If you ask my husband what his favorite part of my job is, he might say it’s the rare occasion when I get to test a meat delivery box. And honestly? I can’t blame him. I can certainly think of worse things to find on my doorstep than a box of frozen steaks and bacon.
I’ve tested countless meal kits for families over the years, plus a handful of meat delivery subscriptions, including ButcherBox. But not long ago, I realized our team hadn’t put Porter Road to the test. Naturally, I volunteered.
I tried the Best of Porter Road Box to see what the brand is all about—and, more importantly, whether the meat lives up to the hype. Here’s how it went.
MARY HENN FOR TASTE OF HOME
This curated meat box lets you sample the best of Porter Road.
What is Porter Road?
Porter Road is essentially an online butcher shop, delivering pasture-raised, dry-aged beef, pork and chicken straight to your door. The company was founded by chefs and butchers Chris Carter and James Peisker, who started with a local butcher shop in Nashville before taking the business online nationwide in early 2018.
The brand sources its meat from family farms in Tennessee, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, where the animals are raised outdoors and fed vegetarian, non-GMO feed without added hormones or antibiotics. Porter Road dry-ages its beef for at least two weeks to boost flavor and tenderness, then hand-cuts every piece at its Kentucky processing facility.
The brand also keeps a close eye on its farm partners, regularly visiting their operations to make sure they meet standards for animal care, outdoor access and feeding practices.
You can shop à la carte, order a one-time box or set up a recurring delivery. Subscriptions are customizable and can arrive every 2, 4 or 8 weeks, so you can keep the freezer stocked without having to remember to reorder.
How We Tested
I tried the Best of Porter Road Box, a curated mix of some of the brand’s most versatile and popular offerings: two bone-in pork chops, 2 pounds of smash-burger blend ground beef, two dry-aged New York strip steaks, a pound of bacon, a pound of country breakfast sausage and a pound of chorizo sausage links.
Overall, I liked the variety. The box includes several family-friendly staples—from burgers and bacon to steaks and sausages—so there’s plenty to work with for weeknight meals.
That said, if I ordered again, I’d probably build my own box. I’d want to try the filet mignon (my favorite steak cut), plus some of the more unusual options, like the Beef vs. Bacon blend, Beef Bacon and Pork Brisket or Pork Wings. Because if I’m going to have a box of meat delivered to my door, I might as well use it as an excuse to try something I can’t easily find at the grocery store.
Pork Chops
MARY HENN FOR TASTE OF HOME
First up: the bone-in pork chops. I usually pan-sear pork chops and finish them in the oven, but with nice weather, I decided to take these outside and smoke them instead. I kept the seasoning simple with salt, pepper and garlic, then smoked them low and slow before cranking up the heat.
I could have reverse-seared them after pulling them off the Traeger, but honestly, they looked so good coming off the grill that I was ready to dig in. (After letting them rest, of course.) And they did not disappoint. The pork was juicy, tender and packed with flavor, even without a marinade, fancy rub or sauce.
My husband noticed the difference, too. His verdict? It was the best pork chop he’d had in a long time.
Country Breakfast Sausage
Sausage is sausage is sausage, right? Wrong. Good, classic pork breakfast sausage seems to be getting harder and harder to find at the grocery store. Even with a pricier option, I’m sometimes met with a weird, rubbery texture or a flavor that just doesn’t taste quite right.
So, I was excited to try what might seem like the least exciting item in the box: the Country Breakfast Sausage. Porter Road has the rights to a special sausage recipe that’s seasoned with sage, ginger, red and black pepper, and brown sugar. The sausage is made with carefully selected trim (just lean meat and back fat), with none of the less desirable bits. And I think you can taste the difference.
I browned some in a skillet for my toddler, who was a big fan when she had it as part of her late-morning weekend breakfast. I tried it on its own, too, and loved the flavor. It was well-seasoned without being overpowering and had just enough fat to be flavorful without feeling too greasy.
But it still had enough grease that I was able to use the rest in a family favorite breakfast: My grandma’s famous biscuits and gravy. And the sausage absolutely delivered. Its flavor came through without overpowering the gravy, and the gravy’s smooth, creamy texture remained intact, which has been a problem before with lower-quality sausage.
Sure, breakfast sausage is inexpensive and easy to find. But this one was good enough that I’d happily buy it again or add it to a future custom box.
Smash Burger Blend
MARY HENN FOR TASTE OF HOME
Porter Road’s Smash Burger Blend puts a twist on the brand’s classic dry-aged ground beef. With a higher 70/30 meat-to-fat ratio, it’s designed to stay tender and juicy when cooked over high heat (and to develop crispy, caramelized edges you want from a smash burger).
My box came with two pounds, and I put the first to work on a rainy day. Since grilling was out, I pan-fried the burgers indoors and served them with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes. Probably the wrong use for this particular beef blend, I’ll admit. For the best smash-burger experience, I’d definitely recommend cooking these on something like a Blackstone, but the skillet did the job.
