Yesterday was quite the day.
For starters, the Handsome Husband and I spent some quality time together {a whopping 3 hours!} in the kitchen processing 40 pounds of Zaycon ground beef.
Never before in my entire life have I purchased a “chub” of beef. For years now I’ve always bartered with my neighbors Chino the Handyman or the Hunter for buffalo, elf elk or venison. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I purchased ground beef from a grocery store like a normal person.
But when Zaycon had a deal on 97% lean ground beef awhile back I went ahead and ordered a 40 pound case. And you know what, I’m glad we did. Although it took the HH and I about 2 1/2 hours to divide up the meat and whip up a few {okay, 40} freezer meals, now our freezer is stocked with delicious homemade meals to use later in the year. Go team!
Lucy, decided to sit out the whole “working in the kitchen” episode.
Yep, she saved up her energy for begging for dinner scraps instead.
Do you ever buy meat {or any other product for that matter} in bulk?
If so, what, and why {time, money?}.
Mavis wants to know.
Kay Snyder says
I’m not normally one to point out typos because we are all human and make them but this one is hilarious. I’ve never had “elf” meat. Do all those gnomes attract them?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, I think they gnomes attracted them to the neighborhood. Very difficult to catch. 😉
Carol says
Wow! For me, bulk means 4 pounds of ground beef on sale. I will break that down into 4-1 # packages. Since I only have myself and my HH to cook for, this works. Once again, Mavis, I bow to you!
Evonne says
We did the Zaycon beef one time and it was GREAT! we split it up in to smaller packages. I was going to try and do it again this round but they sold out in all the sites near me. We love their chicken and bacon as well!
Leanna says
I processed our 40# into approx 1# portions. So glad because I was down to my last one. We are good til the next time (about 6 months). Love Zaycon!!!!!!
Jane says
I ordered 2 boxes of Zaycon ground beef once, and then my neighbor who had wanted to buy the second box decided they didn’t want it, so I used 40 pounds of ground beef and 20 pounds of ground pork plus other ingredients and made meatballs (TONS of meatballs!), and then packaged the other 40 pounds of ground beef into 1-pound packages for the freezer. I was a full-day project!
Emily says
I’d love to hear more about how you split it up!! Just smaller portions? Did you go ahead and make meals? Just season the meat? If you made meals, we’d all love to know what’s on the menu! 🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
I took pictures! I’ll get the recipes typed up soon. 🙂
Deb Miller says
I have purchased ground beef, chicken, and pork in bulk. Sometimes I will pressure can the beef for convenience meals like tacos, soups etc. The chicken I grind in my meat grinder and freeze. I also have a meat slicer, I slice up the meat and make jerky and other treats for my family as well as the dogs.
Carol says
Deb, is jerky hard to make? Any tips you care to share? Thanks!
bev says
We just put away two WHOLE beef (we raise our own grass fed), have it cut and wrapped. It is quite a day dividing it up for the freezer. We have to first clean the frezzers and organize where the meat will go. Well your way is easier 🙂 Glad you had fun with hubby.
Kara says
We did Zaycon beef yesterday, too! I made 10 lbs into Italian meatballs, 10 lbs into meatloafs (er… meatloaves??), 10 lbs into hamburger patties, and 10 lbs split into 3/4 lb packages. It was awesome! We should get about 50 meals out of it, and maybe more. Plus, Zaycon beef tastes the best. 🙂
Vickie Gross says
I sometimes crockpot a bunch of chicken and freeze cooked portions for meals. But never 40# of meat! You have a lot of energy!
Carol says
Vicky, what do you add to the cut up chicken in your slow cooker? Your level of prepping sounds more in line with what I do!
Kimberly says
Once a month a make a trip to the local restaurant supply house and purchase 10lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast, 6lbs of bacon,15lbs of 90/10 hamburger along with an 8-10lb pork loin. It runs me about 55.00 bucks and that is a whole month of dinners and lunch leftovers of meat. The pork loin I hand cut into boneless chops and a roast(2lb)portion for BBQ pulled pork. The whole day is an event…it takes about 4hrs to package everything. I brown up half the hamburger and freeze it cooked for easy meals, like tacos and spaghetti along with making up a meatloaf that you just thaw and pop in the oven. It works for our family and it keeps us on a meal plan.
Carol says
Kimberly, I’m going to have to look into this way of shopping. You get all that meat for $55.00? Amazing! Thanks for posting!
Kimberly says
I mis-typed my last bill from the depot was around 75.00 that was after a $5 off coupon for spending over 50 bucks. The depot though requires you to be a restaurant owner I have a friend who is a “hook-Up” so to speak it comes in handy. I have shopped at GFS before which is another supply bulk place and there prices are really low but they are open to the public. Those places are also good for buying bulk baking supplies and such cheaper than the warehouse guys with no yearly fee.
