It’s summertime and the living should be easy, so skip the trip to the grocery store and order your barbecue essentials online. Gone are the days when there was one major player – today you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to online food shopping. You can wow at your summer cookout with these meat brands from regenerative farms with ethically reared animals that, best of all, tastes great. No need to just flip burgers this year!
We were impressed not only with the quality of the food available but also with how well the food is packaged, expert customer service, and smooth delivery. Order as a one-off or several offer a subscription plan. All you need to do is fire up the grill and invite some friends
A few stand-out suppliers we featured include Porter Road, serving up pasture-raised, no hormone, no additive beef (they’ve got a great subscription plan too) and truly some of the best beef I’ve ever tasted.
Crowd Cow offers a superb selection of meat and fish, all sourced directly from the farmers and fisheries. Well packaged and excellent customer service.
And a special shout out to Acabonac Farms. When you order from Stephen Skrenta, you’re buying direct from the farmer. Located in Eastern Long Island, Acabonac Farms produces ethically reared meat that is outstanding.
Your Cookout Meat Guide for Grilling
Where to Buy Hot Dogs
Acabonac Grassfed Hotdogs: Pair with a toasted brioche hot dog bun and the condiments of your choosing. Come in packs of four with each hot dog weighing in at about a quarter of a pound each. What a hot dog should taste like.
Katz’s Deli Frankfurters: Since it opened in 1888, Katz’s Deli has been a firm favorite of New Yorkers who come for their quintessential pastrami sandwich and killer dogs. Don’t forget to order their sauerkraut too!
Kansas City Cattle Company World Famous Gourmet Wagyu Hotdog: An award-winning dog that is uncured, nitrate free, and all-beef. Go gently with cooking times as overcooking kills the delicious Wagyu flavor.
Crowd Cow Beef Hot Dogs: The hot dog that could make you feel virtuous. No sugar, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients, gluten or lactose. It’s 100% grass-fed beef and best of all, they only need a few minutes on the grill and dinner is served.
Snake River Farms Hot Dogs: Premium franks from Double R Ranch. They’re all-beef and finished off by smoking them over a blend of hardwood. This is a deli dog gone uptown.
Where to Buy Sausages
Beck & Bulow Cajun Andouille Sausages: It’s summer, so it’s only appropriate to add a little heat to your meal courtesy of master butchers Beck & Bulow and their Cajun-inspired bratwurst. Made from grass-fed bison which packs more protein than many other meats, along with lots of B-12, iron and Omega 3’s.
Acabonac Farms Pork Sicilian-style Sausages: Choose either sweet or spicy (or one of both). These sausages are made from pasture reared pigs that not only taste better but are more nutritious than factory-farmed pork. Buy extras – they’ll hang out happily in your freezer for about a year.
White Oak Pastures Grassfed Beef Sausage Bratwurst: Artisan sausages that are hand-crafted in small batches on location at White Oak Pastures. Located in rural Georgia, White Oak Pastures is not only a regenerative farm but also stores more carbon in the soil than their cows emit. Great food and a great reason to buy from them.
Porter Road Memphis BBQ Links: Inspired by traditional Memphis barbecue but in sausage form, these one-third pound links are seasoned with barbecue spices, scallion, garlic, vinegar, and brown sugar. They have a natural casing so start them low and slow to reduce the chance of bursting.
Snake River Farms Wagyu Smoked Beef Sausage: These smoked beef sausages from SRF are fully cooked so all you need to do is sear them on the grill and serve them up. Come in packs of twelve.
Good Chop Pork Chorizo Sausage: Choose from one of three plans (medium, large and extra large) and then get shopping. Make sure and include some of their chorizo sausage in your shopping art. We love it served on a crusty roll with arugula, roasted peppers, and a slather of garlic aioli.
Where to Buy Burgers
Porter Road Smash Burger Blend: The folks at Porter Road folks started with the classic, dry-aged ground beef burger and gave it a twist. It’s a 70/30 blend so can stand the heat of your barbecue without drying out. They say the higher fat content softens the meat ‘for optimal smooshing’. Who are we to argue?
Holy Grail Wagyu, Brisket, Short-Rib Burger: Could this be the ultimate burger blend? Sourced from Tajima American Wagyu, these 8 ounce burgers are blended with brisket, short-rib, and sirloin meat for an enticing combination of flavor, texture, and fat.
Kansas City Cattle Company Black Angus Burger Patties: Black Angus beef at its finest from the Kansas City Cattle Company – a veteran-owned business—and the folks at Little Belt Cattle Company.
Crowd Cow Burger Patties: A third of a pound patties from beef raised at Royal Ranch Farms in Washington. Pasture-raised beef, finished on local grains and grasses – this is the perfect addition to your summer do.
Rastelli’s Grass-Fed Beef Butcher Burgers: If you like a leaner burger, then this one is for you. They offer a curated and a custom box offering (with the custom, you built your own box). They’ve been in the business for over 50 years in South Jersey so know their beef (and seafood too).
Where to Buy Steak
Perini Ranch Ribeye: What Perini Ranch doesn’t know about steak, isn’t worth knowing. Their 16 oz. certified Angus ribeye is a must for the well-dressed barbecue.
Beck & Bulow Bison New York Strip Steak: For a steak with a difference, go for Beck & Bulow’s bison New York Strip Steak. Sear it on each side and go for rare or medium rare to get the most flavor and juiciness. Sublime.
Snake River Farms Tomahawk Steak: This thick, bone-in USDA Choice ribeye is a showstopper.
Holy Grail Tajima American Wagyu Dry-Aged Strip Steaks: When you want to splurge, this is the steak for you. Tajima Prestige is Holy Grail’s top of the line America Wagyu. These pampered cattle are fed a proprietary Japanese Wagyu diet but with Midwest ingredients. The result is a rich, luxurious steak.
Porter Road Bone-in Ribeye: Indulge yourself with this well-marbled steak that needs nothing more than a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a generous kiss of fire.
Vermont Wagyu Hanger Steak: Hanger steak should get more headlines – less expensive and full of flavor when cooked well. Quick, high heat is the key!
Where to Buy Other Proteins
Beck & Bulow Kurobuta/Berkshire Pork Tenderloin: Lean yet marbled, this pork tenderloin is joy to barbecue. Cooking over open fire brings out its exceptional texture and unsurpassed flavor. Meticulously trimmed and hand-cut, all this wants is perhaps a quick marinade or herb rub.
Porter Road Chicken Wings: Stick them on the grill first, give them a lick of barbecue sauce, and serve them up while you get on with the main event. These in come in 2-2 ½ pound packs – perfect for summer entertaining.
Crowd Cow Bison Burgers: 100% pasture raised, 1/3 pound patties (to my mind the perfect size). A welcome change from the standard burger.
Kansas City Cattle Company Fantasma’s Berkshire Pork St. Louis Style Ribs: Pasture-raised Berkshire Pork comes with a whole rack per pack. It’s a meatier cut and perfect for some outdoor grilling.
Wild Alaska Company Wild Salmon Box: Wild Alaska offers fantastic fish that you can order through their box program. Their Wild Salmon box includes Coho and Sockeye Salmon in six-ounce portions. Perfect when you want to skip the beef.
White Oak Pastures Chicken Thighs: These bone-in chicken thighs come from lovingly reared, pasture raised chickens, as is everything from White Oak Pasture. Thighs stay moister than chicken breasts and can stand up to the heat of a BBQ.
Story by Julia Platt Leonard
Photo by Pablo Merchan
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