What's Actually In Grocery Store Ground Beef (And Why Ours Feels Different)

You know that thing where you start to think about something and suddenly its everywhere? Like if you start shopping for a certain car and the next day you notice 25 of them on the road.

According to "neuroscientists" this is called the Reticular Activating System.

According to a reel I saw on Instagram its called manifesting your own reality because everyone else is an NPC and your consciousness is the center of all creation.

Whatever the case, right now mine is obsessed with ground beef. Its inescapable. Everywhere I turn people are talking about it. Customers are gushing over the fact that our beef isn't gushing water, and asking me what is in grocery store ground beef in the first place.

One of them, Betty, sent over a note that gets right at it.....

I found your process, from info, to ordering and delivery, top notch. So far we've only tried the flap steak: Amazing! Marinated about 3 hours and it melts in your mouth. And the ground beef.... exceptional.

I worked almost 30 years for a small grocery store that was known for its butcher dept. We would grind beef several times a day and it was made with quality meat. Since the store changed hands I have not found the same quality. It actually "feels" different.

When I opened the ground beef I was pleased to feel the difference from the stuff grocery stores pass off as ground beef. And it tastes great as well.

I need to make room in the freezer for a larger share.

We've talked about taste. We've talked about cookability. We've talked about color.

But now we can attest that "It actually 'feels' different."

We can start running ads where we ask people "have you felt our meat?" in total earnestness.

I can become a Grass Fed Beef Marketing Guru/Thought Leader who gets paid to say stuff like "keep your ear to the street, and your hands in your meat."

Damn it, now I want that line on a t-shirt.....

What is in grocery store ground beef, actually?

Now that I got that out of my system, lets think about the real difference between OUR ground beef and "the stuff grocery stores pass off as ground beef."

This is the kind of thing that the Big 4 meatpackers would prefer you not think too hard about.

Most of what's sold as "ground beef" at the grocery store is:

• A blend of trim from who knows how many cows
• From who knows where
• Shipped in a combo bin to a massive grinding facility
• Then packaged and sitting in the grocery store meat case for who knows how long
• Pumped full of water (which is why it cooks up into a sloppy, rubbery pile)

Calling that "ground beef" is technically correct, but feels like its not really in the spirit of the term.

(Though it's still a step up from fake meat with grilled beef flavors, which skips the cow entirely.)

Grocery store ground beef vs. ours, side by side

Why ground beef matters more than you think

I am harping on this point because ground beef is most of what you get off of a cow.

When you order a Half or Whole Beef Share you are going to get A LOT of Ground Beef. We can talk all day about how good our Ribeyes and Porterhouse and TBones are, and they are, but thats like 10% of the meat.

Ground Beef is where its at. Ground Beef is like 40% of a Beef Share. Ground Beef is what feeds your family day in and day out.

And right now Ground Beef (and specifically how much better ours is) is very much in our customer zeitgeist. (For the deep dive on why grocery beef ends up so watery in the first place, here's who's profiting from it and how.)

How to actually taste (and feel) the difference

If you want to stop eating whatever they "pass off as ground beef" and start enjoying real beef the way it was meant to be, you have two main options:

• 100% Grass-Fed Ground Beef Box for the lower-commitment way to test it in your own kitchen.
• Half Beef Share with Free Chest Freezer for the bulk move. About 40% of a Half Share lands in the freezer as ground beef. The rest is steaks, roasts, and the savory cuts.

P.S. If you want to know exactly what's in a Half Share before pulling the trigger, here's a full breakdown of every cut you get in a half cow. Or take our Beef Share Quiz for a sizing recommendation. Everyone loves a quiz.