Carol says
Even still, Kimberly, you do great getting all you do for what you pay! I was thinking GFS, so I’m still going to try them. Thanks!
Molly says
Kimberly how many people does this feed? I’m new to all this but want to eventually have at least a year’s worth of food in stock for myself. After that I want to start adding to it so I’ve got enough to feed at least 8 people, myself and my daughters family. There’s only 7 of them right now but I’m expecting them to add at least one more child before stopping. I just got a water bath canner and hope to buy a pressure canner this coming month and a small chest type freezer just before Christmas when they go on sale. We’ve got a place here called Restaraunt Depot that I’ve been told sells to the public but I need to check into that. I don’t eat a lot of meat so 40 pounds of ground beef would probably furnish me with close to 80 meals, if not more. How do you package it for the freezer? Do you use a Food Saver or foil or freezer paper? I need all the tips I can get.
Michele Mercer says
I just started buying in bulk myself. My HH eats like 2 and my 2yr and 1yr old sons eat like at least 1 adult…then there’s me. I am slowly widdeling down our monthly food budget, last round I bought 87 meals worth of food for just under $400. Yesterday I bought 27lbs hamburger I will be splitting today to make for 30meals. All but 9lbs will be cooked and seasoned. All the beef goes towards lasagna, spaghetti (which I make 3gal of sauce at a time), stuffed bell peppers, hamburger helper, hamburgers, and meatloaf. I take two whole chickens and boil them down to shred- this makes 2gal chicken broth and meat for quesadillas, enchiladas, chicken pot pies and 2lbs left over for chicken salad, chicken soup, etc. Total those chickens provide for about 15 meals.
I started a huge garden but it isn’t going as planned (tomato plants all got curled leaves from apparent poisoning from bug killer…Grrr).
You inspired me to do better at providing for my family. Thank you. I have spent about $500 and have enough food in the deep freezer for about 5mths. That breaks it down to about $100 a month for a family of 4. I am now venturing on making my own bread.
If anyone wants to break down their food bills, I highly suggest in purchasing a good large deep freezer. This is the only way we could have purchased so much meat at great prices and store it properly.
Heidi P says
Great job getting your food budget down. I go in waves. One month I have a lot of motivation to be frugal then the next I throw caution to the wind.
I agree with the deep freezer. It’s the easiest way to quickly store meat, etc. I have one small chest freezer (plus 2 ref/freezers in the house) I’m going to purchase another small freezer so I can fill one while eating the others contents and then rotate them. Or maybe I’ll put fruit/etc into one and meats in the other. Idk I obviously haven’t completely figured out my plan 🙂
Karina says
Elf, huh? I haven’t tried that. Yes, please share your freezer meal recipes. Thanks!
Mavis Butterfield says
Ha Ha Ha. So tasty!
Heidi P says
Zaycon Foods Rules! I’ve done their beef, chicken, milk and now strawberries. We also went fruit picking in Hood River Oregon on the fruit loop and scored 28lbs of blueberries. I payed $1.50lb. I didn’t think that was too shabby for organic berries. I’m headed for blackberries next. I bought 2 flats of raspberries from a local farmer. mmmmm…… I think I’ll go make a smoothie now!
I’d love to hear what freezer meals you froze. With fall/winter around the corner I’d like to get started on freezer meal. Mavis you’re the best!
The pioneer woman on the food network just did a show on freezer meals a week ago. She also blogged about it on her website if anyone is interested. Its fun to see all the different ways people preserve, conserve, plus save time and money.
Madam Chow says
You’ve bartered for “elf”???? Is that the real reason you want all the gnomes, you’re going to eat them? Just kidding, typo alert!
Yes, I bought 120 pounds of Zaycon chicken last year, and I will buy beef in bulk from time to time. Cost is the big reason, and also quality.
sheila says
I married into a farming family, so we yearly get a 1/2 beef and 1/2 pig slaughtered. Fortunately, we take it into a butcher for processing. We pick it up already frozen and divided into 1 lb packages. The only “work” is finding room in the deep freezers. (…At least on my part. I’m not the one out there feeding them in the snow and rain! 😉 )
Tali says
I have come up on discounted ground beef (either 85%/15% or 93%/7%) for $1.99/lb at the grocery store so I am fully stocked up….would love to see what you made since I am running out of ideas.
