If you wonder about the cost, price, negative reviews and how much is Butcher Box, read my honest review of Butcher Box. Plus see what comes in a box! My family has used ButcherBox for over a year and we love the quality of the meat and learned how to make it fit within our budget!
I never intended on being a guinea pig when I grew up, yet here I am, testing and experimenting again on your behalf!
- First, it was how Ibotta works and how you can find cash back rebates on real food.
- Next, it was Amazon and how to get the most out of a Prime membership.
- Then, it was Walmart Grocery Pick Up and if it’s worth having someone else do the shopping for you.
- Recently, it was Thrive Market and if they really offer good deals on healthy foods.
And now it’s my honest review of Butcher Box, known for delivering grass-fed beef, heritage breed pork and organic chicken right to your front door. Never heard of Butcher Box before? Here’s what you should know.
What is Butcher Box?
Butcher Box is a meat distributor. They are neither a farm nor an online grocery store. Instead, they work with a group of family farms and cooperatives in order to bring grass-fed beef, heritage breed pork and organic chicken to your front door every month. Look at Butcher Box like a farm liaison. If you’re interested in eating better quality meat but haven’t been able to find it at your grocery store or at a local farm, Butcher Box can provide it for you.
How Does Butcher Box Work?
Butcher Box is a monthly subscription service. You choose what package of meat you’d like, how often you want the box delivered (either every month or every other month) and then choose any add-ons if you’d like. An add-on would be a one-off item, like a package of uncured sugar-free bacon or 1 pound of boneless pork chops. As of this writing, your package options are:
- Mixed Box (contains beef, chicken and pork – the most popular!)
- Beef & Pork
- Beef & Chicken
- All Beef
- Custom Box
In the first four options, you can choose they type of meat but not the exact cuts. The Custom Box is the only box where you get to choose exactly what goes in your box. As you register and/or login to change your order for the month, you pick whether you want ground pork or ground beef or a whole chicken… Each package comes in two different sizes: Classic Box (9-14 lbs of meat for about 24 meals) or Big Box (18-26 lbs of meat for about 48 meals).
The Quality of Butcher Box Meat
Butcher Box currently offers three types of meat – beef, chicken and pork – with the goal of bringing you the very best. The quality of the meat is pretty impressive, if I say so myself!
- 100% Grass-fed and Grass-finished Beef. The cattle are humanely raised, live their entire life on pasture and are never given antibiotics or hormones. They eat a natural diet of grass and they may be given silage or hay if the weather prevents them from grazing.
- Organic and Free-Range Chicken. The free-range birds spend most of their lives foraging in the field with plenty of room to move around and interact with other chickens. Thanks to all this exercise, these birds will naturally be leaner than conventional chicken.
- Heritage Breed Pork. The breeds of pork that Butcher Box sources have been specifically chosen for their rich color and marbled texture. There is no tail docking and the animals are either on pasture, or raised in open barns with bedding and space to engage in natural behaviors, as if they were outside.
How Much Does Butcher Box Cost?
This is a frugal food blog and no honest review of Butcher Box can get away without discussing the numbers.
- The Classic Box is $149 (9-14lbs of meat with an average of $10.64 to $16.55 per pound.)
- The Big Box is $270 (18-26lbs of meat with an average of $10.38 to $15 per pound.)
If you check out their site, Butcher Box prices their boxes by meals, where 6oz equals one meal. This makes their pricing look a little different than the per pound price I’m sharing here. Some families eat more meat per meal, and some eat less. Keep this in mind as you decide whether or not Butcher Box is right for you! Yes, I know this sounds pricey. $11-16 for ONE pound of meat is nothing to scoff at, especially when you’re struggling to pay the bills AND put food on the table. However, it is VERY possible to eat healthy food without going broke. My family and I are living proof, and that’s why I started this blog. Your own real food priorities might not include organic grass-fed meat. Right now, you may be looking for the cheapest cuts of chicken you can possibly find. And that’s okay. To learn how my family affords Butcher Box on a budget, read this post. I dig into how I can make my meat cost $10 per pound or LESS from ButcherBox. A few other things to note:
- Butcher box always offers free shipping.
- You can choose a monthly subscription, or every other month.
- If you’re still working through your last box, you can delay your subscription by one month.
- You can cancel your subscription at any time.
- Their customer service is SUPER helpful and happy to address any issues you may have.
Here’s my second honest review of Butcher Box and how I STILL love them several months later!
The search for high-quality meat ends here. Amazing taste. Humanely raised and delivered to your door. Sign up today! Click this link to claim the current offer!
