The Carnivore Club

Let me tell you about meat that you can get in the mail. Nope, I’m not joking…not even a little bit. In fact, The Carnivore Club monthly meat box is the ULTIMATE box of meat you can get in the mail. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t believe me because I was a bit skeptical (though quite curious) when Lauren from The Carnivore Club contacted me and asked if I was interested in doing a blog review. I mentioned the email to my boys one night and their reactions echoed my own carnivorous curiosity, though to a much larger extent.

Our sweet little box of cured meats arrived one sunny fall Tuesday and strangely, we didn’t immediately sink our teeth into it. It sat on the counter for a couple of days while I planned out the best way to make use of the contents. Since Friday was game day (football and meat go together like pb & J!), I knew I would need to make a portable, yet filling snack for hubby and myself to eat in the stands, while we watched our son’s game. Our boy is always starving afterwards because he is a starter and plays the entire game. Having an extra snack to hold him off during the long drive home is always well appreciated. One of our favourite ‘football snacks’ are Stromboli; the Italian rolled sandwiches made using pizza dough and filled with assorted meats and cheeses.  Friday morning I began the pizza dough and made some fresh pesto. Then I cracked the Carnivore Club box open and grabbed the first package I saw.
The Spicy Fennel Salami from Urbani Foods was so good that I had a difficult time not eating all the pieces I was cutting for the stromboli. The boys were pretty impressed with the flavour of the sausage, but I don’t think they really got a sense of just how great this Canadian made salami really was until they tried a piece of it all by itself. Luckily, I only used half of the sample in the stromboli and I had plenty left over to serve beside the other meats on our weekly football charcuterie board. Our CFL team may not be doing so well, but we may as well have great snacks while the game is on right? I paired the Carnivore Box cured meats with some olives from the Italian Centre Shop, some simple crackers, and some of our favourite cheeses. By the end of the third quarter, we had nibbled our way through the entire platter.

I’m not being paid to share my thoughts on the Carnivore Box, though the sample box was sent to me for free. I think you can probably imagine how exciting it was for me to get meat in the mail, especially since the four products in the ‘September’ box were so outstanding. Our favourite was the Spicy Fennel Salami, followed by the Fig Toscano Salami. I know there are those of you that are yelling right now, “BUT WHAT ABOUT THE JAMBON SERRANO AND THE IBERICO JAMON DE BELLOTA!” Why are you yelling at me?! Yes, they were both outstanding but our family is a sausage kind of family. Besides, we loved that the the salami were made in Port Moody, BC with an old world flair. It was a real treat to be able to try the Iberico Jamon de Bellota because it is often regarded as the best ham in the world (priced at over $120 per pound), having come from a particular breed of carefully bred and acorn-raised Spanish pigs. The meat is then cured for at least 36 months.

So, that was our experience with the September Carnivore Club box. I say ‘September’ because if you sign up…you can receive a box of meaty delights every. darn. month. Let me tell you, if you have absolutely NO idea what to get someone for Christmas this year…this is IT. You can splurge and send them an entire year’s subsciption (for $660 with shipping included) OR just send them one box for $55. As long as the recipient is a carnivore, they won’t be re-gifting this box!