What to expect when you’re expecting a mixed quarter

Congratulations! You’re thinking about welcoming a mixed quarter of Svec Farm beef into your life … er, your freezer. Understandably, you’re excited and nervous. It’s a big commitment. And you don’t know what to expect. Don’t worry — we’re here to help.

First, like many of life’s big decisions, the answer for what to expect with your particular mixed quarter is … “it depends.” The size and weight and cost will depend on a variety of factors. It depends on the size of animal sent to the locker, that particular animal’s makeup, the cut list you chose, the locker’s cutting style, and more.

Since there are so many variables, we cannot simply tell you exactly what you will get.

What we can do, though, is give you an example. The quarter above came from a steer that tipped the scales right around 1,010 pounds. The hanging weight was 140 pounds for the mixed quarter. Since our prices are based on hanging weight, that’s an important number!

I had this quarter cut with all sorts of fun pieces so I could try out new recipes and tell you how they turned out. The packaged weight for my selections ended up being 90 pounds of meat.

Let’s take a look at what I got. First up, steaks. I usually don’t say no to steaks — we love them on the grill or broiled or seared in a sizzling cast iron pan. I got them cut bone-in: T-bones, porterhouse, rib steaks, and sirloins, as well as flank and skirt steaks. The steaks made up 20 pounds of my mixed quarter.

 

Making up around 31 pounds of my share were the roasts. If you prefer a lot of ground, some of these could be designated for that.  But I wanted to try a variety of roasts — and we love a roast in the oven or slow cooker, especially in the fall and winter.

Here they are: beef roasts (some lockers would call these chuck roasts), rump roast, tri tip roast, sirloin tip roast, round roast, arm roasts, and brisket. Are you getting hungry yet?

 

The next major category from my mixed quarter is the ground beef. I ended up with 24 pounds and I know it will go quickly as is it is easy to thaw at the last minute and use in many dishes.

 

That leaves about 16 pounds of “other.” I asked to keep just a few packages of short ribs, because they’re pretty fatty and not my favorite cut to cook with, but I have a couple recipes I like, and I’m ready to experiment and discover more.

I like to make stock or bone broth, but soup bones tend to be the last to go around here, so I kept just a few packages of soup bones. I had part of the round turned into the round roast you saw above, and some into the tenderized round that’s here. I’m a fan of stew so I got a couple packages of stew meat.

If you wanted more ground beef, this would be another place to get it.

 

That concludes your tour of my quarter. Want something different? That’s the beauty of the custom cut! You could stick to steaks, roasts, and ground. You could get boneless steaks (ribeye, strip, tenderloin). You could even get all ground, although you wouldn’t get as many pounds of meat and you’d be missing out on a lot of fun and deliciousness!

Now it’s time to talk size. Just how much meat is 90 pounds of meat?

Here are some visuals for you. My mixed quarter didn’t really fit into a single apple box, but neither did it completely fill two apple boxes. (These boxes measure about 13″ by 20″ by 11″.)

How much room will you need in your freezer?

This chest freezer measures 46″ by 27″ by 33.5″. You can see the two boxes leave plenty of room for other comestibles.

I hope this information leaves you feeling a bit more confident and excited as you take the next steps toward welcoming your own bundle of … beef … into your freezer. And if you want more information, just reach out to us!