My Personal Experience and Honest Review of Butcher Box
As much as I truly love grocery shopping (I wouldn’t have created an entire course on how to eat real food on a budget if I didn’t!), I have to confess that it’s really nice to have a box of high quality meat show up at my door. To be honest though, when I opened our first box, I didn’t think there was a lot of meat. I took everything out and thought there was no way it would last us an entire month. There were a total of 12 packages of meat (including the free uncured sugar-free bacon) and each package weighed around 1 lb each. If I used only 1 pound of meat per meal and every time stretched it as best as I could, I might be able to get 15 meals out of the box. At one time, this would have worked fine for my family. We ate meatless meals often. But now I’m not sure it would be enough. We recently finished the Whole30 and really liked the difference in how we felt without eating grains, gluten, dairy or legumes. All four of us eat protein at every meal. Sometimes it’s eggs and sometimes it’s nuts, but most often it’s meat. Assuming we’re all eating four ounces of meat, three times a day, for 5 days of the week (which is being very conservative), we need at least 15 pounds of meat each week. At $149 per box, that’s $596 on meat every month… and that’s also more than my entire monthly budget! UPDATE: We’ve changed the way we eat just a little bit since I first published this review, and I encourage you to read how we now make Butcher Box fit within our monthly budget. And no, we didn’t give up eating meat!
Does Butcher Box have good meat?
The beef and pork from Butcher Box is absolutely delicious. I’ve purchased “natural” pork from the grocery store and every time it was tough and chewy. The pork from Butcher Box was nothing like that. Every pork chop was beyond tender and it made me wonder why we didn’t eat pork more often! Eating the steaks felt like a huge splurge for us since we don’t eat whole steaks at home often. We split two steaks for dinner to help stretch the meat, but they were so good that both Mr. Crumbs and I wished we had a whole steak to ourselves! These same thoughts run through my head every time we try their meat… we’ve had their ground beef, rib-eyes, top sirloin, NY strip, pork loin, pork chops and salmon. Every time, it has been very, very good. The chicken was good, but because we’re committed to buying organic chicken anyway, we didn’t notice much of a difference.
I LOVE knowing that the food we put into our bodies isn’t void of nutrients.
You can read more about why we’re including more beef in our diet in this post here. Mr. Crumbs and I BOTH needed more variety when it comes to the nutrients in our meats. We also had peace of mind that the food we were eating was actually doing our bodies good, instead of just being filler for our dinner plates. My husband and I both agreed that if were able to make it work with our budget, we’d definitely consider Butcher Box to source our meat. I don’t know if we’d be able to source ALL of our meat from them, but I’d certainly focus on the beef and pork since I can get good deals on organic chicken locally. Update: We found a way to make it work! Here are six ways we’re able to afford Butcher Box!
How long can Butcherbox stay outside on the front porch?
I was also wondering if the meat would go bad if it sat on my doorstep all day… The meat is shipped in an insulated bag, and then packed in an insulated box with dry ice. My box was delivered around 11am and when I opened it to take these pictures, the dry ice had melted but everything was still frozen solid (and two steaks still had frost on them!). I then packaged it all back up and put it back on my front porch until 6pm – to mimic what it would be like if I didn’t work from home and it sat outside in the Georgia heat all day. When I brought everything back in, everything was still very cold. The very outer edges of one package of chicken wasn’t frozen solid, but I wouldn’t have any fear of not being home for delivery of my meat. Also, ButcherBox provides a guide within each box on safely storing, freezing, and thawing your meat. They follow the USDA recommended guidelines.
Is Butcher Box a Good Deal?
I’ll be the first to admit that Butcher Box isn’t for everyone. Depending on where you are in this season, you might not be concerned about quality. Or perhaps you’re working on health issues and quality now tops the list of priorities. It’s entirely up to you, but I hope this butcher box review summary helps if you feel on the fence.
Butcher Box is good for those who…
- Are concerned about the quality of meat they’re eating. Quality is extremely important to Butcher Box, so that’s what they’re going to give you.
- Cannot find a local source for grass-fed beef, pastured pork and/or organic chicken. I have friends who live nowhere near a farm and have very limited grocery store options as it is. For them, Butcher Box is a blessing because they wouldn’t have access to this quality of meat otherwise!
- Enjoy having someone else shop for them. Not everyone enjoys grocery shopping and with a Butcher Box subscription, you can eliminate “meat” from your list every single month.
- Enjoy nicer cuts of meat. Your monthly subscription will by default include cuts of meat you likely wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise – that’s a good thing!
