The best meat delivery and subscription boxes tried and tested 2024

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Best meat boxes at a glance

• Best meat box for a BBQ: Field & Flower 30 portions value box, £53.21
• Best Wagyu meat box: Fine Food Specialists Butcher’s Wagyu Box, £87.95
• Best meat box for the essentials: Tom Hixson the Essentials meat Box, £45
• Best for gifting: DukesHill Meat Lover’s Hamper, £130
• Best meat and fish box: Piper’s Farm Surf and Turf BBQ Box, £56.80
• Best healthy meat box: MuscleFood Build Your Own Box, from £30
• Best meat box for a small family: Abel & Cole Marvellous Meat Box, from £19.50
• Best meat box for classic cuts: Riverford Essentials Meat Box, from £22.35
• Best meat box for freezing: Farmison & Co Eat Better Meat Essentials Box, from £40
• Best meat box for interesting cuts: HG Walter Butchers Cuts Box, from £27
• Best traditional butcher’s meat box: Parson’s Nose Medium Meat Box, from £60
• Best meat box for variety: Swaledale Chef’s Choice Box, £68.45

Best meat boxes to buy in 2024

Available from Field & Flower (£53.21)

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Best meat box for a BBQ

Established in 2011, Field & Flower began by rescuing grass-fed beef from the food chain and selling beef boxes. Since then, it’s launched an online subscription service, and offers fish, meat, poultry and deli items – all while continuing to support animal welfare and local farmers.

Meat boxes from the range tend to include less expensive, sometimes underrated cuts that are still high-quality. We tried the ’30 portions value box’, which comprises pork rib-eye steaks, Cumberland sausages, pork & sage chipolatas, chicken legs, piri-piri chicken drumsticks, beef mince and diced chicken leg fillet.

Everything arrived fresh with recyclable ice packs, and was vacuum-packed in plastic. No cooking instructions were included, but there are recipes on the Field & Flower website.

We barbecued the majority of items and were impressed by the results. The chicken legs caramelised nicely, and the pork rib-eye steaks had a good thickness. The sausages, though clearly handmade and not quite uniform in size, were packed with flavour, and the burgers we made with the beef mince were succulent and held together well.

At £1.77 per portion, we felt it was a great example of how you can enjoy sustainably sourced, quality meat without breaking the bank – and we enjoyed sampling a more diverse selection of cuts that we wouldn’t usually reach for in the supermarket.

Available from:

Fine Food Specialists butcher’s wagyu box

Available from Fine Food Specialists (£87.95)

Fine Food Specialists is a destination for professional chefs as well as avid home cooks, offering access to gourmet produce and hard-to-find ingredients, from caviar to seasonal hand-foraged mushrooms.

In this box, you’ll find three cuts of wagyu beef: a generously sized wagyu bavette steak, two chuck denver steaks and a rack of fabulously marbled wagyu short ribs. To accompany your steak, there’s also bone marrow butter, which combines bone marrow with seasoned butter to give your steak a peppery, savoury finish.

The box arrived frozen, and we were impressed that none of the meat had begun to defrost, even though it was delivered on a warm day. We enjoyed the chuck denver steaks, which had beautiful fat marbling with an intense flavour – we seared them in a frying pan before topping with the bone marrow butter. We slow-cooked the short ribs for a few hours, and opened the lid to unbelievably tender meat, which we paired with tacos and guacamole. With the bavette steak, we kept things simple: in a ripping hot pan, we seared the steak for 3 mins on each side, then let the steak rest. There was plenty of meat, meaning we were able to get four meals out of this cut – with the first, we enjoyed a simple steak dinner for two with chips, peppercorn sauce and a simple salad, and with the leftovers, we made steak lettuce cups with a punchy lime, soy & fish sauce dressing.

Available from:

Fine Food Specialists (£87.95)

Tom Hixson The Essentials meat box

Available from Tom Hixson (£45)

Best meat box for the essentials

In terms of value for money, it’s hard to fault The Essentials meat box. For the £45 price tag, you receive two 200g Argentine grass-fed rib-eye steaks, eight 150g marrow dry-aged steak burgers and a whole 1.4kg French corn-fed chicken.

We were impressed by the quality of the meat, with the steaks in particular being a highlight. We also enjoyed the burgers, which had great flavour and were particularly juicy.

The chicken was generously sized. We kept it simple and used it for a classic Sunday roast.

One downside we noted with the Tom Hixson box was the lack of clarity around storage and use-by dates. Packaging includes a reusable freezer bag with ice blocks, but no leaflets detailing storage or cooking instructions.

