Buying meat online

Associate
Joined
8 Jun 2007
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1,814
Have used DonaldRussell in the past mainly when they had deals on as their prices are steep.But have stopped using them as steaks are never the same after they have been frozen,always taste dry to me.
 
Soldato
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17 Aug 2003
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Woburn Sand Dunes
I had a large order from Muscle food a few months ago. Wasnt very impressed, I ordered 5kg of chicken, had to bin the lot. didnt notice anything when it arrived, no smell or anything unusual. What wasnt going to be batch cooked that day was chucked straight in the freezer in bags. Next day i was in there grabbing something else out and i noticed the one of the chicken breasts looked odd - colour was off. When i grabbed it out of the freezer it was green. All of it was, so it got binned and so did all the cooked chicken. :mad:

I just wrote it off and decided i wouldn't use them again. Few weeks ago, a friend had a large order delivery and her chicken was all off as well.

Goes without saying, i don't recommend musclefood to anybody. I'll just stick with the local butcher instead.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Jun 2013
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3,638
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Manchester, UK
Had my Great British Meat Co. order delivered today. Previous order was from Muscle Food and I felt a bit cheated.

Chicken was fine but their low fat sausages and bacon were pretty poor. I get that sausages aren't decided to be fat free, but they just tasted horrible.

I'll stick with GBMC from now on I think.
 
Soldato
Joined
23 May 2005
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Location
Auckland, New Zealand
I gave up on Westin/Musclefood as I'd had enough of questionable quality chicken. It usually smells a bit when it arrives but one order smelt so bad I binned the whole lot - 10kg of it. They gave a replacement order fine but after figuring out how many chickens had gone to the slaughter and straight into the bin, and the fact that it's almost certainly all battery chicken anyway, my guilt won me over and I've been buying free-range from tesco which is really good and still cheaper than the likes of donald russell.

Musclefood's other stuff was rubbish too - the cumberland sausages are awful (all I can taste is chemicals) and their steaks suck.

Edit: Tesco free range corn-fed chicken breasts are £13/kg. So not cheap but I used to think a chicken is a chicken is a chicken but these are brilliant.
 
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Soldato
Joined
4 Nov 2004
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Beds
Bought some stunning BBQ smoking cuts for our 5th November Fireworks Party from 'Bob's Family Butcher' in Hatfield a few weeks, which they shipped up here.

Mark Burley is their contact, best found in the County Wood Smoke Facebook group.

7Kg Aberdeen Angus Black Packer Brisket and 7Kg Boston Butt (Pork shoulder bone in) were truly incredible after being smoked on the Weber Kettle. So much so that I won't bother getting a Brisket now from Costco/local abattoir as they just pale in comparison.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2010
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21,780
Saw they have started tv advertising for the more rigorous rspca backed animal welfare scheme (Aldi mentioned as a participant), better than the red tractor.
Donald Russell folks at least with their chicken just say it is free range from France without mentioning the RedLabel French scheme that would genuinely certify it .. so a trusted local butcher remains best option.

Is it a EU legislation to disclose where the animal was reared (or spent the last 5 minutes of its life) since personally would be sending back chicken that was marked Lithuania, if they were good enough to tell me - better have 100g of good chicken than 150g of poor quality.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
11 Mar 2004
Posts
76,634
except those good local butchers are fairly rare and can be stupidly expensive.

there are a number of online butchers which tell you where they source their meat and how the animals are reared.
 
Caporegime
Joined
1 Dec 2010
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Welling, London
except those good local butchers are fairly rare and can be stupidly expensive.

there are a number of online butchers which tell you where they source their meat and how the animals are reared.

My local one is http://www.dennisofbexley.com/

Absolutely fantastic, but so expensive. They want around £13-14 for an 8oz sirloin. I can get 2 for £7 in Asda's.
 
Associate
Joined
8 Jun 2007
Posts
1,814
Im tempted to order again to try their Alpine Fries lol

http://www.donaldrussell.com/alpine-fries-q179-gr.html

Well i went ahead and put an order in just for mince,chipolattas and these fries.
They were £2.50 a pack only 20 in a pack so 12.5p each :eek:
Not tried them yet maybe i will save them for special occasions :D

2vcibfd.jpg
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2010
Posts
21,780
curiosity killed the cat - no meat inside ?
expected Alpine cattle , or are they just Alpine size ?
not sure the French eat these.
Just when we thought rösti couldn’t get any more crunchily addictive! We’re thrilled to present these unbelievably tasty, crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside Alpine Fries, aka rösti chips. Ready from frozen in less time than your freshly cooked steak takes to rest…

Undeniably tasty potato side dishes from the Continent
Made with just a handful of ingredients – little more than specially selected potatoes and a pinch of salt
Nothing artificial added whatsoever
No need to wait – these cook from frozen in under 5 minutes!
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2002
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11,187
Location
The Moon
Never have bought chicken or meat in general online before but thought I would give MuscleFood a try as I had been meaning to see what the quality is like for a while. Went for their big new year pack they have an offer on at the moment with the extra 2.5kg chicken breasts added on.

Overall all the meat looks fine and nothing smelt funny, don't think i'd bother ordering from them again though as I priced it up when it got here and the majority of it I could get from Aldi/local asian supermarket for cheaper I reckon. (Should have priced it up when I was ordering online). There is absolutely no way that lot is worth the pre-discount price though.

Will see how I get on with it but at least i've got a freezer full to keep us going for a couple of weeks!
 
Associate
Joined
8 Jun 2007
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1,814
The only reason i bought online again was i got £6 discount plus free delivery otherwise it would have been too pricey.Will be using the local butcher for fresh stuff in future.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2002
Posts
11,187
Location
The Moon
To be fair to Musclefood I haven't actually tried any of the food yet, I just bagged it up and slung it in the freezer as we already had all dinners and teas prepped from this weekend just gone.

Intrigued by the different hache steaks in the pack and also the sweet chilli chicken burgers. Chicken breasts are just your usual fodder, not particularly large breasts but I think the butchers near me must have mutant chickens as the breasts we get off him are monsterously big.

Anyone tried the protein pork scratchings they throw into these packs? We got a pack of those a coconut crunch choccy bar and a bag of BBQ seasoning/rub.

Will give Great British Meat Co a go next time we're in the market for a big meat delivery!
 
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