Butcher Box is NOT good for those who…
- Can get grass-fed beef, pastured pork and organic chicken from a local source. I can consistently get grass-fed ground beef from Costco for $4.99/lb. I can even find it marked down to $3.99 at Kroger or Walmart! But I have never seen any other cuts of grass-fed beef in local grocery stores.
- Need to be more focused on the budget rather than the quality of meat. Everyone will be in this season at some point in time and there’s no way around it. If you are not in a place to financially afford Butcher Box, then say no for right now.
- Like to know exactly what they’re getting every month. If you’re particular about the meat you need for your meal plan, this might not be a good fit UNLESS you choose the Custom Box.
I encourage you to consider what your food priorities are and see if Butcher Box can help you meet them. Have you tried Butcher Box before? I’d love to hear your honest thoughts about the company and their service. Please leave your comments below for myself and your fellow Crumbs community to read!
I just had my first order two weeks ago and I am very happy with quality and taste of the meat. For me taste better than meat from the store what I used to buy.
I’ve had a few problems as well. Most were delivery issues. Twice the driver heaved the box over the fence to my yard. One time the driver detoured behind my truck to relieve himself which was, unbeknownst to him obviously, caught on camera. Several times a driver failed to ring the doorbell and left the box in the sun in 100° weather.
Other problems have surfaced recently. Two packages of pork chops had one chop and one huge piece of gristle and fat. Several steaks were more fat than meat. A pot roast was 50% inedible. Stew meat is poorly trimmed, lots of connective tissue and every piece needs trimming. I know that the meat is locally sourced and packaged. It’s an issue of quality control and is probably not universal. I also know meat as well as other foodstuffs are in short supply. However I have cut way back on what I order now. I’m sticking to whole chickens and the small pork roasts. I’ve stopped all beef except ground. I’ve stopped buying bulk Italian sausage after repeated bone fragments.
In three years I’ve only had packing issues once — no dry ice in box. There’s one more delivery issue in that the boxes are delivered after being stacked on their sides despite arrows indicating ‘this side up’.
I have also contacted Tiffany / Ashley directly detailing these issues. I do wish to be clear though that the meat quality (or lack of thereof) is a local regional supply issue and the delivery issues are carrier related. But the combination of these two recurring issues has put me in a position of not recommending this to anyone.
It’s sad my choice is crappy inedible meat or factor meat. But I hate having to cut away half a steak or roast to have enough food for serving it.
Butcher Box doesn’t control the drivers, good grief. The drivers don’t work for them but for the carrier.
Butcher Box doesn’t control the drivers, good grief. The drivers don’t work for them but for the carrier.
I re-subscribed to Butcher Box recently and went with the custom box. I stopped subscribing only because I thought my freezer was broken (it wasn’t; I had accidentally unplugged it because I mistook the cord for that of my Instant Pot!).
The quality of the meat and packaging is very, very high, and the packaging is all compostable (I shred my boxes and use them as mulch or in compost rather than sending them to recycling).
I never had any issues with customer service, they canceled my membership for me and several months later I have signed up again and I got not only my old perks, but additional ones.
We have also had issues with packaging not truely sealed.
So far I am delighted with BB. One thing you should note is that their beef is “100%” Grass Fed which means it is NEVER fed grains but grazes on natural grasses or silage through out its life. Stores like Walmart and Costco however can only claim Grass Fed (without the 100%) which means that at some point in their life the steer grazed on or was fed grass. Unless it says “100% Grass Fed” or “Grass Fed and Finished”, these cattle are always sent to crowded, nasty commercial feed lots to be “finished” with a diet of grains and who knows what to produce the fatty marbling. There is a huge difference between “100% Grass Fed”, “Grass Fed and Finished” and just “Grass Fed”, not only ethically but nutritionally as well.
Thank you for sharing, Carole.
I love it and I have the free ground beef and chicken wings for life. The steaks are a amazing and they fill you up VS. corn fed.
This may seem strange. I am a single senior citizen living alone. I DO love to cook. My question is would Butcher Box be an alternative to one of the meal delivery services such as Hello Fresh. I’m good either way but am looking for other opinions. Thank you.
Hi John,
Hello fresh and those kind of services give you the whole meal and this is just the meat. If you like to cook though I bet you would like this, lots of good meat. It keeps well if you freeze it so you can just pull it out a day or two before you want to make it. If you are living alone you will get to feast like a king. I would recommend the custom box so you can try all kinds of different stuff. Really fun for someone who likes to cook meat.
Twice I ordered from Butcher Box and it took 7 days of shipping to get a box. The first time the temperature was at the edge of acceptable. The next box which had a lot in it was 50-60* F. All of it was wasted because it sat in a truck over the weekend. I bought to avoid animal cruelty from a factory farm but this is as bad -all this meat wasted and animals dead for nothing. Then we had to dispose of rotting meat.