The website notes that the marrow dry-aged steak burgers are shipped frozen and may defrost during transit. As such, they do not advise refreezing upon arrival. It is worth pointing out, though, that the burgers are vacuum-packed and do not have any labelling, meaning we needed to dig around on the website for this information.

For clarity, the whole chicken does not ship frozen and can be frozen upon arrival, while the burgers and steaks should not be refrozen – consume these as soon as possible after they have defrosted.

Given the amount of meat in this box and the fact that, during our testing, we did notice the burgers and steaks defrosting, it would be worth planning out your meals ahead of time to ensure there is no waste upon delivery. This box would be ideal if you’re planning a big family barbecue this summer, offering variety, quality and taste at a reasonable price.

Available from:

Tom Hixson (£45)

DukesHill Meat Lover’s Hamper

Available from DukesHill (£130)

Best for gifting

This decadent hamper is a perfect present for anyone who prioritises savoury over sweet. Filled with a variety of classic meat cuts, there’s something for every occasion in here, from picnics to hearty dinners. DukesHill is known for its ham, and a generous 1.2kg joint is the star of the show in this hamper – cut it into thick slices for a classic gammon steak, or serve in thin slivers as part of a ploughman’s lunch. The addition of bacon and sausages will mean you can cook the ultimate full English, while the two rich, meltingly tender confit duck legs will make a special dinner for two. We also loved the porchetta joint as a showstopping centrepiece – a cut of meat that’s trickier to find in supermarkets but a breeze to cook and easy to carve. A traditional pork pie and jars of pâté and sticky chorizo jam (add to burgers or serve alongside a cheeseboard) complete the loaded basket. Plenty of the meat can be frozen, too, if you can’t eat it all in time.

Everything comes delivered in a classic wicker basket and stayed perfectly chilled. It’s ideal as a gift for a meat-lover, or a great way to stock up for a special occasion.

Available from:
DukesHill (£130)

Pipers Farm Surf and Turf BBQ box

Available from Pipers Farm (£55.80)

Best meat and fish box

Sustainability is at the heart of everything Pipers Farm does. By working with small-scale family farms both Pipers Farm and the farmers are able to agree a fair price for the food they produce. Livestock is grown slowly; only select breeds, native to the specific areas of the country are reared. Animals are given the time to grow at a natural pace and allowed to graze in the farmland and countryside that is familiar to them.

The Surf and Turf box serves four to six and features two grass-fed sirloin steaks, one monkfish tail and six hand-dived scallops (with roe). The meat and fish arrived vacuum packed and fully frozen. It even came with a generously sized box of Maldon salt, which was a welcome surprise. As this box was only feeding two at the time of testing, we split it into its component parts and cooked them individually. The ingredients felt high-quality and would make the perfect addition to a barbecue.

The two sirloin steaks were generously sized, though notably, were on the thinner side. To cook, we placed them in a ripping hot cast iron pan, searing on both sides so they remained a perfect medium rare. Both steaks had a substantial and flavoursome fat cap that crisped up well in the hot pan, with marbling throughout the beef that added to the overall flavour. The monkfish tail was large enough to get six portions out of. If you’re searching for inspiration, the packaging includes a QR code that links out to recipe ideas. With the tail delivered whole and with the bone in, it’s a versatile offering; great for the grill or slicing up into individual rounds. Meaty and bursting with flavour, this monkfish paired brilliantly with a fragrant coconut curry. And not forgetting the scallops: plump and juicy, these needed little more than searing and basting with butter.

All meat and fish came vacuum-packed to avoid leaks and spills. The cardboard box was fully recyclable, as were the insulated packaging elements. Delivery to UK mainland addresses is Tuesday-Friday between 8am to 7pm for standard delivery and between 8am and 12pm for express deliveries. The courier delivering the Surf and Turf box provided excellent communication throughout, so we knew exactly when to expect the delivery. Whilst this is one of the smaller boxes on this list, you’re paying for the quality of the produce provided. If you’re after a versatile box of delicious and high-quality ingredients, perfect for creative cooks or to impress at a barbecue, this Surf and Turf box is worth every penny.

Available from:
Pipers Farm (£55.80)

MuscleFood build your own box

Available from MuscleFood (£30)

Best healthy meat box

MuscleFood is a delivery service which aims to bring convenient, high-quality, lean protein right to your door. Along with its range of fresh ingredients, it also offers lunch pots and tailored meal plans to make it easy for you to prep healthy meals and meet your nutritional goals.

