What hanging weight means.

Hanging weight is the carcass weight after the head, hide, and offal are removed but before the butcher trims the carcass into individual cuts. It is the most honest way to price a beef share because it is what the butcher actually weighs.

A quarter beef from us is typically 150 to 170 pounds of hanging weight. You'll get back approximately sixty to sixty-five percent of that as packaged, freezer-ready meat — so figure ninety to a hundred and ten pounds in your freezer. The difference is bone, fat, and trim. (If you ask, the butcher will save you the bones and the suet for free; just write it on the cut sheet.)

Speaking of the cut sheet: we email it to you the week after the steer goes to the butcher. It is two pages and looks intimidating. The important boxes are: how thick you want the steaks (one inch is standard), what size roasts you want (three pounds is a good Sunday size), and whether you want the ground beef in one-pound or two-pound packages. The rest you can leave at the defaults. We have done this enough times to know what most people are happy with.

Final question: when do you want the meat? We will text you the moment it's ready. You have a week to pick up; we have a chest freezer for stragglers.