May Meat CSA

Pickup day for the Pine Street Market Meat CSA.


How it arrives--it's a 12" cube of a box, lined with foil-backed styrofoam, and with one or more ice packs to keep things cold. Usually several of the items are also frozen, which lets me move them straight to my freezer if I don't plan to use them immediately.



And the contents:
1 lb. smoked poblano sausages
1 lb. Mettwurst sausages
1 lb. smoked applewood bacon, plus another pound of bacon ends in 2 packages
1 lb. applewood bacon burger (ground pork and bacon)
1 lb. meatloaf--pork/beef blend with rosemary garlic glaze, ready for the oven
14 oz. wedge of beef brisket
1/2 lb "barrel cut New York"
1-1/4 lb "boar roast"

(No lamb this month, Ann.)

On the good side, everything in the box has a label this month--I think for the first time. On the not-so-good side, some of the labels are a little cryptic. Take "barrel cut New York", beef in appearance. Barrel cut is a center cut which Google says is from the tenderloin. Does the New York bit mean it's center-cut NY strip? Well, no matter, I'm going to treat it like a steak.
Now, the "boar roast": this looks like a 2-rib bone-in pork chop. Does "boar" signify wild boar (thus needing to be treated like game) or just a more manly term for the super-sized cut? I could call and ask, but I'm betting it's domestic pork and will use it that way. Stuffed pork chop, maybe? Or brine it and grill with an interesting rub...we'll see. I think it's going in the freezer for now.
The small brisket will also require thought, though maybe I'll just use a regular brisket recipe and a very small pot for the long slow cooking called for. It's seasoned, so may have to adjust the recipe I choose based on what the seasoning seems to be once I open the package.
 I'm still working on things to do with the bacon burger--it's great tasting stuff made into a burger, but too fatty to grill. The pre-made meatloaf is first up--I'm cooking that for tonight's dinner, and we'll find leftovers for the nephew (doesn't like beef) and my brother (trying to cut back on red meat).