First off, our meats come from quality ranches. Our ranchers go beyond compulsory requirements and subscribe to the highest standards in genetics, living environment, feed and physical treatment. At Rare we feature meats that are humanely raised and free from hormones and antibiotics – the animals are never – ever given drugs.

Raising animals in a more natural and humane manner is not just the right thing to do; it is good business as well. Well-raised animals are healthier, heartier animals and provide us with meats that are not only better for our health but better tasting as well. And at the end of the day, if Shelly and I do not provide you with the best piece of meat you have ever had, we will not stay in business, and so it should be.

Buying right is only one step in the process of selling the best meats. Meat maintenance is step two. This is the process of storing, aging (temperature, humidity and exposure to air, are all factors in properly wet and dry aging meats), selecting, cutting and packing of meats. ALL impact quality and flavor. Meat maintenance is an art, an age old tradition of practices that is as important to the end product (putting the best tasting meat on your plate) as how the animals are raised.

Rare meats are procured and maintained by a well known and established wholesale meat purveyor, Rocker Bros Meat & Provisions, which happens to be Debbie’s family’s meat company. Rocker Bros Meat Company has been in the business of providing fine meats to professional chefs for over 50 years. Debbie has worked for the family meat business for many years. “I do consider myself a meat expert, I have been inspired and trained by the best in both worlds – the meat business and professional culinary arts.

Rare Gourmet Meats customers have access to the same meats I sell (wholesale) to my best chefs. Orders are cut and packed the day of, or the day before shipping, then vacuum sealed for proper storage in the refrigerator or freezer.

If you want to order a specific cut that you don’t see, or have dry-aging specifications that aren’t available, you can submit your order through our custom order form. We review every order ourselves and will get back to you as soon as we can to discuss and confirm everything.

Bestia, Red Bird, Terroni, Gjelina, Gjusta, Republique, Eveleigh, Soho House, Cecconis, Sur.

For your convenience, we accept Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.

This is not really a RARE customer. Yes of course you can go to the market and buy a steak at anytime, but you cannot buy a Rare Gourmet Meats steak. Rare is selling quality meats and custom aged cuts that have been exclusively available to professional chefs (until now). At Rare, we are not selling the same meats markets sell, we never will.

We all keep stuff in the freezer. We keep what we don’t want to run out of, can’t easily find, can’t live without or have a to wait to receive it once we think about ordering it.

Freezing fine meats is not only smart, its necessary – if you’re picky, and why wouldn’t you be – you gotta have a back up: Aspen Ridge skirt steaks, dry aged ground beef, Trader Joe’s vanilla ice cream, Jidori chicken paillards, Reyka Vodka, home made dog food and one or two big fat Aspen Ridge ribeyes – juuust in case ..

Here is technically why (but likely no-one saying this knows it): water bound up in and in between muscle fibers freezes, crystalizes and expands in the freezer. When meat thaws, so do the crystals and meat can get wet, even mushy (ICK!).

Not our meats: meat gets mushy because water retention in most cattle is much greater than it should. Of course animals need to drink and absorb water to live and be healthy but commercially raised cattle/beef retains excess water due to the hormones they are given and the feed they receive. These animals are meant to retain more water, they grow abnormally fast and are ready for slaughter quicker. Why do companies do this? Money/greed/lack of concern and denial.

RARE GOURMET MEATS’ animals never ever receive hormones or antibiotics and retain an average of 12 % less water than standard commodity / feedlot raised animals.

They eat either all grass or they are started on grass on family farms and finished on healthy, natural proprietary grain blends. Rare animals are NOT standard commodity feedlot animals.

Additionally, at Rare Gourmet, we age our meat (that’s right, we do NOT sell fresh meat like most markets). Most Rare Meats are dry aged as well as wet aged.

This is important: Dry aging allows enzymes naturally present in the meat to break down the muscle tissue which improves texture and flavor. Additionally dry aging removes excess water from muscle so after freezing you won’t have mushy meat but a firm well-aged, well-maintained piece of meat. If you’re going to freeze meat, only freeze the best.

We take pains to bring the best meats to you, do you think we’d suggest freezing if we thought it would diminish the quality of what we sell? No sir, we are not going to let you screw it up by freezing – we got this.

Another thing: Rare Gourmet Meats are vacuum packed in a special barrier seal that protects the integrity of the meat.

And we recommend that you thaw in this manner:

Put frozen meat in the refrigerator (chicken paillards take less than an hour thaw, thick steaks overnight or longer depending on thickness). Then remove steaks or chicken from the vacuum package once thawed and let them dry out in your fridge. Leave chicken for an hour or two, steaks can dry for a few hours or a few days.

We recommend freezing meats (without reservation) that you’ll not be cooking in the coming week or so.

For grinds and chicken we suggest freezing within a few days. Your Rare Gourmet Meats, well raised, artfully aged and packed to freeze, will be as delicious out of the freezer as the meats you eat straight from the pack. We promise and we guarantee it.