Amanda says
I’m just wondering about everyone who has multiple fridges/freezers or a deep freezer…what would you do if you lost power? Do you have a generator? If not, wow, you could lose $500 and 6 months worth of food! I would be much too worried to ever be able to do that! Nevermind the fact that I wouldn’t want to spend an entire day processing the meat, nor would I know how to. I have one side-by-side fridge/freezer and it’s horrible. It’s so small. I could never even flash freeze fruits or veggies, since I couldn’t fit a cookie sheet in the freezer. I don’t think I could ever host Thanksgiving dinner either, because I don’t have enough storage in my fridge!
sheila says
We lose our power multiple times a year and have never had a problem with food spoilage. If you don’t open the door, it will last a long time. Ours our both chest freezers which lose the cold (more efficient) less than an upright. Food lasts even longer in these without power.
Heidi P says
We lost a side of beef once in our freezer. We keep it in our barn and somehow it was accidentally unplugged. We didn’t find it until it smelled pretty badly. Bad day to say the least.
Kim says
I have a small chest freezer and wouldn’t know where I would be without it! I can barely fit a 1/4 side of beef in it but with just me it lasts a full year or more (that is unless the kids come shopping too many times lol). As the meat goes down, I fill up 1/2 and gallon milk or juice jugs to take the place of the meat. A full freezer is much more efficient than a partially empty one. One day we lost power for 4 days and I was sure glad there were lots of jugs in there, everything stayed completely frozen.
Also when the heat is extremely high and the chickens are feeling it, I take out a jug and put it into the coup and blow a fan over it. The chickens have there own personal air conditioner! All 3 of them will lay right in the breeze with there wings up. They stop sitting there and just panting looking like they are going to die. When it went over 100 a few times, the girls took turns actually sitting on the ice 🙂
One thing I find totally valuable is a FoodSaver. If I did not have one, there is no way I could freeze for a year or more.
Wynne says
I love your chicken air-conditioner story!
Tina says
We got the zaycon beef to… processes 20 # and have 20# in the freezer. Love zaycon!!!!!!
Just placed my first order for the chicken!
Jen J says
We did the Zaycon chicken the last time it was available in our area and are down to our last two 1 lb packages of chicken. I could cry because it’s not coming back until October! We are more chicken eaters than anything, so now I know to buy 2 cases next time. Yes, it was a bit time consuming splitting it up (and we only just divided it into smaller packages), but totally worth it for the price. It was so convenient to use our vacuum sealer and throw it into the freezer.
I would love to do the ground beef, but it sold out in our area before we could order it (shame on me for waiting). However, I will still eagerly await all the freezer meal recipes!
Andrea Moses says
Would love to hear what freezer dinners you did. My Zaycon beef comes tomorrow!
Kim says
I love the Zaycon chicken and bacon. I’ve considered the beef, but like you, I have never bought a chub of meat! I would really like to hear what you thought about the smell (raw) and taste (cooked, of course) of the meat.
Sakura says
I buy my beef in bulk once a year. We buy 1/4 of a cow and it lasts us 1 year. I buy it this way because its from a local farmer and the price is good. I like the convenience of not having to buy meat every week. I like Zaycon, I buy bacon from them and keep 4 packs for us and give the rest to my elderly neighbors.
Molly says
I forgot one question I wanted to ask. What is Zaycon? Is it a local store in one part of the country or what? I’m not familiar with it but would love to find such a bargain once I’ve got a chest type freezer. Right now all I have is the one atop the fridge and it’s stuffed full.
Brenda says
Molly,
Zaycon is a private company that secures local fresh products at wholesale prices.
If you click on the Zaycon Ground Beef link (it’s highlighted in green) in Mavis’ post it will take you to their site.
Shell says
Yup, been there, done that. Freezer meals is the way to go. Have also had Elf meat. It takes three of those little suckers to make a meal for four.
Shell says
I forgot to tell you. I also got put on Santa’s naughty list for this. It will probably happen to you too. Don’t expect anything for Christmas this year.
Sarah says
Do you ever can ground beef?
Mavis Butterfield says
I’ve never tried it before. Have you?
Jill Frank says
We just finished processing 24 meat chickens. With the help of my in-laws, my handy husband and I were able to spend 2 days together! It was quite the process. We now have stuffed freezers with some of the biggest chicken breasts, thighs, legs, and wings I have ever seen. This was our first year raising chickens for meat (first year for egg chickens too) but it probably won’t be our last. Thank goodness for a FoodSaver!
Debbie says
I just signed up for Zaycon through your link. Curious… What did it work out to for a pound of the ground beef? Thanks!
Trish K says
Last time Zaycon chicken was available I got 100 lbs. ( 2 40lb. Boxes and split a box). Just have run out and will probably get 120 lbs. next time. Quality, price and convenience all factor in the choice.
Pl