You can now have dry-aged côte de boeuf and other top-quality meat delivered to your home

We are increasingly having groceries delivered to our homes. Especially during the coronavirus era, it is a convenient option. It is not for nothing that the online grocery services of the major supermarkets are currently doing good business. So why not have the finest meat from your favorite butcher delivered to your home too?

The much-acclaimed butcher shop Chateaubriand (Heemstede) has now opened a webshop where you can order all your favorite meat and charcuterie, including meatboxes with exclusive dry-aged meat. The butcher is Johan van Uden, a driven professional obsessed with his craft and one of only five officially recognized master butchers in the Netherlands (and yes, it is an incredibly demanding program to earn that title, so he really knows his meat). He is also co-founder of The Butcher Academy, a practical training program for young ambitious butchers who want to learn the trade in the traditional way (think boning, sausage-making and cutting meat). It is not for nothing that butcher Johan is a regular contender on our annual Favorflav Food Top 100 list of culinary tastemakers.

Dry-aging

The meat from this butcher shop, sourced from the Scottish Highlands, is dry-aged in a maturing chamber specially designed for the shop. In a sealed glass cell, the meat slowly matures at a controlled temperature (between 0°C and 1°C) and humidity (85%). During this aging process, moisture evaporates from the meat (resulting in around thirty percent weight loss) and muscle tissue is broken down by enzymes. After aging (for at least three weeks), the meat looks black on the outside and feels hard to the touch. The natural black crust protects the meat from drying out and bacterial growth during aging. Once the dry black parts have been trimmed off, what remains is exceptionally tender and incredibly flavorful meat.

Meatbox

The ultimate treat for any true carnivore is the Chateaubriand Family Box. It does come at a price (€150), but in return you get an amazing box of various dry-aged specialties delivered to your door. The family box includes, among other things: four-week-aged dry-aged entrecôtes, dry-aged côte de Boeuf (also aged for four weeks), Aberdeen Angus beef burgers, homemade oxtail ragout, classic beef hachee with apple syrup, bavette steak, beef chuck steaks and oxtail soup.

Carnivore candy store

Those who do not want to go for a complete box can also order individual specialties from this carnivore candy store. Think pâtés, veal sweetbread sausages (époisses saucisson) and Belgian veal liver sausage. Naturally, everything is homemade. Parma hams imported directly from Parma (Italy), as well as Turel (Spain) and Trevelez (Spain), can also be ordered online. So can game and poultry from small-scale French farms, such as 100-day free-range Label Rouge Poulet Bleu chickens, quails and Anjou pigeons.
Another nice feature is the generous selection of less common products, such as offal from the so-called Fifth Quarter (a whole poached veal tongue and veal brains and cheeks), homemade stocks, broths and sauces, as well as jars of duck fat.

Image: Remko Kraaijeveld

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