You should contact Butcher Box about this. We have messaged them as a company to let them know about what our readers are saying but we are not their customer service representatives.
I received my box today and since I’m retired I brought it in right after it was delivered. It was all totally unthawed and above 40 degrees. I called Butcher Box, they apologized and are resending me another box. I am very satisfied with Butcher Box.
Thanks for sharing your experience Sandy!
I recently tried this service. I really wanted to like it – free range chicken and the pork sounded really good. I ordered a custom box for $149. I got some chicken thighs, a small (>2#), pork loin chops, steaks, bacon, a chuck roast and, because of the time of year (end of October) there was a special incentive of a free turkey included. How could I lose? I have not tired all of the items yet but to be honest I will say the steaks (2 rib steaks) were good – no problem. Not outstanding but acceptable. The chicken thighs were 2# which came in 3 packages. I was quite disapppinted in these – each package had 3 thighs, of the 9 thighs I received (all thighs had skin and bones) 5 were a medium size, 2 were small and 2 were tiny – and I mean really tiny – not as big as a chicken wing section! I was not impressed. The pork roast was very small – less than 2 pounds. I have purchased this type of roast before and it was always pretty tasty. I prepared it as I normally do and we thought it was pretty tough. The boneless pork loin chops were also ok but not great. For the price, I was not impressed. I really expected to get meat that was really tasty and this missed it by a mile. Now to the turkey. It was 11.95# – so about a 12# turkey. Based on my experience with the meat that I have tired so far, I figured it would be best if I brined the turkey. In my experience, brining makes for a tender turkey and the cooking time seems to be less. The turkey smelled wonderful while roasting. The turkey had one of those little things that are supposed to pop up when the Turkey is done. Also, in my research it said a turkey should roast for about 13 min per pound which indicated about 2 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F. I put it in the oven at noon. The by 4 PM the thing never popped up and the turkey was browned really well. I cut into a wing and was totally surprised to find it was bloody – not just not cooked but really raw. It didn’t get done until 5:30 PM. The turkey was ok but again, nothing to rave about. I cancelled my next order and stopped my membership. I don’t mind spending the money for good meat – I do mind spending money for mediocre food. I guess I’ll stick with the local butcher. Price is comparable but I can see what I’m getting before I buy. Sorry – but I don’t recommend this company.
well after reading here last week, i decided to try them out.. cannot say it was a good first impression!! normally your first box with companies are good because they do want to make a good impression with new customers, sure was not the case with butcherbox..
i got the custom box and it was suppose to include the 4 -8oz pork chops and the 3lb chicken party wings and apparently the welcome package thing…none of these were in my box even though it was listed on label inside box. instead of pork chops they did give me 1-lb of breakfast sausage, i can NOT eat sausage, instead of chicken wings they gave me a 2.5lb bottom roast thing, we do NOT eat, let alone cook roast beef meat and how was this even an alternative to chicken wings anyways??
also even though temps are in low 70’s and it was rainy all day while out all day for delivery (through lasership), the dry ice was basically non existing, not a good sign for warmer months so if i end up liking meats, i probably won’t be ordering then at all unless they start offering next day fed ex..
I did report an issue with my order (since i do not like their alternatives) and i picked the items were missing option in report area because what ‘I’ ordered was missing to me and IMO they should of offered substitution options BEFORE shipping box out and not assume their picks will be liked, let alone think 9.5 lbs of meat (includes the 3/4” excess fat on each loin strip steaks) for a custom $149 box that should of been at least 11lbs is acceptable! i was offered $29 credit towards NEXT box or missing items included in next box.. i saw they has baby back ribs for next month and i wanted to try out some of the other meats so i chose the later, which may of been a mistake since i saw others mention they never get their missing items!! we will see what happens but, as i said it was not a good first impression and it best be a good second one if they plan on keeping me as a lifelong customer!!
starting to think the east coast is just not worthy of good meats/box food orders.. I feel like they must all buy from the different farms/markets in the area that they ship from and we all do not get the same quality of meats/foods..
What counties are the countries of origin for the products ?
Janis, I think the USA but I am not positive so I suggest looking on their site.
I have been receiving Butcher Box for over 6 months. Everything has been good except the ground beef. It is terrible. I even tried the burgers and they were not good either. Don’t know why.
Best meat I have ever consumed. The bacon is unbelievable as are the porkchops and hamburger. Trying the steaks tonight and can’t wait. I hate fish but I am willing to try the salmon!!