The best way to cook beef depends on the cut that you are planning to serve. Please see suggestions below each individual cut listing for a suggested recipe and method of cooking. We will also have a cooking/recipes section coming soon!

A lot of Range Market farmers and ranchers live in remote areas which makes shipping overnight impossible. Food safety is a top concern for Range Market, and freezing the meat before it ships helps guarantee the product will arrive properly stored when it gets to your doorstep.

Only defrost your beef if you plan to consume it within 24-36 hours. The best way to do this is to place it in your refrigerator 24-36 hours ahead of cooking, unless it’s a very large cut which will require more time. If you need to thaw the beef last minute, place your beef in a resealable plastic bag and submerge the beef in a large bowl of cold water for 1-2 hours, depending on thickness. Change the water every 30 minutes.

Most of the beef you purchase directly from farmers/ranchers will not be USDA graded. This means it will not have a label declaring it “Prime,” “Choice,” “Select,” etc. The reason for this is in the small USDA-inspected plants, it’s an extra cost to have a USDA packer on staff. Most of the small, local plants do not want to incur any extra costs to grade beef that would then be passed on to the rancher and consumer. However, Range Market knows all the beef sold on the site is prime-raised with care, compassion, and the use of sustainable practices.

Beef cattle are ruminants, which means their diet must contain forages such as grass or hay. The vast majority of beef cattle begin their lives on pasture and stay on pasture until it is time to be weaned from their mother. Then, the ones destined for meat production will get finished with supplemental grains, such as corn. This speeds up the process of getting the animal ready for processing and increases efficiency. This is considered a grain-fed animal. Animals that are solely grass-fed stay on forages their entire lives and are not supplemented with grain.
Many Range Market farmers will have “grass-fed, grain-finished” beef, which means those animals spend about 6-9 months on pastures before being “finished” on a diet of forage and supplemental grain for 2-4 months.
The meat from grain-fed animals will also contain more marbling, which is the fat responsible for a lot of the flavor and tenderness of beef. Grass-fed beef typically has a more yellow-colored fat and is leaner, while also containing less calories (because there is less fat).

Dry-aged beef is beef hung (stored) in a temperate-controlled environment from a couple of weeks to several months or more before being cut into the steaks you see served on your plate. During the time in storage, naturally-occurring chemical changes happen to make the beef more flavorful and tender.

NHTC stands for “non-hormone treated cattle” and it mean these particular cattle have never been treated with hormones at any time in their life. NHTC cattle are not proven to be safer nor healthier than cattle that have been treated with hormones. All hormones that are approved for use in beef cattle are FDA approved and do not pose a danger to human consumption.

Antibiotic-free cattle have never been given an antibiotic in their life. Antibiotics are a safe and necessary means to treat a sick animal. All antibiotics used in beef cattle have a withdrawal date, meaning that they cannot be given a certain number of days before slaughter. This ensures all meat you consume from animals sold on Range Market, whether given an antibiotic or not is safe, healthy, and nutritious. There is zero risk of you actually consuming an antibiotic an animal was given at some point in their life.

Range Market requires all of our producers to sign a Terms of Use agreement, ensuring that among many things, they follow a set of animal welfare guidelines laid out by Range Market, which include following BQA (Beef Quality Assurance) guidelines. Range Market feels very strongly no animal should endure unjust or undue pain and suffering. Range Market takes animal welfare issues very seriously. Producers are subject to random animal welfare checks.

The products containing any additional ingredients would be those such as sausage, jerky, etc. In this case, the producers are required to list the ingredients used in those products either on the labels themselves and/or within the listing.

It’s up to each individual processor on how the ground beef is mixed. When ground beef is labeled as “90/10” in the grocery store, it means it contains 90% lean beef and 10% fat. The plants Range Market farmers use will often just label their beef as being a specific mix. Often, the ground beef you purchase from Range Market will be quite lean, but it works great in ALL recipes – from burgers on the grill to meatloaf and everything in between.

All of the beef sold on Range Market is required to be butchered at a USDA inspected facility. This means USDA inspectors must be present at these meat-processing plants when animals are processed, ensuring and verifying food safety and animal care stands are met.

Each producer will choose a USDA inspected facility that is easily accessible and close to their farms. This minimizes the amount of time animals spend traveling to a butcher, which creates less stress for the animal and less cost to the farmer and to you, the consumer.

Inspection is different than grading (refer to the question about grading). Inspectors are required at all USDA inspected plants for food safety purposes but are not required to grade the beef as "prime", "choice", etc.

It’s a good idea to be home when your shipment arrives or arrange for someone to put it in a freezer or refrigerator shortly after arrival. It’s important your beef remains frozen until you wish to consume it.

The farmers and ranchers are very proud of their cattle, land, and operations. They would love to give you a tour when time permits! However, please contact them directly and do not just drive to their farm or ranch. They are all very busy people, and it is important that you work with them to find availability.

Please contact the producer ASAP. Range Market will not guarantee any changes or cancellations, but the producer will work with you prior to shipment to accommodate your request. After shipment, it is not possible to change or cancel your order.

Range Market only stores personal information regarding its customers (name, address, email). All credit card information is stored with our payment processor, Stripe. Stripe states: “All card numbers are encrypted on disk with AES-256. Decryption keys are stored on separate machines.”

There are two reasons for this: 1) many Range Market producers live in rural locations, and 2) they often have secondary jobs, as income generated from the farm/ranch doesn’t sustain the family by itself. Shipping on set schedules is more manageable than shipping daily.

Please email support@rangemarket.com with your questions, comments, and concerns. We will respond as soon as possible.

Each producer will have details on how they ship product on their profile. All meat will ship with dry ice and/or ice packages in the container, but the containers may differ from producer to producer. Please see the individual producer profiles for more details on this or contact them directly.

Range Market will send a confirmation email with tracking information for you.

Please email support@rangemarket.com and someone will respond as quickly as possible.

You are always welcome to contact the producer directly and/or you can email support@rangemarket.com. We would love to hear from you!

At this time, we do not have the ability to donate meat directly. However, we do have a product you can purchase on Range Market that goes directly to helping feed hungry children.
Please go to the Beefsticks for Backpacks producer profile and store, where you can purchase high quality protein beef sticks that are really tasty. For every stick you purchase, one is donated to the Beefsticks for Backpacks program which helps kids in need in the state of Colorado.

This is a question we are very proud to answer. Over 90% of the profit from Range Market goes directly back to the producers. Range Market only keeps a small percentage to cover overhead costs (transaction fees, legal costs, etc.), and it is far less than the producers would pay to run their own websites. The whole objective of Range Market is to allow producers to make more profit selling on our site than they would selling their cattle conventionally. We want to ensure that happens!

Each farm or ranch which sells products on Range Market is required to sign a Seller Agreement, which you can review on the site. It states they will abide by our rules and regulations, which include our animal welfare policy. Range Market also periodically reviews shipments from each producer to ensure quality metrics are met.

If you are a producer who would like to sell your meat on Range Market, please email cassi@rangemarket.com. She will be in touch with you about joining our family of producers!

You can expect your beef to arrive frozen solid. A gentle softening may occur around the edges, but the beef can be refrozen if less than 1/8" is affected. This is most likely to occur if you live in a warm climate, or if the box will be left on the porch after delivery.
If the meat is completely thawed out, please let your producer know within 24 hours and make sure and take photos/documentation. DO NOT eat the beef if it is warm to the touch.
Also, if you need special delivery (more dry ice, delivery on a certain day, etc.) please make those comments clear on the order.