Huge BBQ Lunch Courtesy of Meatcart

Meatcart Online Butcher
http://www.meatcart.com.au/

One of the perks of being a food blogger is being able to try new products and services as they become available. I was approached by Meatcart, a premium online butcher that delivers to your door, to taste some of their products.

I wasn't sure what to expect but one day last week, I got a knock on the door and a guy had a huge bag of goodies for me. It was a chilled freezer bag with a package labelled 'Summer Sizzler Pack - BBQ Master'. I was excited to find a variety of meats, including US ribs, beef sausages, lamb rump steak and beef rump steak.

What better way to sample everything than by having a huge backyard barbie? We called our family and friends over and that's exactly what we did this weekend.

The weather was a perfect example of Queensland at its best. It was pleasantly sunny and warm but not at all uncomfortable. Dad (who had a nightmare of a time cleaning the oven and now lines everything with al foil) got the burners going and did his man-of-the-house thing by being in charge of the meat.

Most of the meat was ready to cook without too much work. I tweaked the lamb by adding some moroccan seasoning and served it with a garlic yoghurt sauce. The beef was simply seasoned with salt and pepper and I used a light and creamy mushroom sauce to go with it. For the ribs, I pre-cooked them on low heat for 3hrs, 3 days in advance and we char-grilled on the barbie to finish. Recipes will be put up soonish and I'll link them when I'm ready.

The sausages cooked through easily and weren't too greasy. Unlike many of the gourmet sausage products you find nowadays, these were simple in flavour and would be perfect for sausage sizzles with your favourite sauce on white bread. Those always remind me of being a kid again (in a good way).

We overcooked the lamb a tad but the beef turned out alright. I liked that the ribs had heaps of meat on them rather than the runty looking racks you get from some butchers that are barely worth the effort of cooking and stripping.

Overall, we had more than enough meat to feed 9 people and there's still tonnes left over in the fridge. This makes the Meatcart BBQ pack great value for entertaining and you don't have the stress of deciding what to get. Alternatively, if you do have specific cuts in mind, you can easily choose individual items from the website. I found the delivery process to be so simple and efficient and as someone who used to buy groceries from Coles Online every fortnight, I can easily see myself using an online butcher like Meatcart.