Good Place to buy a whole Ribeye ??? In Austin

Looking for a good place with a good price, to buy a whole ribeye and doesn't matter if its bone in or out.

FYI- If anybody says "Whole Foods" your getting slapped!

Costco. If they don't have one they can order you one fairly quick.

My first checks would be Sam's Costco and heb.

I assure you that you will be better off getting two 9th through 12th ribeyes tha getting one whole one.

you might call Parker's Corner Store in Liberty Hill. They have a really nice meat market with fresh cut steaks ... They might have some on hand or can order. There used to be a place in Round Rock, west side of IH35 a few miles on Sam Bass road called the Purple Onion that had a great meat market too (not sure if they are still around, haven't been in several years once I found Parker's, think they might have been owned by same people???). Although I work in Austin, rarely shop there ...

HEB.

Costco

Costco, good meat department with god cuts of meat

HEB have all grades or rib eyes and can cut them as you like.

Cosco, although a lot of people on here don't think "grade" makes a difference.

On a ribeye, sure it does. On a brisket that your going to cook for 10+ hours, not nearly as much.

I have gotten them from Sam's Club in the past and they turned out great.

At Sam's they only sell choice steaks whether cut or whole. You can get either ribeye or strips whole.
At Costco you can get choice or prime cut or whole.
For prime whole, it's about $2.00/lb more. Not too bad.

COSTCO on 183 has some really good meat. Just ask them for a whole one in the cryo-pack if they don't have any out. I like to wet age mine in the frig for a week or two before cooking.

Restaurant depot. I35 in north Austin. WHOLESALE prices

can just anyone walk in there and buy?

I see a lot of Costco on here. In our area (Southlake, Northeast Tarrant County), leaving out the obvious lower line stores like Kroger, Costco had the worst meat department I have experienced. The Sam's here is much better, but not on par with some others. More on that later.

If I am reading it right, the OP is wanting a whole ribeye, but doesn't say if he is cutting it up into steaks or wants to dry age it. If you want to dry age, you want more than a whole ribeye in a cryopac because those have been trimmed. As they age, you will lose a good piece of the scarapelli muscle which is the best part. For aging, you really want what is called a 107 by butchers. Your average store "meat cutter" won't know what a 107 is because they are not butchers. A 107 still has the fat cap intact to protect from actual meat loss in the aging process. Otherwise, if you just want to trim steaks off of them, there are plenty of suppliers with decent meat.

Someone mentioned prime. Prime beef is very hard to get. You won't find it at Costco certainly. Prime is the top 1-2% of all beef produced and is, for the most part, reserved for top end restaurants and such. Choice is your next grade and it can vary quiet a bit. A good choice meat is excellent. In our area we are lacking a good mom and pop type butcher to get the type of things we want. I have researched pretty hard about who has what here. Market Street, Whole Foods and Central Market (an HEB knock-off) have excellent meat departments here. Interestingly enough, out of Costco, Sam's, Market Street, Central Market and Whole Foods....only Whole Foods offers a 107 prime rib in this area. They have to order it, but they have it and the quality is very good. The guy at our local store is working with me on pricing too. So slap me. The meat counter people at most of the others had no idea what it was. To me, that is scary. Further, we have one meat market that I found in this area, Country Meat Market on Lancaster in Fort Worth. I called them and told them what I wanted. He said he had it and offered a good price. When I got down there, he had a cryopacked and trimmed whole ribeye....not a 107 and the price was $2.00/lb. higher than quoted. He went on to tell me that 107's weren't available anymore. BS! But you have to look hard if you live in NE Tarrant County. Makes me jealous of folks that live in areas with good local meat markets.

As a last little tidbit, Central Market has very nice 2" bone-in ribeyes on sale through today at $9.99/lb., which is good in our area.

Good stuff here! I've been using trimmed ribeyes and losing a lot of good meat. I need to look into this 107! Thanks

Rusty,

The thanks goes to you for getting me interested in this and studying it. I have read and read and talked and talked to folks. I have friends that own some nice restaurants and some that are chefs at some high end places like Ocean Prime. I enjoy learning and they have been very helpful. Then it led me to Sous Vide. Ever try that style cooking?

The thanks is to you sir...

I just called my meat guy, good local butcher. He told me the 107 has the rack and cap still on it. He said they used to call them hook slabs because they carried them in on hooks. It's been a while since I visited the shop, might need to go do some research on pricing for something that will fit in my beer fridge. I wish I had one of those caps marinating in some spicy allegro sauce for some fajitas this weekend.

I've tried the sous v, but haven't fell in love with it. I prefer the light doneness or bark on the outside and sometimes a very peppery crusty.

There is some good meat in that cap when you take it off too. A lot of people miss that... As I am told, many butchers will charge you less per pound with a 103 or 107 because you are taking the fat and in some cases chine bones and whatnot. In other words, the total comes out closer to a trimmed product and they don't have to trim it.

I agree... I have been working on it. What I do like about it is that you set the temp and let it go, but it won't be overcooked....and the meat is perfect from edge to edge. The more difficult part is flavor and finish. Sous Vide on its own tends to be, well, bland. I have been marinating/seasoning pre and during the water bath. I then use a cast iron skillet on the grill (Pecan or Mesquite) and get it very hot with a little butter, EVO and garlic. Put Kosher salt and coarse pepper on the steak and place it in the pan. Take a torch and sear it.....both sides. Works pretty good, people like it, but I'm still working through the process. High end restaurants use an "1800" degree oven instead to finish the steaks....and I'm considering that. Like I said, I like to learn. IMHO, the best way to do that is to gather all the info you can and get in there and work at it.

I am a grill and wood guy. No gas. I like what wood does to both flavor and finish on a steak, so it is hard to experiment otherwise.

I'd love to have a broiler.

another vote for your local HEB

I was in Parker's corner store in downtown Liberty Hill last Friday to pick up some stuff for the smoker. They normally have whole ribeyes in their cold storage and can get pretty much anything you want with a day or so notice from their supplier. I had them cut a few 2.5 inch thick Choice ribeyes and picked up a couple of 1.5 inch thick butterflied pork chops, along with some other cuts (burger, beef fajitas, pan sausage, bacon).

You may check with Salt and Time on 7th Street.