MuscleFood offers a range of boxes, starting at £30 to feed two people for a week and going up to £100 to feed a family or stock up the freezer. The frequency of delivery is up to you, and you can choose what you get depending on the meals you’re planning to make. So, whether you’ve been craving healthy burgers, homemade bolognese or spicy jerk chicken, it has got you covered.

We tried the £50 box and were surprised to find so much inside. It was filled with lunch pots (whole meals in one, such as Thai chicken and rice or a sausage, beans and potato pot), lean steaks, burgers, beef mince, chicken, tuna and sausages – more than enough for two. At first we were overwhelmed by the amount of protein, especially as some had short use-by dates. However, we planned every meal for the week (and stuck anything freezable in the freezer) and eating it all soon became a manageable task.

Our favourites? The chicken was juicy and flavoursome, the lunch pot healthy yet filling and the peri peri steak hache was a delicious surprise. When served with salad, all provided a nutritious meal. However, we did feel the tuna, sausages and beef steaks were simply supermarket quality and lacked flavour. And we couldn’t help but notice how much plastic had been used for packaging.

Overall, the biggest pro of MuscleFood is how easy it makes eating a healthy, high-protein diet. For anyone looking to do so, this box could be for them.

Available from:
MuscleFood (from £30)

Abel & Cole Marvellous meat box

Available from Abel & Cole (£19.50)

Best meat box for a small family

Abel & Cole offers organic British meat boxes as part of its growing range of extras that can be delivered with its weekly organic fruit and vegetable boxes. Organic farming has always been front and centre for Abel & Cole, so when it comes to its meat boxes, it is championing free-range, 100% organic, high-welfare or sustainably wild food. We tried the Marvellous meat box but there is also a Seasonal meat box, Quick ’n’ Simple meat box, and several meat options paired with sustainable fish.

The Marvellous meat box we received included three items: 400g of diced chicken leg from a farm in Devon, 400g of minced beef from Daylesford, and two Abel & Cole farmed pork escalopes, together weighing 320g. Although the meat didn’t come with recipe suggestions, the Abel & Cole website has some brilliant recipes, which are promoted from the purchase page. Using the chicken leg we made sticky lemon and sesame chicken with steamed pak choi and rice; with the beef, a bolognese sauce with a cup of split red lentils for the freezer; and breadcrumbed the pork to make schnitzels. Both the chicken and beef cooked well, not releasing too much water, and tasting flavourful. The pork had more fat than expected but, cooked another way, it could have melted.

You can’t choose the delivery day as your box will be delivered when the vans are in the area (in order to be minimise the environmental impact of deliveries), which will be the same day every week. Apart from that, subscribing is flexible – you can buy boxes as a one-off or at intervals of up to eight weeks. Leave out the cardboard box and any other packaging the night before and it will be collected when the next box is delivered. There’s a flat-rate delivery charge of £1.99.

The meat products arrived in a cardboard box, with ice packs surrounding the meat, which itself was wrapped with Woolcool – insulation packaging made from British sheep wool. The unconventional packaging worked well as the meat was still cold when we unpacked the box. We returned the cardboard box, defrosted ice packs and Woolcool to the driver the following week.

The price for the Marvellous meat box was £17.50, which is fairly priced when the high quality farming methods are factored in.

Available from:
Abel & Cole (£19.50)

Riverford essentials meat box

Available from Riverford (£22.35)

Best for classic cuts

Riverford may be best known for its organic fruit and veg, all grown on its own farms, but this organic principle extends to meat, too. Meat comes from its organic butchery in Devon, sourced from West Country farmers and chosen from traditional breeds for the best flavour.

Our small essentials box included just three items: a two-pack of chicken breast fillets, 450g of beef mince and 6 pork sausages (400g). You can’t customise the box, but there’s a wide range of individual meat items to choose from on the Riverford website that you could add to your order. For £1 more, you could choose the Butcher’s Choice box instead, which contains a 500g beef roasting joint, 300g of beef mince and two-pack of chicken legs.

The three items are familiar staples, but we still appreciated the cooking suggestions on each one with ideas on how to use them (such as meatballs, burgers, ragus, chillies or pies for the beef mince) which would be useful if you subscribed to this box regularly and were beginning to run out of inspiration. We chose to freeze the meat and the packaging has clear freezing instructions. Everything froze and defrosted well: after defrosting overnight in the fridge, our sausages cooked perfectly in the oven without bursting, were golden and crisp on the outside and juicy inside. A simple banger perfect for sausages and mash, and nicely herby to work well in a full English breakfast. The chicken breasts were a much more generous size than supermarket basics and were great for for a chicken pie, while the beef mince was tender and flavourful.

