Need A Butcher? Problem Solved

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of darn good BBQ is the quality of the meat.

Obviously the better the quality, the better the taste. The better the taste, the better your chances are of winning in competitive BBQ. Easier said than done, however. I give you this as an example:

In the town where I live, there is a market chain whose initials are H-H and they are the "know-all-end-all" of meat. NOT! To give you an example, to get St. Louis style ribs trimmed the right way, I had to take the "butchers" a picture of how I wanted them trimmed.

Now, many of you might say, "hey, trim the ribs yourself." I say, "hey, if I'm paying for the meat, I'll have it done my way." But, to no avail, the so called butchers at "H-H" couldn't trim squat. Sorry if I sound frustrated, but I was; until today.

I took the drive from Springfield/Nixa to Kansas City, Kansas to a place called Bichelmeyer Meats; they boast a 60 foot long meat case, so I thought, why not drive up there. OMG!!!

Walked through the doors. A guy asked if he could help me and I told him what I just described above; I'm frustrated and wanted to know if anyone there knew how to trim ribs. That's when I met Matt Bichelmeyer. He was incredible. This guy could trim ribs in his sleep. Come to find out Paul Kirk is his Uncle. And the funny part was his 80+ year-old grandma prefers Matt's ribs over Kirk's.

I was given a grand tour of the store. Well, I shouldn't say store because this family operation grows their own cattle and pigs, slaughters them there on site, butchers them and sells the meat as fresh as you can get.

Folks, if you live within 200 miles of KC, load up some coolers and head for this meat market. I can promise you this, without checking the facts, there's probably not a hand full of places like this left in the US.

For my meat from now on, hands down it's Bichelmeyer's. Google it.