The first thing I noticed was the texture. The meat was noticeably softer and more tender than the leaner ground beef I typically buy, and my family loved it. I’ll admit (again) I probably over-seasoned the burgers out of habit, as I’m used to doctoring up grocery-store ground beef, but this blend didn’t need much help. The meat had plenty of flavor on its own.
Bacon
MARY HENN FOR TASTE OF HOME
The pork bacon was another weekend breakfast hit. It’s thick-cut, salty and rich, and I cooked it in the oven, AKA the only way I make bacon. (No, my mind won’t be changed.)
Porter Road’s bacon comes from the pork belly and is cured with salt, sugar and celery salt. I cooked mine directly on a sheet pan because my drip grate was dirty. I’d recommend using one, as Porter Road suggests, because the bacon produces a fair amount of grease.
Still, it cooked beautifully and had an incredibly rich, savory flavor. We ate it on its own and in BLTs, and while it was delicious straight from the oven, it was even better on a sandwich. I could also see this bacon being excellent wrapped around steaks or other grilled meats.
One caveat: If you’re sensitive to salty foods, this may be a little much. But for my family, the bold, salty flavor was well-liked.
Pros
- High-quality meat with a noticeable difference in flavor and texture
- Meat arrives vacuum-sealed for freshness
- Most cuts are delivered fresh, not frozen
- Some items, including sausage and ground beef, arrive frozen, and everything can be frozen upon arrival
- Animals are pasture-raised on small, sustainable farms
- Animals are fed vegetarian, non-GMO feed and never given added hormones or antibiotics
- Beef is dry-aged for added flavor and tenderness
- Whole-animal butchery means access to both standard and harder-to-find cuts
- Shop à la carte or choose from pre-curated and customizable boxes
- Choose one-time orders or recurring subscriptions
- Offerings include beef, pork, chicken and house-made sausages
Cons
- Pricey (though pricing is comparable to ButcherBox)
- No seafood or wild game
- Inventory rotates, so some cuts may not always be available
- Not USDA Organic certified, despite sourcing from farms with standards that may exceed baseline organic requirements
- Free shipping isn’t available to every state
Final Verdict
If you care about where your meat comes from, or you’ve simply noticed that grocery-store meat isn’t what it used to be, Porter Road is worth a look. The meat I tried was flavorful, tender and high-quality, comparable to that of a local butcher shop with top quality meats. Plus, I appreciate the brand’s focus on pasture-raised animals, small farms and whole-animal butchery, which helps make use of more of the animal and reduce waste.
I also like that you don’t have to commit to a subscription. You can order individual cuts, choose a curated box or build your own, making it easy to test the waters before signing up for regular scheduled deliveries.
And if you’re looking for a gift for someone who loves to cook, grill or just eat good meat, a Porter Road box would make a pretty great surprise, especially when the whole family is home for the holidays.
Where to Buy
MARY HENN FOR TASTE OF HOME
Try a sampling of the online butcher shop with this curated meat box.
You can shop everything Porter Road has to offer directly from the site. Individual items range from $12 for all-beef, dry-aged hot dogs to $135 for a tomahawk ribeye, while curated boxes range from $49 to $210. The Best of Porter Road Box I tried costs $170.
If you’re shopping for a box to feed the whole family, the Weeknight Heroes Box ($160) and Basics Box ($99) are a good start. The Weeknight Heroes Box includes 9.1 pounds of meat and works out to about $4.10 per serving, while the Basics Box includes 4 pounds at roughly $4.69 per serving. There’s also a 5-pound burger box for $65 that ships frozen.
Porter Road may not be the cheapest way to stock your freezer, but the difference may just be worth the splurge.
FAQ
Is Porter Road worth it?
If you value high-quality, pasture-raised meat and hard-to-find cuts, then Porter Road is worth the cost. And unlike many competitors, you can shop à la carte or order a one-time box without committing to a subscription.
Where does Porter Road ship from?
Porter Road’s meat is processed and hand-cut at its Kentucky facility, but the brand got its start in Nashville.
Is it cheaper to buy meat from a butcher or grocery store?
It’s no secret that grocery stores typically offer cheaper, mass-produced cuts of meat. But local butchers can be a better value for bulk purchases, specialty cuts and sales, while specialty butchers and meat delivery services often offer a noticeable step up in quality.
Why You Should Trust Us
At Taste of Home, we’ve tested numerous meat delivery services, including Snake River Farms, ButcherBox and Good Chop. Some prioritize organic, free-range or ethically raised meat, while others focus on small farms and sustainable butchering practices. And of course, the best services deliver on what matters most: quality, freshness and flavor.
This time around, we put Porter Road, a popular meat delivery company, to the test to find out if it’s actually worth the splurge. Because let’s be honest, you can’t taste meat through a screen. That’s where real-world testing comes in.