You can choose to get the box just as a one-off, or once every week, two, three or four weeks. Riverford delivers on specific days based on postcode in order to keep food miles down and follow the most efficient delivery route – our day was a Wednesday and this could not be changed. You can leave delivery instructions if you will be out. If you are going to be away, you can pause and cancel selected deliveries without cancelling the full subscription.

Compared to buying meat in a supermarket, this is a more expensive way to purchase three staple items. However, the quality of the meat is high and reflects the premium cost of organic produce, and encourages you to think of meat as more of a treat. Meat boxes can often be large quantities, so this compact version is great for couples.

Available from:
Riverford (£22.35)

Farmison & Co Eat Better Meat™ Essentials Box

Available from Farmison & Co. (from £40)

Best meat box for freezing

This award-winning online butcher is based in the Yorkshire Dales, working with smallholding farmers that rear heritage breeds to create meat with more marbling and flavour. Cuts in the Essentials box change every four weeks, but include the likes of heritage breed minced lamb, bavette steak and pork belly steak, as well as smoked back bacon, sausage and a half chicken. All meat is freezable and each box comes with a couple of recipes, plus there are links provided in the confirmation email with step-by-step cooking instructions tailored to each cut.

There are various subscription options depending on household size and needs. The Essentials box includes enough meat for 10 meals for two, while the Large Essentials feeds two for 15 meals, and the family box contains enough meat for 10 meals for a family of four. You can buy as a one-off, or get a subscription delivered every week, fortnight or four weeks. Packaging is recyclable and easy to box down so not too bulky in your kitchen.

The high quality of the meat and variety in cuts provide excellent value, and we also recommend exploring some of Farmison & Co’s great-value showstopping seasonal joints, including seven-day dry-aged whole leg of lamb and 32-day dry-aged rib of beef.

Available from:
Farmison & Co. (from £40)

HG Walter Butchers’ Cuts Box

Best meat box for interesting cuts

Available from HG Walter (£33)

Supplying some of the best chefs and restaurants in London, HG Walter sources its meat predominantly from small farms rearing free-range native breeds, such as Hereford and Aberdeen Angus cattle. Sustainability is a priority for the farmers from whom HG Walter sources, with livestock contributing to a biodiverse landscape.

We all know that prime cuts – fillet, sirloin and rump steaks, for example – are much in demand, but the Butchers’ Cuts box aims to encourage customers to try ‘lesser cuts’ as they adapt to a more sustainable way of eating. Products arrived fresh and individually vacuum-packed and were suitable for freezing.

These were two onglet steaks (200g each). Also known as hanger steaks, because they hang beneath the diaphragm, these lesser known steaks are best flash-fried and served rare. Check out our guide on cooking with onglet for more tips. We also recieved two pork chump steaks (250g each). The equivalent of a beef rump steak, they have a nice marbling of fat running through them so are good for marinating and cooking slowly, but they also make good schnitzel: tenderise them with a meat hammer, then dip them in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and fry for a few minutes on each side. Use them instead of escalopes in this recipe for pork schnitzels. The four chicken drumsticks included (380g) were so versatile. Roast, slow cook or dry rub with herbs and spices, and gently cook on the BBQ or soak in buttermilk, coat in seasoned flour and deep fry as seen in these chicken drumstick recipes.

There was also one beef tri tip (400g), a triangular steak bursting with beefiness from the bottom of the rump. Finally, we had four lamb neck chops (500g) which are wonderful in a stew or a curry. Marinate in ginger, garlic and spices, and cook them low and slow for 1-2 hours.

Products arrived in a simple, neat cardboard box with no freezer bags or padding. There is nationwide delivery to postcodes throughout the UK (except Highlands and Islands) four days a week, from Tuesday to Friday; next-day delivery on orders placed before 12pm. Minimum basket value is £40 and orders under £60 are charged £8.50 delivery fee. Orders over £60 qualify for free delivery, after discount codes or discounts are applied.

We created five meals for a family of four with the meat in the Butchers’ Cuts box. Not only was it great value for money, but also introduced us to some cuts we were unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, there were no cooking instructions or recipe cards, which would have been helpful, but there are plenty of recipes on the HG Walter website.

Available from:
HG Walter (£33)

Parson’s Nose medium meat box

Best traditional butcher’s meat subscription

Available from Parson’s Nose (from £90)

The ethos of this family-run West London butcher is to bring back the traditional butchers’ shop, which it has successfully achieved in three high street shops and a thriving online business. All meat is free range and comes fresh from the counter in minimal packaging, and is suitable for freezing.

