 1/2 a hog, and a bunch of other groceries. :

[dogmom327]

I keep an inventory on top of my freezer and cross things off as I remove them (and of course add things). Makes it so much easier when you know how many packs of short ribs are left.

[sahmama_12]

Originally Posted by AJP

I'd say get the biggest freezer you can afford, you will use it.

I have the biggest freezer that was available when we bought it (I think it's around 25 c.f., but forget what it is exactly - huge Whirlpool commercial model). One whole, very large (1400 lb. live weight, nearly 700 lbs. hanging weight) beef fits in it with a little room to spare, organized in boxes (which takes up more room than just dumping all the packages in loose).

IME, the most economical way to buy meat is to buy the whole animal and have it processed by a ranch butcher. You often will get a good deal from the farmer for the whole animal, and ranch butchers tend to be less wasteful than the typical USDA-inspected, disassembly-line slaughterhouse. In most states, if farmers want to sell meat by the cut (meaning not the whole animal sold while alive), the animal has to be processed and packaged by a USDA-approved facility (chickens are sometimes exempted), which means shipping the animal there alive (often a stressful experience for the animal) and not really having much control over what happens once the animal leaves the farm.

Some facilities are better than others in terms of treatment of the animals and handling of the meat, but personally I'm a lot more comfortable with the non-USDA-approved ranch butcher idea. Usually what happens is that the animal is killed at the farm in a swift, humane fashion, cleaned and halved or quartered, then taken to the butcher's facility to be aged (if applicable) and cut to your specifications. We've purchased beef both ways from the same ranch, both a smaller quantity of meat they had processed at the USDA-inspected place (a smaller local one, not a mega-slaughterhouse) and that done by the ranch butcher when we bought the whole animal. We feel so much better about the animal meeting its end while standing grazing in the pasture than having to be shipped to the slaughterhouse, plus we knew we were getting back that exact meat raised in a way we're comfortable with, and we got back so much more product because we asked the butcher to give us all the bones and scraps (for making stock and feeding to dogs).

Joel Salatin's book Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal gives a good picture of why I think the ranch butcher system is preferable to USDA-approved facilities. Here's his article with the same title, as an overview: http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/repr...tin_Sept03.pdf

This is us. We bought the biggest we could afford and will probably purchase another one or two soon. My husband hunts too so that adds the meat.

As for the rancher butchers, we prefer this method too, since it's technically illegal here we buy from the farmer and we cut and wrap the meat ourselves with some equipment my dad used to use on my gramma's farm. We started when we began to have some suspicions about not getting our own animal back some years from the licensed place.

[sahmama_12]

Originally Posted by dogmom327

I keep an inventory on top of my freezer and cross things off as I remove them (and of course add things). Makes it so much easier when you know how many packs of short ribs are left.

great idea! I'm stealing it!