There are plenty of meat subscription options to choose from depending on household size (small, medium and large), plus the option of a mixed meat and fish box. The small box feeds two people for four meals, while the medium box covers four people for four meals, with cuts including a whole Sutton Hoo free range chicken, South Downs pork chops, and prime Scottish chuck steak. As a great extra touch, all the meat boxes also include a box of the season’s best fresh vegetables, therefore providing you with complete meals. You can buy the boxes as a one-off, or get a subscription delivered every week or four weeks.

The Parson’s Nose’s BBQ box is also a great option if you are looking for easy entertaining, with cuts including a Scottish dry-aged T-bone steak, South Downs pork chops and traditional pork sausages, alongside marinated chicken kebabs to pop straight on the grill.

Available from:
Parson’s Nose (from £90)

The Swaledale Chef’s Choice meat box

Best meat box for variety

Available from Swaledale (£68.45)

Swaledale is an online ‘whole-carcass butcher’ based in the Yorkshire Dales, offering a huge variety of cuts of meat, from beef, lamb and chicken to mutton, venison and game. They combine these offerings into curated meat boxes for every occasion – from the Artisan Steak box for exploring different cuts to a Barbecue Meat box or ones focusing on heritage breeds.

We tested out the Chef’s Choice box, which combines well-known staples with some less familiar cuts. It came in a smartly labelled cardboard box with ice packs to keep the meat cool and all items were vacuum-packed and clearly labelled. We were slightly confused as all the meat had the same best before date of just a couple of days after delivery, including bacon, which usually lasts a couple of weeks in the fridge. We decided to freeze some of our meat to spread it out – the sausages and sausagemeat both froze and defrosted easily. There was no information on the cuts or suggested recipes included with the box, which would be useful for some of the less familiar cuts, such as the large pig’s cheek and pork shoulder chop, as these are tricky to find recipes for. However, all the items are also sold individually on the website and some have more information or suggested cooking methods there.

The Yorkshire breakfast sausages were a surefire hit as part of a weekend full English, cooking evenly and with lots of flavour. We used the spicy, well-seasoned lamb merguez sausages to make sausage rolls with a difference, while the red wine-infused sausagemeat was perfect for a tender ragu. The bacon was incredibly smoky and would add a big depth of flavour if used in risottos or stews. We’ve previously only ever cooked individual small pig’s cheeks, so it was enjoyable to experiment with a large smoked 750g pig’s cheek, slow-cooked to melting tenderness. Our box also contained bone marrow, a pork chop and a hefty kilo piece of salt beef.

At just under £70 (plus £9 delivery), this box is guaranteed to keep you busy in the kitchen. It’s great for combining familiarity (sausages, bacon) with unusual cuts and styles of meat you’d usually only find in restaurants, which will definitely help push your cooking skills.

Available from:
Swaledale (£68.45)

How we tested the meat boxes

Key terms explained

Organic farming means that natural resources on the farm are protected. Chemicals such as artificial fertilisers and pesticides are not used on the soil, so the animals roam on natural land and avoid ingesting artificial substances. Organic farming also means more biodiversity in the farm, as there’s an absence of veterinary medicines like antibiotics in rearing livestock, an avoidance of genetic modification and livestock do not have additives in their feed. Read our more in-depth guide to the term organic.

Sustainable farming

This means running a farm that takes into consideration the environment and public health. This can take the form of using renewable energy sources on the farm or efficient recycling methods, such as collecting rain water to irrigate crops or re-using crop waste or manure to fertilise soil.

High-welfare

Meat coming from high-welfare farms means that the animals’ well-being is prioritised. This means they’re largely free to roam, have ample access to the outdoors and their environments are kept clean and comfortable. For poultry, it also means they have enrichment, such as perches or toys, to help reduce stress.

Heritage breeds

Livestock that are ‘heritage breeds’ have been around before industrial agriculture and generally stayed in the same environment, so they are well adapted to their local habitat. They have fuller flavour and generally more marbling.

Regenerative meat

This refers to meat that is not only grass-fed and organic, but also produced by farmers using regenerative agriculture. This aims to reverse effects of climate change by rebuilding organic matter in soil and restoring degraded soil biodiversity. Regenerative meat meets specific criteria to enhance the environment, soil health and animal welfare, and the farms treat workers ethically and fairly.

Wild-range meat

Animals that are wild-range are free to roam and eat from re-wilded land, which is rich in natural herbs and bark. This method of eating means they are slow-grown (not unnaturally fattened up), which creates richer meat.

Dry-aged

A technique where meat (specifically beef and sometimes lamb) is stored in a controlled environment (temperature, humidity, air circulation) until the natural enzymes of the meat breaks down, making it more tender and maximising flavour.

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